If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Two thousand people live in the town of Pleasant Valley, an out-of- the-way place on a back road, somewhere on the way to Atlanta. All of them are maniacs, which is a decent premise for a film, and which illustrates Hershel G. Lewis's talent for what it takes to make a memorable exploitation film. Rather than being Confederate sympathizers these folks are like the ghosts of the town, which had been the scene of a Union (or Yankee) massacre exactly 100 years to the day on which all the action occurs. It's a film whose premise is a borderline sickening vengeance the maniacs inflict on four northerners (two young couples) who are detoured by two of Pleasant Valley's leading citizens, into its trap to make them the town's special guests for its one-hundred year anniversary of the massacre. Things get increasingly gory, in a kind of gratuitous way, but the storyline is almost substantial enough to hold it all together. Lewis also did the cinematography, which has many Confederate-flag drenched scenes to go along with bright red blood and a pretty blue sky.

This is it, gang. Herschell Gordon Lewis's greatest accomplishment (so far). After the massive success of a little gore-soaked experiment called Blood Feast, H. G. Lewis and Dave Friedman decided to make a new gore-epic, with some real money, and maybe even some ideas for a decent storyline, this time. A real gore epic. They originally wanted to call this movie Ten Thousand Maniacs, but with a cast of no more than 40 or 50, that would just be insulting the viewers intelligence. And so, Two Thousand Maniacs was born. This time around, the name of the game is Civil War vengeance, cleverly disguised as Southern hospitality.Unsuspecting yankees, just passing through "the South", get tricked into stopping by the little town of Pleasant Valley (what state was that, again?). So, now, 2,000... or, let's just say a whole bunch of eager hicks have surrounded the yankee's cars, making it crystal clear that this week, and this week only, their purpose in life is to shower these people with Southern hospitality... or at least a whole bunch of food and alcohol, and Betsy, if she's around. Why all the fuss over a bunch of lost yankees? Well, hell, son, it's the Centennial!! That's right, it's been 100 years since The Civil War ended, and it's high time we all put our differences aside, and make peace with our brothers and sisters from the north, and let some of them in on our shin-dig... Yeah!! That's what we'll tell 'em. They'll sure 'nough never expect to be mutilated in extremely painful, yet, kinda creative, and often humorous ways. We got all sorts of ideas. Such as..."The four horses" "The barrel roll" "Ol' teeterin' rock" "The axe throwin' contest" (if there's time) We got us some good un's. Dogged if we don't!!! And what about that other little sub-plot that never got explored? You know, when everybody was cheering over that guy being dead, and then Rufus busts out with "You know what happens to anybody that backs out. Let's hear us some music". What was that all about? One of the first, if not the first ever feel-good B-Horror cult classic in American history. Definitely the first one to offer gruesome killings that offer gore, so, of course you gotta take it seriously as a Horror movie, but surprisingly, the cheesy humor, questionable acting, often-ridiculous dialog, and all-around ineptness doesn't over-shadow the Horror element at all, not at all... alright, maybe a little, but I love this movie, and I passionately recommend it to anyone who will listen. Two Thousand Maniacs is by far the best piece of B-cinema you're gonna find out of the 60's. I won't lie to ya, there ain't as much gore as there was in Blood Feast, but we're talking about a much, much more fulfilling experience. Guaranteed to keep your attention, and to put you in a good mood. The highlight, for me (besides the barrel roll), is good ol' Jeffery Allen, the guy that plays Mayor Buckman. That big, loud, entertaining hick makes the movie all the more likable. Obviously, Herschell didn't really put a huge amount of thought into this one, then again, maybe he did. I mean, compared to some other Lewis fiasco's I've come across, over the years. For a real wake-up call, as to the difference between a regular B-movie, and an unwatchable B-movie, check out another one of Herschell's flicks, How To Make A Doll, but you gotta go through Dr. Gore to get to it, so, good luck with that. For anyone who might find Two Thousand Maniacs as awesome as I do, I would recommend ignoring the fact that a remake of this movie exists. Seeking out Moonshine Mountain would be in your best interests. That is, unless you require gore. In that case, can't help ya, because Two Thousand Maniacs is truly one of a kind. 10/10

