2000 MANIACS

Two couples travel along a lonely country road in the Deep South. They are spied from afar by two Southern hicks, who promptly place a large "detour" sign in the centre of the road.

Sure enough, the car takes a right turn - and ends up in the small town of Pleasant Valley.

The town is in the midst of celebrating a Centennial - but it's a hundred years since WHAT exactly?!

You find that out later (although historians will pick up the early clue that whatever it is, it occurred in 1865 ...).

One thing's for sure, the town's folk who greet our hapless foursome - married couples David and Beverly Wells (Michael Korb and Yvonne Gilbert), and John and Bea Miller (Jerome Eden, COLOR ME BLOOD RED, and Shelby Livingston, NUDE ON THE MOON) - wear permanently demented smiles ... and things are definitely amiss when a group of youngsters can be seen strangling a cat with the words "Damn Yankee" tied round it's neck!

Moments later, a second car comes along driven by the pretty Terri (Connie Mason, BLOOD FEAST). She's picked up a hitch-hiker in the form of teacher Tom (Thomas Wood, BLOOD FEAST).

They follow the same detour and are greeted by the town's folk too, led by the manic Mayor Buckman (Jeffrey Allen, MOONSHINE MOUNTAIN).

To continued insane cheering and laughter from the locals, Buckman explains to the perplexed sextet that Pleasant Valley is having a weekend of celebrations and the six of them must stay as guests. Apparently, the town has a ceremony in place which dictates that "strangers from up North" are required!

Although they have plans to be elsewhere, the Northerners become caught up in the jubilations and are ushered towards their hotel rooms. They're asked to freshen up, in time for the evening's promised barbecue.

While in his hotel room, John receives a call from buxom local girl Betsy (Linda Cochran, THE DEFILERS). He lies to Bea, telling her the Mayor wants to see him, and sneaks off for an afternoon tryst with Betsy.

Which leaves Bea alone, and more than willing to slope off with hunky Harper (Mark Douglas, MOONSHINE MOUNTAIN) when he comes a-calling.

Bea lives to regret her secret date with Harper, though, when the kissing stops and he pulls out a knife ...

Meanwhile, Tom and Terri start to slowly realise just what the celebrations are all about, and what part they will play in them ...

2000 MANIACS is thought by many to be writer/director Herschell Gordon Lewis' best film. The director has even said this himself in the past.

Certainly, it's his most complete work - with a half-decent script, some solid performances and a twist in it's tail that recalls THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

Production-wise, the town of Pleasant Valley is perfectly realised. The locals are convincingly "backwoods", and the fact that the film was shot in 1964 helps with the authenticity value.

The pacing is more relaxed than other Lewis films such as THE WIZARD OF GORE or BLOOD FEAST. This shows Lewis has confidence in the story he's telling, and pride in the film he's making.

And it isn't a bad film at all. But, perhaps because of these latter points, it just isn't as much FUN as other Lewis gorefests.

The intriguing but threadbare plot really doesn't hold enough substance to carry the film's 83 minute running time. This should have been an hour long thrill ride, max.

The gore is juicy, but admittedly a little restrained compared to other Lewis efforts. Having said that, each murder is inventive and grisly - so there really is little to gripe about there, I guess!

As with all of Lewis' early films, the continuity is terrible, the post-dubbing during gore scenes is horrible, and things sag badly during the final third.

Still, it's certainly up there as one of Lewis' classic gore films - and worthy of a place in your DVD collection for that reason alone.

Something Weird/Odeon's UK DVD presents the film in a good-looking full-frame print (it's original aspect ratio). Colours are bright and vivid, with no bleeding and very little grain considering the film's age.

The mono soundtrack is nice and clear too.

The disc has an attractive animated scene selection menu where you can access the main feature via 12 chapters.

Extras include the original theatrical trailer, complete with a warning to the audience. It's a fun, gory 2 minutes.

There's about 8 minutes of rare outtakes, which are presented without audio (accompanied instead with excerpts from the film's score - also written by Lewis).

The trailer and outtakes both have annoying SWV logos in the bottom right hand of the screen.

Finally, we get a "Miss Weird" short - which is essentially 50 seconds of a dominatrix tying a scantily clad woman to a chair and whipping her. Uh?!

Sadly, we don't get the commentary from the R1 release - or the isolated soundtrack that graced Tartan's previous R2 release.

Still, the film looks great and is (as with both other releases) fully uncut.

If you've not yet seen it, give it a go ... if only to prepare yourself for Tim Sullivan's bloodthirsty remake, 2001 MANIACS!

Review by Stu Willis