2000 MANIACS! is the second of exploitation director Herschell Gordon Lewis' notorious 'blood' trilogy that began with the world's first gore film, BLOOD FEAST. This follows similar ground, using a lightweight story as an excuse for a string of shoddy but bloody gore sequences that still have the power to shock and disturb even to this day. The gore scenes are played out humorously, with a grinning bunch of loons taking great delight in dispatching their victims. There's a suspenseful scene where a girl has a boulder dropped on her; a genuinely ingenious bit where a guy is rolled down a hill in a barrel lined with vicious nails, an unpleasant murder where a girl has a arm hacked off (it's later barbecued) and a shoddy bit where a guy is quartered between four horses. The bright red blood splashes liberally about the scene in this excessive display of sadism.
Otherwise, the movie is drab and dull. The amateurish cast give a range of performances. The two leads (slightly wooden William Kerwin and extremely pretty Connie Mason) are good, the rest aren't. The nadir is the redneck laughing boy whose overacting knows no bounds. The direction is pedestrian and the lengthy dialogue sequences are dull to watch. There's a good, suspenseful chase towards the end, but then the films goes on another TWENTY MINUTES to bolster the running time and these are even more excruciating than the epilogue scenes in RETURN OF THE KING: a real chore to sit through. In the end, it's obvious this film was written around four vicious, inventive death sequences but that isn't enough to make a good movie. 2000 MANIACS! is a bore for the most part. Great soundtrack, though.
Otherwise, the movie is drab and dull. The amateurish cast give a range of performances. The two leads (slightly wooden William Kerwin and extremely pretty Connie Mason) are good, the rest aren't. The nadir is the redneck laughing boy whose overacting knows no bounds. The direction is pedestrian and the lengthy dialogue sequences are dull to watch. There's a good, suspenseful chase towards the end, but then the films goes on another TWENTY MINUTES to bolster the running time and these are even more excruciating than the epilogue scenes in RETURN OF THE KING: a real chore to sit through. In the end, it's obvious this film was written around four vicious, inventive death sequences but that isn't enough to make a good movie. 2000 MANIACS! is a bore for the most part. Great soundtrack, though.