This is the second installment in Herschell Gordon Lewis’ Blood Trilogy, an early series of gore/splatter films. I liked this one a lot. With this being my third viewing I picked up on cool little touches that really help the movie come together as a whole. The theme song that runs through the film is sweet and adds to the disturbing behavior going on in the Centennial. There is plenty of other southern music throughout being played before us on guitar and banjo. The main characters are colorful and lively. And I bet you will not soon forget the phrase "...you’re the guest of honor."

A small, southern Confederate village with a population of about, lets say two thousand, is destroyed by a group of renegade Union soldiers back in 1865. Men, woman and child were killed and tortured. But the south shall rise again to seek vengeance one hundred years later. So now we have our two thousand maniac ghosts with ghost town and everything. They lure in northern tourists to the town and warp their minds into thinking their the guests of honor but instead, secretly they are preparing gruesome torture games for their own amusement. These ghosts only come out every hundred years so they have quite some time to plan these things. I swear if I am ever someplace and they tell me I’m the guest of honor I’ll run away as fast as I can.

The gore may be a tad outdated but if you get caught up in the tension of the narrative when it comes time I guarantee you, you’ll get chills. I did. Just the idea of some of these things happening is quite fearful. The barrel role, where they stick a person in there and hammer nails into the barrel so as the person rolls down the hill the nails utterly destroy him, piercing in every direction; this is awesome. Much of the gore seen here was truly ground breaking in the 60’s.

Two Thousand Maniacs! puts joy in gore. This is how gore films are supposed to be enjoyed, with a severed limb and a boisterous laugh. Watching it at home I recalled the fun I had when I had seen it with a handful of friends, and a handful of snacks. I recommend this as a party film for good laughs. You may also watch alone and still have a blast. If you enjoy good gore and a good, fun story, then this is a must watch. The south will rise again!!!

- Jorge Antonio Lopez