Two Thousand Maniacs!

Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964)

Runtime: 87 minutes

Directed by: Herschell Gordon Lewis

Starring: Connie Mason, William Kerwin, Jeffrey Allen, Shelby Livingston, Ben Moore

From: Friedman-Lewis Productions

I've seen this charming (well, at least in terms of splatter flicks) movie before, but it was time for me to finally give this a proper review, which I did below: 

In the past I've seen both this and its remake (2005's 2001 Maniacs) and while the latter was alright, it did not have the charm that this did, one of the first gory films, definitely low-budget and definitely filled with over-acting, but simply fun to watch.

The plot has a town in the South of the United States getting revenge on “the Yankees” from the northern part of the U.S.; I presume most know about the American Civil War and what it was about so I'll spare those details, but that town is celebrating the centennial... of the town being wiped off the map by the North. A wacky plot twist at the end explains all this. Anyhow, the townspeople raise hell on two carloads of people (six people total) and what inventive ways they have of bloody murder.

The movie is pretty silly, is filled with broad stereotypes, is grating at times and boy does it ever run out of gas in the third act... once you hear the opening/closing credits song-a tremendous banjo tune called The South is Gonna Rise Again-and you see those people killed in increasingly wild and over the top ways, I personally say that this picture is fine. It does deliver the splatter goodness that shocked people back then and now can be admired for its charms.