2001 MANIACS is a cheesy B-movie remake of a cult H. G. Wells gore film of the 1960s entitled 2000 MANIACS. This is a low budget production, packed to the brim with rubbery gore effects and a hammy turn from A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET star Robert Englund, and yet despite (or maybe because of) all this it turns out to be a surprisingly enjoyable little movie.
I think the film works because the tone is just right. There's a ton of black comedy here, some of it blacker than black (like when the black guy turns up in the southern town asking where black guys hang around, and the locals point him to the nearest lynching tree). The story is relatively fast-paced, and you can be sure that there will be a grisly murder just around the next corner.
The acting is less impressive, and some of the characters are just a little TOO over the top (yes, even in a film like this) but yet it somehow hangs together. It's clear that Englund is having a ball as the demented town mayor and there are cameos from Peter Stormare and Eli Roth as the story progresses. None of it is scary or disturbing, but it is funny in places and it's certainly miles better than the amateurish original.
I think the film works because the tone is just right. There's a ton of black comedy here, some of it blacker than black (like when the black guy turns up in the southern town asking where black guys hang around, and the locals point him to the nearest lynching tree). The story is relatively fast-paced, and you can be sure that there will be a grisly murder just around the next corner.
The acting is less impressive, and some of the characters are just a little TOO over the top (yes, even in a film like this) but yet it somehow hangs together. It's clear that Englund is having a ball as the demented town mayor and there are cameos from Peter Stormare and Eli Roth as the story progresses. None of it is scary or disturbing, but it is funny in places and it's certainly miles better than the amateurish original.