I've really been enjoying doing reviews and I love Tim Forston's take on things so we decided to do another review together. When he suggested the movie, he thought I would hate it - but just 'cause I'm a damn Yankee and he's a Southern gentleman doesn't mean we can't get along. No really, he's a great guy. Besides, The Walking Dead takes place in the South. I actually like everyone, no country, race or sex difference bothers me in the least. Anyway, saying we were vs. each other (I know that's terrible grammar) was a misnomer since we usually agree on just about everything. And he's a very smart guy. Oh, and I wanted you to 'meet' him so here he is. Now here we go:
Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964)Tim: Shoy and I were talking about doing a joint review, so we decided on something that we could review with pretty different perspectives. Two Thousand Maniacs was actually filmed in Florida although it takes place in Georgia in 1965, one hundred years since Yankee troops destroyed the town, killing the local citizenry.
Shoy: Did you ever watch a movie prepared to just hate it? I mean c'mon, a movie from the 60's about a bunch of dumb hicks, bad music and cannibals. No thanks. But then you start to watch and realize you were completely wrong. Maybe the title reminded of some kind of Rob Zombie type of film. Yes, this movie is set in 1965 but that gives it a nice charm, and I don't just mean the cool cars and bright colors. The people were neither dumb nor hicks. They actually appeared quite normal. And the music was really good (don't know the band, sorry, my bad it only said music by Larry Wellington), only irritating when the people kept 'yee haw'ing' over it.
Tim: The movie opens with a couple of 'good ole boys' changing signs to detour cars headed for Augusta, but only cars with Northern state plates, off of the main road and onto a back road heading towards Pleasant Valley. Upon entering the town they drive directly into the middle of the Centennial celebrations taking place and are given a very warm welcome by the local townsfolk. Even with the warm welcome they are a little put off by the attention and all the Confederate Battle flags waving in the crowd. The mayor kindly explains that they are celebrating and that they, the travelers, are the guests of honor. Everything will be free to them during the celebration and they decide to stay and check it out. The best hotel rooms, entertainment, and food. I mean wouldn't you? (Hell no!) Shoy: This takes place in the fictional Southern town of Pleasant Valley and they are celebrating their Centennial. As Tim said, six 'Yankees' are tricked into driving into town. In fact, the 'Yankees' seemed to have a lot less on the ball than the Southern country folk. Here they are lured into a town they've never heard of and they apparently think okay, I'll just drop everything I was going to do and stay for a few days. Again these townspeople were perfectly charming - in the beginning. Yes there was that Southern drawl and some of their clothes were a little... countrified, but they were perfectly fine. At first. Soon their motive becomes apparent and sinister.
Tim: First they announce a BBQ later that night. You learn that things are not quite right in the town when they start talking about who they want to be the 'special guest' at the BBQ. First they work to separate Mr. and Mrs. Miller so they can get the wife alone. And this is pretty easy to do seeing how fast her husband will run away to anything that will open its legs. When they do get her alone with a man from town, he chops off her thumb with a pocket knife, and takes her to the mayor in town to finish the job. They lay her out on a table and laughing chop her up with an axe. Because unknown to guests of honor she is going to be their BBQ dinner later than night.Shoy: The deaths of the northerners in this film are actually kind of inventive, not your typical slash 'em one by one type of thing. The first event, the barbeque, has the female 'special guest' ends up on the spit over a roaring fire. She wasn't eaten by anyone I saw - and the mayor said it was symbolic so I don't think that this is a cannibal type movie.
Tim: Two of the guests start to wonder the reasonable thing, why in the world would a Southern town want Northerners as the guests of honor to commemorate the Centennial of the end of the Civil War? And they try to get a hold of someone outside of Pleasant Valley to find out what is going on, with limited success. While he thinks he is calling Atlanta he is really talking to the overly friendly Mayor. Then the guests are split off from each other one by one, with different ways of death for each, including a fun filled horse race where one guest was pulled to pieces. Rolling one man down a hill in a barrel filled with nails like a wooden, round iron maiden.
Shoy: The second event is the 'horse race' where a male 'special guest' who has gotten completely pissed on moonshine, is tied to four horses and - yup, he's drawn and quartered. That is not shown, but this movie was made on a very low budget so they had to save up the special effects for when they were the most - memorable I guess. By this time the only person using any of his grey matter decides something is up. He's a teacher and was on his way to a convention in Atlanta, the woman he's with he had hitched a ride with when his car broke down. He attempts to contact someone in Atlanta from a pay phone about this town and what their 'Centennial' is about, but fails (He uses change to make the call and had a Liberty dime, really nice. Sorry, that's the coin collector in me talking.).
Tim: Now one of the guests is smarter than the rest and looks around town finding a plaque commemorating the killing of the towns citizens, and pledging vengeance for the people lost.
