Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964)

Six people are lured into a small Deep South town for a Centennial celebration where the residents proceed to kill them one by one as revenge for the town's destruction during the Civil War.

Director:

Herschell Gordon Lewis

Writer:

Herschell Gordon Lewis (screenplay)

Stars:

Connie Mason, William Kerwin, Jeffrey Allen

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Connie Mason	...	Terry Adams
William Kerwin	...	Tom White (as Thomas Wood)
Jeffrey Allen	...	Mayor Buckman
Shelby Livingston	...	Bea Miller
Ben Moore	...	Lester MacDonald
Jerome Eden	...	John Miller
Gary Bakeman	...	Rufus 'Rufe' Tate
Stanley Dyrector	...	Harper Alexander (as Mark Douglas)
Linda Cochran	...	Betsy
Yvonne Gilbert	...	Beverly Wells
Michael Korb	...	David Wells
Vincent Santo	...	Billy
Andy Wilson	...	Policeman
Candi Conder	...	Switchboard Operator
The Pleasant Valley Boys	...	Bluegrass musicians

Storyline

The citizens of the southern town Pleasant Valley lure six Yankee tourists into town where they are to be the reluctant guests for the centennial celebration of the day a band of renegade Union troops decimated the town. The town then participates in events, a different event for each of the tourists, in which the tourist is dispatched. One couple begins to suspect something and seeks a way to escape.

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Plot Keywords:

bluegrass music | southern u.s. | quicksand | legend | psychopathic killer | 

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Taglines:

The Most Diabolical Device Ever Contrived... Designed Solely for Carnage by a Town of Madmen Crazed with BLOOD LUST!

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

The comic book Harper is reading in the hotel is "Heart Throbs", issue 87, cover dated December 1963-January 1964.

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Quotes

[Upon finding the plaque that explains the town was attacked by Union Soldiers during the Civil War]
Terry Adams: What does it mean?
Tom White: It means this centennial is a centennial of blood vengeance! It means... It means we're here to be killed!

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Alternate Versions

The recent (2004) DVD and video release was restored from a European PAL format which runs at nearly 84 minutes, over three minutes short of the original running time although no scenes are cut or edited.

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Connections

Featured in Desperate Housewives: Excited and Scared (2010)

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Soundtracks

Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms
Lyrics and Music by Lester Flatt
Performed by The Pleasant Valley Boys

User Reviews

HG Lewis' best film. A classic!

TWO THOUSAND MANIACS is HG Lewis' best film, or most complete film. Unlike so many of Lewis' films, TTM actually has characters, you either care for or dislike. There's some suspense. There's actually a beginning, a middle and an end to it. The story's concept is brilliant and inspired, even if its execution is a tad lacking. And the violence is actually disturbing and important to the story. There are the usual HG Lewis touches in TTM, like bad acting and static film-making but the whole product is so well made that, in the end, the typically HG Lewis weaknesses don't harm the film.

There is one big mistake in the story: the town looks modern and the people of Pleasant Valley act like modern folks and are dressed in 1960s clothes. The town should have looked like a town from around 1860s, and the people should have looked and acted like folks from that period. It would have been even more fantastic and creepy. But they probably didn't have the money to recreate such an elaborate setting so I understand why everything looks like the 1960s in Pleasant Valley. The plus side of this mistake: the juxtaposition of 1960s sunny retro quaintness with extreme gory violence actually adds a lot to the film's unique quality.

I love TWO THOUSAND MANIACS. It's a cool flick and it's a classic horror film.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 March 1964 (USA)

Also Known As:

Centennial

Filming Locations:

St. Cloud, Florida, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$65,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jacqueline Kay, Friedman-Lewis Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1