Lechuguilla It could have been a story from The Twilight Zone. A small Southern town comes alive each hundred years to get even for the Civil War. Unfortunately, the subtext for "Two Thousand Maniacs" is in-your-face hateful. Back in 1964 the premise probably was considered amusing. Now, however, it seems dated and is in very poor taste.There's a lot of sneering joviality in this film. The stupid, bloodthirsty townsfolk are bullies who get a lot of enjoyment out of inflicting pain. There are no heroes here, only villains. And the script plotting is weak. Just when you think the movie is ending, it's not. It revs back up with a slight "twist" and keeps going. This happens several times.Aside from a substandard theme and plot, the film's direction is poor. Among the worst scenes are those wherein cast extras stand around in the background watching; they look wooden and manipulated, the result of an unimaginative Director who doesn't seem to know how to set up a scene.The town is called "Pleasant Valley"; a more apt name would be "Amateur-ville", due to the acting. Actors recite their lines about as effectively as high school thespians. Prod values are cheap looking. And the sound is terrible. There's a subtle and unwanted echo on interior sets that makes some of the dialogue muffled and hard to understand. Color cinematography is adequate; images are clear and appropriately lit.A carnival-like tone drains suspense from a story that could have been interestingly thematic and eerie, if the script had been written, and the production directed, by Twilight Zone writer and host Rod Serling. Instead, what we get with "Two Thousand Maniacs" is a hateful plot, lacking suspense and mystery, in a film largely devoid of cinematic professionalism. Marketing the film in the Horror genre refocus the production to a friendlier niche audience, which explains its cult status.

atinder This is yet another first watch, I not sure what to make of this movie, It might be one of earliest gory movies in horror, not first! A number of people end in up in crazy town, that the town say the treat them not king and queens, to keen them happy but the truth is that , the town watched them, killed .First death was did look a bit silly now, with that silly hand that northing like human arm, who get tell the arm was from marque what ever they called.The rest of the deaths scene were okay but very strangely, they cut away from deaths scenes that being done done but we see the aftermath.Some death aftermaths dose not seem to makes sense at all, I Didn't really liked how the movie ended at all.This movie just very stranger not in good way, I thought was really good. i give it 5 out of 10

KevinB12 I must assure you that I did not find this movie interesting nor did I approve. Perhaps a remake of the movie without the cat and a different ending should be a better idea because I found the ending very unfair. Even this is not the movie that I like, I could not tolerate this. The remake should replace a cat with pigs. The ending should have the all the maniacs dead by the National Guard and the military which I think this is a better ending for a remake. I think I should not bother with Two Thousand Maniacs because I do not find this movie interesting because I do not tolerate this kind of movie. I prefer not to watch this movie even if the Blood Trilogy comes out on Blu-Ray.

tavm Having finally watched a Herschell Gordon Lewis horror movie last year on YouTube (The Wizard of Gore), when I found out that Two Thousand Maniacs! was now there as well (actually, The Wizard of Gore now seems removed), I quickly clicked the first of nine parts that were uploaded. It was fascinating listening to The Pleasant Vally Boys playing their bluegrass music throughout even after all the gory things that happened though there was silence after one of those deaths were depicted that provided some chills. The gore is mostly well done if not as shocking to me since I grew up watching the Friday the 13th movies on HBO as a teen. The stars are Connie Mason, Thomas Wood (a.k.a William Kerwin who would eventually marry Mason), Jeffrey Allen (who was born in my birthtown of Chicago, Ill.), Shelby Livingston, Ben Moore, Jerome Eden, Gary Bakeman, Mark Douglas, Linda Cochran, Yvonne Gilbert (who would eventually marry director Lewis before divorcing him), Michael Korb, Vincent Santo, Andy Wilson, and Candi Conder. Mason and Wood were in Lewis' previous film, Blood Feast. All the Southern accents sounded exaggerated though Cochran as Betsy was a turn-on for me especially since her top allowed her bare shoulders and some cleavage! The other women, Gilbert (Beverly), Livingston (Bea), and Mason (Terry), not to mention Conder's cameo as a switchboard operator were also classic beauties. As for the men, well, their performances were all over the place especially those between Allen as Mayor Buckman, Moore as Lester, and Bakeman as Rufus though no one was as irritating as the kid Santo who plays Billy with the most atrocious Southern accent and is way too loud to boot! Having known about the Bridgadoon reference, I wasn't surprised by the twist. So overall, this was quite an effective thriller from the legendary H. G. Lewis.