Six people driving to a teaching conference in Atlanta are detoured through a town called Pleasant Valley. The town is holding its bicentennial celebrations and the new arrivals are greeted like guests of honour by the sheriff and townsfolk. Things take a turn for the worst though as they are dispatched one-by-one with the townsfolk looking on and seemingly enjoying this ‘entertainment’.

I’ll always have a soft spot for Two Thousand Maniacs! as it was the first Herschell Gordon Lewis film I got to see after reading about him in various cult cinema books. When I got to London to study film at university, I found this movie on video in Forbidden Planet. I wasn’t disappointed.

Two Thousand Maniacs! must have blown the minds of those who saw it in 1964. Murders so ghoulish and graphic had never been portrayed before on film and in everyday American locales to boot. I love the garish nature of the kills with the blood being bright red. There are also plenty of severed limbs which makes me wonder whether barf bags were handed out for the release of this film. Audiences must have gagged and vomited which makes me love the film even more. I think when colour films were invented, those responsible didn’t think that the medium would be used for purposes like making a lurid horror film such as this.

I also love how inventive each murder is. One victim is literally pulled apart by horses, another tied down and crushed by a huge boulder and another forced to roll down a hill in a barrel that has huge long nails hammered through it.

This film was shown at some Drive-Ins as a double bill with Blood Feast. Just imagine how perfect that is.

4.5 out of 5 stars