Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Scott LeBrun One of splatter master Herschell Gordon Lewis's more accomplished films, and certainly one of his most popular, "Two Thousand Maniacs!" is agreeable entertainment; in fact, it's so spirited, with such upbeat performances by the sadistic maniacs, that it's just about impossible to resist. It's not as utterly silly as the cheesiness that is "Blood Feast", and actually has something of a story, inspired by the musical "Brigadoon". Six Yankee travellers are deliberately detoured towards a little town named Pleasant Valley where the locals eagerly greet them upon arrival. They're celebrating a centennial, and the Yankees will make for perfect victims - I mean, "guests of honour". Only one of them, a schoolteacher named Tom White (William Kerwin) has brains enough to question the matter. Some of those who loved "Blood Feast" might actually not love "Two Thousand Maniacs!" quite as much, basically as it's not wall to wall gore like its predecessor, is more padded out, and depends on characterization just as much as it does unpleasantness. Still, it's got a couple of grisly highlights that will have you smiling - one person is chopped up, another is quartered, one is sent down a hill inside a barrel that's had nails hammered into it, and another is positioned underneath an enormous rock that's poised to fall if a target is struck. Things get off to one hell of a fantastic start with one of the catchiest down home ditties to be found in Hixploitation horror, composed by HGL himself. Trust me, once the tune is over, you may find yourself wanting to hear it again! Location shooting in St. Cloud, Florida, adds flavour, and the cast easily gives this thing 100%. Kerwin, one of the clueless detectives from "Blood Feast", is typically solid, while his real life wife Connie Mason looks delectable. The true standouts are the blustery Jeffrey Allen, who's a riot as the mayor, and Ben Moore and Gary Bakeman as amiable rednecks Lester and Rufe. Enjoyable from beginning to end, this movie ends on an interesting and atmospheric note. This was the second movie in HGLs' "Blood Trilogy", which began with "Blood Feast" and ended with "Colour Me Blood Red". The remake "2001 Maniacs" came along 41 years later. Eight out of 10.

Witchfinder General 666 Herschell Gordon Lewis gave birth to the gore film with his 1963 milestone "Blood Feast" (1963). While "Blood Feast" was influential beyond comparison, it is also a totally camp and deliberately silly flick. Lewis' second gore film, "Two Thousand Maniacs!" of 1964, is about equally gory, and a lot better, as is also successful in creating a certain atmosphere of creepiness and has an absolutely awesome sense of black humor. A bunch of people from the north get stuck in a Deep Southern hicks-ville named 'Pleasant Valley', where they are to be 'guests of honor' of a centennial celebration. What they don't know is that the 2000 redneck inhabitants of Pleasantville are maniacal killers who plan to brutally murder their guests of honor in retribution for a Civil War massacre by Union troops. The cast members include the ravishing playmate Connie Mason, and William Kerwin, who also played the investigating cop in "Blood Feast". The people who play the murderous rednecks may not be great actors, but they fit very well in their funny and macabre roles. "Two Thousand Maniacs" is a highly influential film, not only as one of the first gore/splatter films, but also as one of the earliest Hillbilly-Horror/Hicksploitation films ever, and an early example for the 'village with a secret' theme in Horror films. The film is highly entertaining, very morbid and macabre, and darkly hilarious from start to finish. The gore is very bloody (and often very funny), and most of the murders are committed with help of grotesque killing-devices. H.G. Lewis is reported to like this film best among his own, and one can see why: "Two Thousand Maniacs" is an awesome little flick that no lover of the Horror genre can afford to miss! 8.5/10

