Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

Two Thousand Maniacs! Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 24, 2016

Note: This film is available as part of The Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast.

Mention the initials “H.G.” to most people, and my hunch is virtually everyone will default to thinking about H.G. Wells, the legendary author whose science fiction masterpieces resulted in such memorable films as The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The Island of Dr. Moreau and War of the Worlds. Certain fans who have a slightly different definition of what constitutes a memorable film might have a variant reaction to those same initials, however, positing one Herschell Gordon Lewis instead of Mr. Wells. Lewis has long been known by the sobriquet “Godfather of Gore,” and his early exploitation pictures were, for their day, amazingly overt in their depiction of what ultimately came to be called “splatter”. Lewis, who only just fairly recently died at the age of 90, had an interesting if not especially distinguished career, though it’s notable that Lewis maintained a more than abundant sense of humor about his films and his contributions to the supposed art of cinema. Lewis’ filmography (it’s a bit of a stretch to actually call it an oeuvre) hasn’t been especially well served in the Blu-ray era, though there have been at least a few releases of his work, including The Blood Trilogy, The Wizard of Gore / The Gore Gore Girls and The Lost Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis. Now, in what amounts to an elegy of sorts for Lewis, Arrow Video has assembled what will certainly go down in the annals of the Blu-ray era as one of the most lavish deluxe sets produced, at least within the confines of what can only be accurately described as “cult cinema”. Along with a collection of fourteen films (nine making their Blu-ray debut), Arrow also includes a glut of bonus content (some with Lewis’ involvement), as well as impressive packaging and non disc supplements.

Regular readers of my reviews may know I have a soft spot for musicals, and one of my favorites (though not necessarily in its film form) is the great old Lerner and Loewe evergreen Brigadoon. For those not conversant with this classic from the Golden Age of Broadway, it concerns two hunters who wander into a village lost in the mists of Scotland, and apparently also only occasionally emerging from the mists of time. The musical was a sweet and slightly mystical outing which seemed to suggest that true love could overcome any obstacle, including the fact that the lovers were separated by a century or several. (For Broadway cognoscenti, I must digress for a moment to share one of the funniest things I ever read in the early days of the internet. On an old Usenet group devoted to musicals, someone started a game where you were supposed to combine two Broadway musical titles and describe the result. Some brilliant comedian posted this timeless classic: Brigadoonesbury — once every hundred years, Elizabeth Swados writes a hit, and this is it!) While not exactly centering on starcrossed lovers separted by the vagaries of time, Two Thousand Maniacs! takes a page out of the Brigadoon playbook by positing a town which may be more of an apparition than it initially seems.

Unlike the hunters who more or less accidentally stumble upon Brigadoon in the musical, the hapless victims of Two Thousand Maniacs are intentionally led there by a series of detour signs placed by the townspeople of a southern burg known as Pleasant Valley. When a gaggle of somewhat confused northern tourists (including two played by Lewis regulars William Kerwin and Connie Mason) gets to the little town in the midst of a celebration, they’re even more surprised to hear the town’s mayor (Jeffrey Allen) tell them that they’re the guests of honor. It’s a centennial celebration (in 1965) of an old Civil War battle that was fought in the area, and as a sign of southern hospitality, the northerners are greeted as “guest conquerors” in their own right.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the southern townspeople don’t exactly have a five star TripAdvisor rating, or whatever the benchmark was back in the day, and soon enough one northerner after another meets a series of horrifying fates. Lewis is typically gonzo in these sequences, offering everything from a dismemberment by hatchet to a lethal barrel role to an actually quite inventive (and probably unintentionally comic) crushing by a boulder that would have been right at home in any old Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote cartoon.

Lewis also wants to go for the gusto in a supposedly “shocking” twist at the end that he seems to think is at The Twilight Zone levels, but which has been telegraphed so clearly beforehand that it just sort of plays like an expected coda. The film is gleefully ludicrous and may at least serve as a warning of sorts for anyone journeying south circa 2065.

Note: This is one of the other Lewis offerings in the new Arrow set which has had a previous Blu-ray release, having been part of The Blood Trilogy.

