Two Thousand Maniacs! [Blu-ray]

Overview

The inimitable Herschel Gordon Lewis offers us a warped variation of Brigadoon in his "chef d'oeuvre" 2000 Maniacs. A bunch of dull, faceless young folks wander into a strange southern town. Here the strangers are systematically tortured and butchered by the town's congenital-idiot residents. It turns out that the villagers are the ghosts of Confederate soldiers, exacting revenge for the Civil War. Admittedly, the various methods of murder are inventive, and there is a hint of tongue in cheek. Still, 2000 Maniacs is a Herschel Gordon Lewis production, which should be warning enough.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/15/2018
UPC:	0760137123187
Original Release:	1964
Rating:	NR
Source:	Arrow Video
Region Code:	A
Sound:	[stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:27:00
Sales rank:	27,904

Special Features

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation; Original Uncompressed PCM Mono Audio; English Subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing; Bonus feature!; 1964's Moonshine Mountain; Introductions to the films by H.G. Lewis; Archive Audio Commentary on Two Thousand Maniacs! by H.G. Lewis; Two Thousand Maniacs Can't Be Wrong - filmmaker Tim Sullivan on H.G. Lewis' gore classic Hicksploitation: Confidential - visual essay on the depiction of the American South in exploitation cinema; David Friedman: The Gentleman's Smut Peddler - a tribute to legendary Producer David F. Friedman featuring interviews with H.G. Lewis, filmmakers Fred Olen Ray and Tim Sullivan and Editor Bob Murawski; Herschell's Art of Advertising - H.G. Lewis shares his expert opinion on the art of selling movies; Two Thousand Maniacs! Outtakes; Trailers; Reversible sleeve featuring original nad newly-commissioned artwork by The Twins of Evil

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

William Kerwin	Tom White
Connie Mason	Terry Adams
Jeffrey Allen	Mayor Buckman
Ben Moore	Lester,Lester
Gary Bakeman	Rufe
Jerome Eden	John Miller
Linda Cochran	Betsy
Mark Douglas	Harper
Yvonne Gilbert	Beverly Wells
Michael Korb	David Wells
Shelby Livingston	Bea Miller
Vincent Santo	Billy
Andy Wilson	Policeman
Herschell Lewis	Composer
Larry Wellington	Composer

Technical Credits

Herschell Gordon Lewis

Herschell Gordon Lewis	Director,Screenwriter,Special Effects
David F. Friedman	Producer

Editorial Reviews

After the unprecedented success of their earlier gore epic Blood Feast, director Herschell Gordon Lewis and producer David Friedman started planning their next move. If a plotless, no-budget splatter film written and shot in a week could do such boffo business, it stands to reason that the same gore in a well-made film will double the take, right? Well, despite their best intentions, the subsequent feature, 2000 Maniacs, was successful but not the blockbuster that Blood Feast was, and Lewis went back to not trying so hard. Of course, by no means was 2000 Maniacs a technical triumph. The actors are as amateurish as any of Lewis' films and the direction is still fairly slapdash. However, the story of a crazed Southern town's revenge against a group of traveling Yankees is a lot more colorful than Blood Feast's simple-minded lone-slasher plot. Lewis has claimed that this was the first of any of his films to be thoroughly scripted, and it's stuffed with overwrought, down-home "cracker" language. The gore set pieces are graphic but not as cruel as before; the filmmakers instead opt to create mayhem with elaborate contraptions and bizarre executions. There's even a car chase -- usually not a noteworthy event in your average film -- but compared to Blood Feast's climactic (and long-winded) foot chase, it's an extremely special effect. For fans of horror, 2000 Maniacs and Blood Feast are certainly worth watching to see sacred ground get broken; for fans of grade-Z trash films, his entire canon is indispensable.