Writer/director/cinematographer Hershell Gordon Lewis is considered by bad movie fans to be one of the few "autors" in film history to have equaled or at least come close to equaling the abysmal work of Ed Wood, Jr.. While it's debatable which was worse or if another small-time film maker (such as Ray Dennis Steckler or Al Adamson) was the worst, no one in the know would argue that Lewis was a brilliant film maker! However, even the most inept can occasionally get lucky and TWO THOUSAND MANIACS is Lewis' moment in the sun. Unlike previous films such as BLOOD FEAST (which were all amazingly bad), there was enough good about TWO THOUSAND MANIACS that I actually recommend you watch it--particularly because it proves substantial budgets or consistently good acting aren't necessary to make a decent film! The film begins with two very stereotypical hillbilly idiots tricking two cars full of Yankees off the highway and into their town. There the locals declare that these outsiders are their guests of honor for a centennial celebration and they are convinced to stay. Now the audience knows this is a very bad idea, but the six folks don't yet suspect that these hicks mean to do them great bodily harm. Of course, that might also be because they didn't see the folks running around town with nooses in preparation for their arrival! One by one the Yanks are brutally killed and the ways they did it were pretty clever and the gore was amazingly realistic for 1964. It's amazing to think that with a budget of $46.28 that they were able to achieve these effects, as the blood actually looked like blood and the killing was quite shocking for the mid-1960s.Two of the six are reasonably bright and guess what is in store, so the last part of the film consists of showing their efforts to leave this deathtrap. Oddly, despite the budget, the acting of these two was pretty good (particularly William Kerwin) and the last 15 minutes of the film turned out to be by far the best. There were several wonderful twists and turns that showed Lewis could actually write a clever script and despite the stupid hillbilly acting earlier in the film, the film was surprisingly good. I won't ruin it, but it sure was nice to see that things only improved as the film progressed. Plus, every time I thought that the movie SHOULD have ended sooner, the additional portions kept building on an excellent "Twilight Zone" style script.By the way, the film offended many when it debuted--though it also became a cult favorite. The gore and offensive portrayal of Southerners as crazy morons must have made many at the drive-ins have heart attacks! I sure wish I could have been there to see it!

"2000 Maniacs" is a good, if little sloppy film.**SPOILERS**Traveling through Southern Florida, Tom White, (Thomas Wood) and Terry Adams, (Connie Mason) and their friends John, (Jerome Eden) and Bea Miller, (Shelby Livingston) and David, (Michael Korb) and Betty Wells, (Yvonne Gilbert) end up taking a detour and wind up in the small town of Pleasant Valley. Meeting up with Mayor Buckman, (Jeffrey Allen) he offers to let them stay in town as it's the Centennial of their inception. Thinking it would be fun, they decide to stay for the games and festivities. When the townspeople insist on taking them out to the games one at a time, they start to get worried that something is wrong. Eventually discovering the grisly truth about the town and it's residents, the remaining members of the expedition band together to survive their encounter.The Good News: This here wasn't all that bad. The film is mostly positive for it's really bloody and gory kill scenes, which this provides plenty of. There's fingers lopped off with knives, being crushed under falling rocks, dissection with axes, drowned in quicksand and the film's most infamous scene, where one is trapped inside a barrel with nails hammered into the side and is then rolled down a steep embankment. This is not only highly creative but also quite bloody and handled perfectly. That is also the film's other really good point, as there's an infectious spirit to this one which makes it all the more fun to sit through. It's a manic work that comes across as really fun. It's always moving somewhere and has a mood and feel that make it constantly watchable. This one never really dips low and rises and always stays on, keeping this one from becoming boring at all. That it's also filled with some of the most fun games and such ever seen is a big factor. These are all quite demented and twisted, yet the way that they're portrayed as everyday occurrences makes them seem even more so. That most of the film is taken up with the twisted games is perfect, keeping it where it should be and on the action they generate. When it really tries to, this one can be a lot of fun.The Bad News: There isn't a whole lot with this one that doesn't work. The film's biggest gripe is the fact that there's way too much townspeople interaction that don't work right. This one takes far too long of celebrating and killing before it's discovered what's going on, and that doesn't really make any sense. As the guests are taken off one-by-one, it shouldn't take nearly as much time to discover this trickery as they do. It doesn't bode well for the audience when they're that far ahead of the characters in a story and are sitting around waiting for them to catch up to what was a fairly simple mystery to solve. Another rather negative factor is that there's way too many technical errors based around the gore. This here never looks anywhere near realistic, is the wrong color to begin with and is so atrocious that there's almost no way that it can be shocking with how it looks. It's way too comical to provoke anything other than laughter. These flaws prevent the film from rising above.The Final Verdict: While not really offering much beyond it's gore, this one instead is a little easier to watch for it's sense of fun. Fans of similar kinds of films would really enjoy this one, and gore-hounds will also find a lot to like, while those who aren't so high on technically-incompetent films will be put off with this one.Today's Rating-R: Graphic Violence