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Two Thousand Maniacs!
Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1964
To quote the guest speaker who introduced this film, Two Thousand Maniacs! contains "bad acting, blood and banjos". An apt description for this, a film by "godfather of gore" Herschell Gordon Lewis. Problem is, he failed to include that this film was really bad.
The plot's a very typical horror one - a handful of travellers are lured into a seemingly ordinary Southern town that is celebrating its centennial. The mayor and citizens claim that bringing citizens from the North (which, funnily enough, all the travellers are) to town is a tradition rooted in the town's history. Why this is gets revealed soon enough - the Southerners plan on killing the Northern characters as a means of retribution against Union soldiers that destroyed their town a hundred years prior.
The feeling I got from watching Two Thousand Maniacs! is that I honestly didn't like it. The entire Southern setting (complete with the aforementioned banjos and the majority of the cast sporting Southern accents strong enough to cause grievous bodily harm) was amusing at first, but as it wore on it quite simply got very irritating. Even though, as with virtually every other film I've seen (and will see) as part of this program, it was quite simply laughable, even the laughs weren't enough to save it (half the time it felt forced, as if I felt like the only way I could get through some horrendous acting and boring scenes was to try and laugh hard.) The gore seemed like it should've been the film's saving grace, and while I reckon it probably was, said scenes were still rather few and far between while the film wasted time on developing its plot.
Still, I reckon there's got to be some logic behind this film being chosen for a "history of horror" style - considering the context of the film, it manages to handle many of the same plot dynamics and thematic content that have been used by horror films for decades afterwards (especially The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which was playing in a double bill with Two Thousand Maniacs!, but I opted not to go again), so I guess you've got to give it that. Unfortunately, however, that doesn't really do much to save this trashy-by-anyone's-standards film, and of course while I wasn't really expecting it to be some sort of shining classic, I was still rather underwhelmed.
GRADE: D+
Two Thousand Maniacs!
Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1964
To quote the guest speaker who introduced this film, Two Thousand Maniacs! contains "bad acting, blood and banjos". An apt description for this, a film by "godfather of gore" Herschell Gordon Lewis. Problem is, he failed to include that this film was really bad.
The plot's a very typical horror one - a handful of travellers are lured into a seemingly ordinary Southern town that is celebrating its centennial. The mayor and citizens claim that bringing citizens from the North (which, funnily enough, all the travellers are) to town is a tradition rooted in the town's history. Why this is gets revealed soon enough - the Southerners plan on killing the Northern characters as a means of retribution against Union soldiers that destroyed their town a hundred years prior.
The feeling I got from watching Two Thousand Maniacs! is that I honestly didn't like it. The entire Southern setting (complete with the aforementioned banjos and the majority of the cast sporting Southern accents strong enough to cause grievous bodily harm) was amusing at first, but as it wore on it quite simply got very irritating. Even though, as with virtually every other film I've seen (and will see) as part of this program, it was quite simply laughable, even the laughs weren't enough to save it (half the time it felt forced, as if I felt like the only way I could get through some horrendous acting and boring scenes was to try and laugh hard.) The gore seemed like it should've been the film's saving grace, and while I reckon it probably was, said scenes were still rather few and far between while the film wasted time on developing its plot.
Still, I reckon there's got to be some logic behind this film being chosen for a "history of horror" style - considering the context of the film, it manages to handle many of the same plot dynamics and thematic content that have been used by horror films for decades afterwards (especially The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which was playing in a double bill with Two Thousand Maniacs!, but I opted not to go again), so I guess you've got to give it that. Unfortunately, however, that doesn't really do much to save this trashy-by-anyone's-standards film, and of course while I wasn't really expecting it to be some sort of shining classic, I was still rather underwhelmed.
GRADE: D+