Two Thousand Maniacs!
The second in H.G. Lewisâ infamous âBlood Trilogyâ (after Blood Feast) is in many ways better than its predecessor, with improved production values, an actual music soundtrack, and an encompassing feeling of dread throughout disguised by what appears on the surface to be down home country boy humor. The plot (inspired by the musical Brigadoon) is about a small southern town called Pleasant Valley which celebrates its 100-year centennial (from 1865) when the people were massacred by renegade Union troops at the conclusion of the Civil War, by luring Northern tourists who are passing through into their town and declaring them their âguests of honorâ before taking them to various âeventsâ and actually brutally slaughtering them. Unlike Blood Feastâs singular nutcase Fuad Ramses, this film uses as its bloodthirsty butchers the entire town (which consists of women and children) who all are apparently âin on itâ and spend part of the time buttering up their victims with flattery and overblown âSouthern hospitalityâ before carrying out the murders with unrepentant joyful glee. As far as the murders go, Lewis still shows his proclivity for over the top gore by depicting victims having their limbs chopped off and dying from shock, being tied up and drawn and quartered by a flock of horses, being rolled down the hill in a barrel full of nails, and by being the âjudgeâ in a contest where various townsfolk try to throw a baseball at a target that, when hit, will cause a two ton rock to fall and crush the judge in the process. For our heroic leads, we get the same two from Blood Feast, the overaged Thomas Wood (more likable this time around) and former Playmate Connie Mason who thankfully had a lot of her dialogue cut out due to her atrocious acting. As for the rednecks, from the Foghorn Leghorn-like mayor to the two hillbilly âevent chairmenâ to the sexy femme fatale southern belle (who does her part to lure the unlucky males to their demise), they all come off as creepy yet authentic, greatly contributing to the atmosphere and feel that would be replicated in later films like Deliverance and Texas Chainsaw that something is just NOT RIGHT with certain southern people and the manner in which they go out of their way to be friendly and amicable, especially in the way that they NEVER outright say âWeâre gonna kill youâ and disguise it instead with some kind of country euphemism. There are some major technical flaws in the finished product, from actors flubbing their lines openly to jump cuts that just donât work to scenes that stop suddenly and then start again due to shoddy editing, and one bit where there must have been trouble with the sound mix when the actorâs voices are slowed down to the point of seeming demonic (which adds to the effect a little). As said, the music soundtrack is a great improvement over Lewisâ previous film, with an infectious bluegrass main title theme that is guaranteed to stick in your head for years afterward. Overall, truly a sick groundbreaking classic that all horror fans should make a point of seeingâŚ
8/10