BA_Harrison Two Thousand Maniacs, Hershell Gordon Lewis's demented take on the legend of Brigadoon, doesn't quite do justice to the ingeniuity of its concept, but still qualifies as an enjoyable slice of low budget cult horror (and one of Lewis's most watchable films) thanks to spirited performances from an enthusiastic cast (ie., they can't act, but they give it all they've got), a bucket or two of gore, and, believe it or not, even some memorably toe-tappin' songs from bluegrass musicians The Pleasant Valley Boys!The film sees a group of travellers tricked into taking a detour that leads them to the Southern town of Pleasant Valley, where they are invited to take part in the town's Centennial celebrations by the impossibly cheery Mayor Buckman (Jeffrey Allen). Once settled into their hotel rooms, which have been laid on for free by the townsfolk, each visitor is lured away to take part in a special celebratory event that ultimately leads to their gory demise.Suspecting that something is amiss, pretty Terry Adams (June 1963 Playboy Playmate, Connie Mason) and her hitch-hiker companion Tom White (William Kerwin) make a bid for freedom, closely followed by the citizens of Pleasant Valley, who are actually civil war ghosts seeking revenge for their massacre by Yankee soldiers one hundred years earlier.Not only does Lewis deliver his trademark splatter and tongue-in-cheek campy humour, but he also manages to conjure up quite a bit of atmosphere and even some tension, proving that he is capable of more than just grossing out his audience. Those looking to be grossed out, however, should not be disappointed with the film, which features an arm removed by axe, a man being pulled apart by horses, another man pushed inside a barrel pierced by nails and rolled down a hill, and a woman squished by a huge boulder.

slayrrr666 "2000 Maniacs" is a good, if little sloppy film.**SPOILERS**Traveling through Southern Florida, Tom White, (Thomas Wood) and Terry Adams, (Connie Mason) and their friends John, (Jerome Eden) and Bea Miller, (Shelby Livingston) and David, (Michael Korb) and Betty Wells, (Yvonne Gilbert) end up taking a detour and wind up in the small town of Pleasant Valley. Meeting up with Mayor Buckman, (Jeffrey Allen) he offers to let them stay in town as it's the Centennial of their inception. Thinking it would be fun, they decide to stay for the games and festivities. When the townspeople insist on taking them out to the games one at a time, they start to get worried that something is wrong. Eventually discovering the grisly truth about the town and it's residents, the remaining members of the expedition band together to survive their encounter.The Good News: This here wasn't all that bad. The film is mostly positive for it's really bloody and gory kill scenes, which this provides plenty of. There's fingers lopped off with knives, being crushed under falling rocks, dissection with axes, drowned in quicksand and the film's most infamous scene, where one is trapped inside a barrel with nails hammered into the side and is then rolled down a steep embankment. This is not only highly creative but also quite bloody and handled perfectly. That is also the film's other really good point, as there's an infectious spirit to this one which makes it all the more fun to sit through. It's a manic work that comes across as really fun. It's always moving somewhere and has a mood and feel that make it constantly watchable. This one never really dips low and rises and always stays on, keeping this one from becoming boring at all. That it's also filled with some of the most fun games and such ever seen is a big factor. These are all quite demented and twisted, yet the way that they're portrayed as everyday occurrences makes them seem even more so. That most of the film is taken up with the twisted games is perfect, keeping it where it should be and on the action they generate. When it really tries to, this one can be a lot of fun.The Bad News: There isn't a whole lot with this one that doesn't work. The film's biggest gripe is the fact that there's way too much townspeople interaction that don't work right. This one takes far too long of celebrating and killing before it's discovered what's going on, and that doesn't really make any sense. As the guests are taken off one-by-one, it shouldn't take nearly as much time to discover this trickery as they do. It doesn't bode well for the audience when they're that far ahead of the characters in a story and are sitting around waiting for them to catch up to what was a fairly simple mystery to solve. Another rather negative factor is that there's way too many technical errors based around the gore. This here never looks anywhere near realistic, is the wrong color to begin with and is so atrocious that there's almost no way that it can be shocking with how it looks. It's way too comical to provoke anything other than laughter. These flaws prevent the film from rising above.The Final Verdict: While not really offering much beyond it's gore, this one instead is a little easier to watch for it's sense of fun. Fans of similar kinds of films would really enjoy this one, and gore-hounds will also find a lot to like, while those who aren't so high on technically-incompetent films will be put off with this one.Today's Rating-R: Graphic Violence