2001 Maniacs

 

 

 

Two Thousand Maniacs franchise

2001 maniacs is one of those movies that I keep meaning to get to. Robert England I patched visage has been staring back at me from the shelves a video stores for at least a decade and a half… And my consistent thought was “it’s interesting how he’s upgraded from the son of 100 maniacs to the mayor of 2001 maniacs…“ The Freddy connection never quite left me.

Still, it’s southern horror which doesn’t do a lot for me, and when this first came out I’m reasonably certain I haven’t discovered Herschell Gordon Lewis yet. 

Lewis was in the middle of a revival in the early 2000s, with a whole new generation rediscovering his work, and getting him back into the film world. He do a few conventions around this time, most notably similar wasteland, where they really celebrated his tomography, old and new. Around this time as well, he’d start seeing remix kick off in addition to new work. Truth be told, the original film the Uh Oh show I thought was far superior to the remake of the wizard of gore, but the principal is solid. Is he, while Louis his films are classics, with him really pioneering the whole Gore hound trend, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re great films. More than once you’ve probably seen me write in this blog about how much I’d like to see an average or not quite good film remade with more resources and a little more experience. Lewis’s films are ideal candidates for that.

We get a very similar story told as the first movie. The inhabitants of Pleasant Valley set up detours to lure unsuspecting northerners into their charming little southern town to participate in their annual Jubilee. The Northerners are the guests of honor… Which is to say they’re the victims, about to be murdered in spectacular and horrible ways, and then devoured at the town barbecue. It’s a simple set up with the opportunity to employ plenty of gore and throw plenty of blood at the screen. This is important, because of course, the Godfather of Gore is a genre unto itself, and demands certain criteria. No quality per se, but a level of gore And exploitation mixed in. The characters are far more villainous … With a lot more topless scenes, and a temptress with iron jaws ready to attack… Even the town Lothario, Harper Alexander… a character from the first film… Is a lot more polished and slicker looking. They’ve kept Rufus and Lester from the original film as well, and somehow made them look even more ridiculous and cartoonish than the first film!

You can tell that Tim Sullivan has a genuinely good working knowledge of the film, because while he’s definitely making his own movie, he’s taking care to homage wherever he can… In so far as it doesn’t impede his own storytelling, going as far as to even give us its own take on one of the kids from original film… The horse race which involve someone and limbs and then the horses racing away to pull them apart.

In addition to the horse race, we also have another kill that feels route very reminiscent from the first film. In the first film one of the women is set up under what’s sort of like a dunking tape… Only instead of having water dumped on you when somebody hits the target, you end up with a gigantic rock falling and crashing to death. We have a similar crushing on one of our other female victims, only it’s a giant brass bell rather than a rock. Nevertheless, with all the homage going on here, it feels just a little too similar to just be a coincidence!

It’s got its own character as well though. Between the participation of Robert Englund and just the very composition of the cover, you can see going in that were going to be dealing with a sort of heightened reality. It’s still every bit the ramshackle town that we see in Lewis’s original Two Thousand Maniacs, but it has its own quality. It’s more of a stereotype, caricature style of rundown southern architecture as opposed to the plain and gritty entropy that we see in the original. Indeed, while Robert Englund is playing Mayor Buckland, a character from the original film, he plays it with just a touch more exaggeration and caricatures. I can still recognize the character. Indeed, England actually resembles the original actor a bit, albeit with the additions of the beard and eyepatch, but don’t let that throw you. For me, this is less a remake as it is a far flung sequel. The same ghosts still taking vengeance another 40 years later… The change in appearance is easily explained away by the idea that their memories and their perceptions have corrupted over the past century and a half, ghosts don’t have to appear the same all the time. And some of them might not even be the same ghosts… I can wholeheartedly embrace head cannon that would suggest some of the ghosts finally move on as the northern body count rises… that every victim of their spring Jubilee releases another trapped maniac, and others take their place. Who knows? Perhaps we’re not even dealing with the same 2001 maniacs… What if other ghosts find Pleasant Valley and join their horde, finally finding a home? These are all interesting ideas that I really would love to see explored elsewhere. This is the kind of thing that could really expand and enhance the franchise. And oh yes, it is indeed a franchise and not just a remake. Stick around, we’ve got a few more of these coming!