Two Thousand Maniacs!

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.