Two Thousand Maniacs! Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arrow has included some general verbiage about the transfers in this set:

All film materials sourced for restoration were scanned in 2K resolution on a pin registered 4K Lasergraphics Director Scanner at Deluxe Media, Burbank. Film grading and restoration was completed at Deluxe Restoration, London. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris and light scratches were removed through a combination of digital restoration tools. Overall image stability and density fluctuation was also improved when possible.

The original mono soundtracks were transferred from 35mm prints by Deluxe Audio Services, Los Angeles, and were conformed and restored at Deluxe Restoration, London.

Additional audio conform for How to Make a Doll and Just for the Hell of It by David Mackenzie.

Although the best existing elements were sourced for this project and every attempt was made to present the films in this collection in the highest quality possible, some of the films still exhibit varying degrees of damage that could not be digitally repaired to our satisfaction. The condition of the existing materials for Moonshine Mountain, The Gruesome Twosome, How to Make a Doll and This Stuff'll Kill Ya all contained extreme levels of dirt, scratches and debris as well as many instances of torn or missing frames. They all exhibited heavy degrees of colour fading as well. Likewise, the print sections sourced to complete A Taste of Blood were both faded and heavily scratched. Throughout the restoration workflow process, our priority was to retain the original photochemical look of the films rather than create unwanted digital artefacts by heavy handed picture cleanup. Therefore, many of the films in this collection exhibit "warts and all" appearance, in keeping with their distribution history and physical condition.

Restoration supervised by James White, Arrow Films.

Additionally, this film comes with the following disclaimer:

Two Thousand Maniacs was restored in high definition by Something Weird from the original elements. Additional sections sourced from standard definition tape masters were also used to create the most complete version of this film possible.

Two Thousand Maniacs is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This transfer has some pretty heavy damage at times, but generally looks good, with a coarse but organic looking grain field and pretty convincing and nicely suffused color. Reds and blues are especially strong, helping to bring the Confederate imagery alive. There are still anomalies like scratches (sometimes long both in length and duration, and often bright green, as can be seen in some of the screenshots accompanying this review) and flecks, along with momentary warping and torn frames. There are understandable wide variances between the film and tape source elements, as can be seen by comparing screenshots 7 and 8.

Two Thousand Maniacs! Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Two Thousand Maniacs' LPCM mono track provides surprisingly clear accountings of elements like the banjo music and not much hiss overall, though there are occasional changes in volume as well as transitory anomalies like low level hum (particularly annoying during some cues like a nice guitar piece). Still, a lot of the music and effects like clapping reverbate decently if with a noticeably boxy sound.

Two Thousand Maniacs! Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Arrow has packaged this set a little unusually, with two films per disc and one set of supplements for both movies available from a main menu. While some of the supplements are obviously geared toward one individual film, others are a bit more general in nature, and so I'm listing the complete supplemental package for each particular disc rather than for each individual film. The supplements for Two Thousand Maniacs and Moonshine Mountain are:

• Two Thousand Maniacs Can't Be Wrong (1080p; 9:54) features Tim Sullivan, who made 2001 Maniacs.


• Hicksploitation Confidential (1080p; 7:14) is a visual essay detailing depictions of southern characters in film.


• David Friedman: The Gentlemen's Smut Peddler (1080i; 9:52) is a loving tribute to Friedman and includes interviews with Lewis.


• Herschell's Art of Advertising (1080p; 3:33) features Lewis opining on marketing techniques.


• Maniac Outtakes (1080p; 16:28) are silent but are underscored here with music and dialogue snippets.


• Promo Gallery

  Two Thousand Maniacs Trailer (1080p; 2:14)

  Moonshine Mountain Trailer (1080p; 1:29)

• Maniacs Commentary features Mike Vraney from Something Weird Video hosting Jimmy Maslow from Shock Films along with Herschell Gordon Lewis and David Friedman.


• Herschell Gordon Lewis Introduction to Two Thousand Maniacs (1080p; 1:59) is available under the play menu for that film.


• Herschell Gordon Lewis Introduction to Moonshine Mountain (1080p; 2:06) is available under the play menu for that film.

Two Thousand Maniacs! Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Lewis loved Two Thousand Maniacs, and it's not hard to see why. While the film plays as just a bit derivative and predictable, it's still kind of wackily inventive on its own terms. Technical merits are problematic but acceptable, and the supplemental package very enjoyable. Recommended.