2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams

2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams

"This film is very offensive. Leave now!" warns director Tim Sullivan at the London premier of his new movie, 2001 Maniacs: Field Of Screams. He tells us he's packed just about every un-PC stereotype, outrageously bad taste joke and censor-baiting violent death he could possibly imagine into the film. "But I'm allowed to do it. I'm a gay, Jewish, black man in disguise".

He's not joking about the content - There really is something here to upset just about anybody. Nobody and nothing is sacred here - minority or not. Sullivan doesn't even bother painting targets because, hell, it's all fair game. Field of Screams blasts away at your sensibilities, daring you to be offended and mocking you for taking any of it remotely seriously. If you can't spot the tongue rammed into its celluloid cheek you really need glasses, because this movie knows where the line is and drives a bus right over it. Whilst shagging a sheep. It's taboo-breaking, Daily Mail outraging stuff, and it's bloody hilarious.

For those who missed out on the original, Field of Screams gets straight to the point. The spirit of the South lives on in the town of Pleasant Valley, quite literally. The 2001 inhabitants are the ghosts of Confederate villagers massacred during the American Civil War. By holding a festival each year, they hope to attract northerners into their town, like lambs to the slaughter, and repay the debt of blood one Yankee body at a time. Only this year there's a problem. Nobody shows up. Rather than miss out on all the fun and games, Mayor Buckman (Bill Moseley) packs up the carnival and takes it out onto the road in search of a fresh batch of Northern flavoured BBQ. As luck would have it, a reality TV crew crosses their path making "Road Rascals", a very thinly veiled version of Paris Hilton's The Simple Life. With the crew looking for traditional Southern folk and customs to feature in their show, this looks perfect like a perfect situation. Oh how right they are, but for all the wrong reasons.

Sullivan's first 2001 Maniacs took many of us by surprise. Here was a remake of a much loved, but obscure by mainstream standards, classic. After seeing countless directors chow down on fantastic source material only to shit out stinking abominations, you can't blame us for being sceptical. But Maniacs was a huge amount of fun. It kept true to Lewis's great original idea and went wild with the blood, boobs and bumpkins, taking the standard format of "attractive teens in peril" horror and subverting it into something as delicious as anything on the BBQ at the Maniac's festival.

Field of Screams takes the key ingredients from the original's recipe and mixes them up with some new spices just to keep things interesting. Sure, the budget is lower, so the cuts of meat may be a bit cheaper, but that doesn't mean the finished dish is any less satisfying. The Maniac's new escapade strips the body of the original back to the carcass, serving up the choice morsels people wanted more of and jettisoning any fat and gristle.

And there's a good reason for this; with a much lower budget, there's less room for wastage. Sure, the dip in funds is visible on screen but this hasn't affected the imagination or energy in the movie. If anything, it's enhanced it. Tim Sullivan clearly subscribes to the Aikido school of filmmaking. When a potential obstacle aims a punch at the production, he sidesteps the blow, absorbs the force and utilises it to make his position stronger. When a lack of funds closes down a number of avenues, Sullivan has simply kept his goal in mind and worked out an alternative route to get there. It's a can do attitude that has kept the film moving forwards and stopped it crashing into production hell. The final destination might not be the five-star venue originally envisaged, but the Maniacs provide a vibrant and entertaining road-trip on a budget that's maybe a hell of a lot more fun than any gold-encrusted boutique hotel.

Once past the initial setup the movie's structure feels much looser than the original. This film focuses much more on the comedy side of horror, with scenes often playing like connected sketches building towards each horrible death. If you can take it for what it is, this is no bad thing. Field of Screams flies by at a manic pace, firing gag after gag into the audience. Sure, not every shot hits, but most will at least tickle anyone who has a distinctly warped sense of humour. Many of the big laughs come from Lin Shaye as Granny Boone, whose cookery tips, use of corn cobs and quite astonishing recreation of Flashdance display a wild, anarchic comedic talent that's given much more room to shine than the first time around. Part of this is through the chemistry between her and Bill Moseley, who plays Buckman as less deranged avenger, more straight authoritarian, than Robert Englund did in the original. It's quite a different performance, but one that works equally well and one that balances the humour from the supporting cast. The gags are frequently revolting, infantile and offensive to any right thinking person - and they made me laugh like the proverbial drain. If the thought of stuffed animals being constantly sexually abused, synchronised pissing (with an unexpected conclusion) and chastity belts being used as deadly weapons doesn't raise the flicker of a smile in the darkest part of your soul then move along - there's nothing for you here. For everyone who's able to put their sensibilities aside for a while, this is a disgracefully funny barrel of blood to wallow in.

Despite the reduced budget, everything is ramped up from the first movie. Although not overly frequent, the gore scenes are imaginative and enormously effective. One, in particular, involving a circular saw ripping off a pair of knickers before causing some really quite nasty damage, provoked collective gasps as jaws migrated towards feet throughout the cinema. It's an extraordinarily well done scene that'll have you hitting rewind to make sure you really did see what you thought you saw. That is, if the BBFC let it through onto DVD. It's one of two moments in the film that I'm not entirely sure how the censors will react to and the film would suffer greatly to lose them. It's very difficult to tell, but hopefully they'll see the movie in the spirit it was intended as both the contentious moments are so over the top and disgusting that all you can do is laugh in disbelief.

Sure, the movie doesn't always hit the mark with every joke and occasionally the low budget rears its head in an unpleasant way, but Field Of Screams is a huge bundle of fun. It won't be to everyone's taste and it won't win any Oscars, but it's a damn sight more entertaining than most so-called comedy horrors. Kick back with a beer or ten and it's not difficult to be swept up by the Maniacs' road trip through the sheer joy and energy up on screen. And with an ending that promises a new adventure for the folks from Pleasant Valley, let's hope the South will rise again!

Review by Paul Bird


 
Released by Anchor Bay UK
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