Shoy: He sneaks around town, finding a plaque that basically tells of how in April of 1865 a troop of Northern soldiers (this WAS the Civil War after all) had massacred the entire town and someday they would be avenged. He realizes they are not 'guests' - they are subjects of 'blood vengeance'. He grabs the woman and they hide - then for some reason go right back to their rooms at the hotel to spend the night. Massive duh on that, but anyway.... The third event is the 'barrel roll' where the male 'special guest' is to be sent downhill. Not bad, right? Nails are pounded into the barrel and by the time he gets to the bottom, he's a bloody mess. Literally. Then the fourth event: a dunk tank. Sort of. I had to sit in one for two hours at one fair, it is NOT fun and I was terrified the whole time. This is worse. Instead of water, there is a boulder on a platform above and the female 'special guest' is tied to another platform at the bottom. The townspeople are given turns throwing at the 'target' (I personally thought they drew this scene out a little too long but oh well) until finally one gets a hit and she gets a - splat. We see lots of blood but no real gore.
Tim: The last guest in town is not so lucky as she is crushed to death by a rock that is held aloft and dropped on her 'dunking booth' style. So after running all night, the two remaining survivors are finally able to find their car and the keys with the help of a dimwitted kid. Taking the boy with them they flee as fast as their car will drive, trying to get to the highway where the townspeople say that they cannot follow any farther. Before turning onto they highway they drop the kid off on the side of the road.
Shoy: The teacher and his ride con a little sadistic boy named Billy into showing them where her car is. They take off in it and are chased by a what I would guess to be a 40's type truck filled with townsfolk. But when they reach the highway they were detoured from, the townspeople stop, stare at them going off in the distance, and back up the truck clear back to town. I guess the highway is as far as they can go. Tim: After they make it to a Sheriff's office, he gives them a breathalyzer test after they tell their story, assuming they're drunk. Finally upon returning with the police to where the road was all they find is an empty field and no road. The sheriff says there is no town named Pleasant Valley and hasn’t been as long as he has known, but they find their tire tracks leading to the town. Finding nothing there the Sheriff tells them the story of Pleasant Valley a small town destroyed during the War Between the States, that was never rebuilt and suggests that they go on their way and get away from there and not come back. Leaving trying to figure out if what they had seen was real or a dream, and know it was real realizing that Billy the little boy left something in the car while he was there. The movie ends with the first two 'good ole boys' standing in the field talking about how great they hope the next bicentennial is going to be.
Shoy: Here's where the ending gets... interesting. The two survivors try to convince a sheriff about their experience but he doesn't believe them - but says it's peculiar. See, there WAS a Pleasant Valley one hundred years ago, but everyone was massacred by Northern soldiers during the war. Sure enough they drive out there and the road they took is completely grown over. They walk to where the town was - nothing but forest and brush. Now we understand what the mayor was talking about when the worried people asked what if they go to the law? He responds in effect 'So? They're not going to find us, or a town.' As the three give up and turn to go back to the highway, we see the rock with the plaque on it... it slowly fades and disappears.The townspeople of Happy Valley had waited one hundred years for vengeance on the northerners. They are prepared to wait one hundred more. the last scene shows two of the townspeople saying they have to go back and rest by the 'appointed time'. One mentions 'Maybe next time there will be rocket ships.' Which is part of the sniggling little problems I had with the otherwise enjoyable movie. If these people were from the Civil War era, why were their clothes relatively modern? How did they know to check license plates on cars before deciding which to detour? Where did the payphone come from (using modern change)? Where did they get that truck? How do they know about rockets? Just the little stuff I notice that I have to pick on I guess.
This is described as a splatter film, even though only four people died and not that much was shown - but for the 60's it was quite a lot apparently. It had a very small budget (approximately $65,000 in 1964 dollars) and was filmed in 15 days in St. Cloud, Florida. The whole town participated in the film. So take that, plus the appearance of a 1964 Playboy Playmate (Connie Mason) and you've got yourself a pretty good film, all considering. My main problem was where was this supposed to be? Now Tim had said Georgia. Being totally geographically ignorant, I had to get a Google map and try to figure it out. It showed at the beginning that the people were hiding a sign that said 'Augusta Georgia 110 miles' and at the end the survivors get to the state border, where the woman decides to go ahead and take the teacher on to Atlanta. Wouldn't that mean Pleasant Valley was in South Carolina then? BUT when they escaped, they went back the way they came. So wouldn't that mean they were travelling farther AWAY from Atlanta, where the teacher needed to go? I know, I over-think these things. Just know that for a 60's 'splatter' movie you're not going to see 'maniacs' - other than wanting revenge for being slaughtered they were pretty normal. The population of the town was 2,000. This was too good of a film to have the title it does - and it gives you a totally wrong idea about what you're going to see. At least that's what I thought.Tim: I actually liked this movie, I won't say it was all that good, but it was entertaining. The story moved along well, and their version of The South's Gonna Rise Again' was good even if overused. The movie didn’t have any real headliner names, and was shot in only 14 days. It had some of the worst voiceovers I believe I have ever heard. But on entertainment value alone I would get it a 3/5 and it is a movie that I would probably watch again, not very often but again. This movie was remade in a much better version 2001 Maniacs (2005) starring none other than Robert Englund aka Freddie Krueger. Altogether I liked this movie.
Shoy: And I can't wait to see the remake. The poster Tim showed me had Robert Englund with Billy Bob teeth and a Confederate eye patch which makes me think that they camped it up a bit so the 'funny' is a little more obvious. This had its humorous moments, but it looks like they really went for it in the remake.
See? A damn Yankee and a Southern gentleman can get along just fine. We both enjoyed the silly and horror aspects of a period movie that is worth a look, just ignore the title and have a little fun.
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