IS THERE MEANING IN TWO THOUSAND MANIACS!’S DEEP FRIEND TERROR?
For a film as schlocky and tasteless as Herschell Gordon Lewis’s Two Thousand Maniacs!, there are some interesting themes going on throughout it. Beyond the violence, the low-budget special effects, and the dark sense of humor, it is interesting how it takes place in a Confederate town ironically named Pleasant Valley that’s made up of, as the trailer says, “two thousand maniacs crazed for carnage.” And that said town is actually a literal ghost town, made up of the spirits of townsfolk who were killed by Union soldiers during the Civil War, and now come back every one hundred years to slaughter any northerner they can find for their centennial. There’s a lot of political undertones going on in the plot for a film that is just an exploitation film, though there’s a chance that that may not be the case.
Lewis could have just made the film because he thought it would be a good hook for both urban and rural audiences after the success of Blood Feast (1963), or simply because he thought the plot was a fun concept. It wouldn’t be the first misinterpretation for horror, with George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) being seen as a statement of America in the late 1960s, despite the director’s claims that the metaphor was unintentional. It’s even seen in modern horror films like Get Out (2017), with people reading too much into random scenes and thinking that they say something thematic when they don’t. However, there are two questions that can be asked about the concept of Two Thousand Maniacs!: Why is it focused on the South, and why are we supposed to be afraid of the South? Intentional or not, these questions lead to an interesting observation about the film and how it may reflect society’s feelings about the post-Confederate South and the South’s hostility, even if the movie does not take them seriously.
These insights can be interpreted from the themes of Two Thousand Maniacs!’s story. One of the main themes centers on revenge, with the people of Pleasant Valley capturing six people from the North. They trick them into going on a detour, buttering them up by making them the “guests of honor,” giving them free hotel rooms, and even seducing two of the tourists. All of this is done as a ploy to have the captives killed in several ways, from rolling down a hill in a barrel with sharp nails hammered into it, creating a demented version of a dunk tank where a boulder falls on the victim, to getting their arm chopped off and roasted for a barbeque. These acts are done in sadistic glee by the townspeople, who cheer and clap as the poor victims are brutally slaughtered, seeing it as compensation for being killed themselves.
But as dark as that is, Two Thousand Maniacs! doesn’t take their vengeance that seriously. Instead, the film revels in its exploitative nature, gleefully showing how evil and crazy everyone in Pleasant Valley is to the point that it comes off as satirical. Not only do you have extras carrying around multiple Confederate flags and small nooses, but the supporting characters share more traits with caricatures of people from the South than they do being realistic. You have Rufus and Lester, two energetic rednecks who speak in cartoonish accents and wild mannerisms to the point of becoming a comedic duo if it weren’t for their bloodlust. There’s Mayor Buckman, who talks in a Foghorn Leghorn voice and acts kindly and enthusiastic to his “guests,” but secretly plans to have all six northerners killed in gruesome ways, having
Rufus and Lester help him as henchmen. There’s also Betsy and Harper, the seducers for couple Bea and John, who talk with an exaggerated accent and dialect. And then there’s Billy, a bratty kid that carries around a tiny noose and yells whenever he talks, who gets tricked into helping Tom and Terry escape the town after being offered candy. All these characters act like stereotypes instead of actual people, making them more fun to watch instead of terrifying, as if the film is making fun of them. Jacqueline Pinkowitz comments on this depiction in his article, stating that “Maniacs revels in the grossest characteristics of the Southern hillbilly, trading upon what David Bell describes as the “assorted cultural myths” which associate Southern White trash, rednecks, and rural people with “insularity, backwardness, sexual perversion (especially incest and bestiality)” and cannibalism” (Pinkowitz 116). Could their portrayals be a parody of how people perceive the South? It seems so, but they are still intimidating and creepy.
For how silly these characters are, there is still tension coming from them. The people of Pleasant Valley still hold power over the northerners, showing the one advantage they have that makes them unsettling: control. When the visitors first arrive in the town, they make sure to stop their cars and surround them so they don’t try to leave. There are even people touching them as everyone cheers at their arrival, and later laugh when Mayor Buckman says they’ll treat them with “Southern Hospitality,” eagerly messing with the northerners as their plan begins. Later, Tom tries to reach the teacher’s conference in Atlanta, which is revealed to be Buckman on the other line and pretending to be someone from the hotel, who laughs at successfully tricking him. The death scenes, no matter how wacky, still have a part where people hold down the victim and taunt them before they die. Powerlessness is shown throughout the film, with the horror coming from being trapped in a town full of people who want to kill you and do so cheerfully. It may be over-the-top, but there is a sense of menace from the citizens.
Although, the one strange exception to their evil is in a scene where the crowd reacts to John’s death from the “horse race.” The crowd goes silent, with the camera cutting to a wide shot of the crowd standing there before going into a close-up of their faces, which show guilt and unease. Any significance from this moment is thwarted by Rufus’s and Lester’s return from getting the horses, where they force the banjo players to play some music for them. What is interesting about this is that they say the line, “This is our celebration. You know what happens to anybody that backs out,” which implies that the rest are forced into taking part in the Centennial. Weirdly enough, the movie never focuses back on this, with the scene ending in everyone singing along to “Look Away Dixie Land.” Could there be any significance to take from this? Even then, it’s not like Two Thousand Maniacs! just has one pointless scene. For example, there’s a random scene of Tom and Terry washing their legs at a lake after getting away from Harper, and the camera’s focus is on Terry’s legs (probably because the actor, Connie Mason, is a Playboy model). So, with a movie that plays at being excessive, unserious, and all over the place, can there be any meaning or commentary taken from it beyond some crazy hicks’ revenge? If you think about it, yes.
Read the rest of this essay at Channel 31 - https://channel-31.com/2023/12/22/is-there-meaning-in-two-thousand-maniacss-deep-fried-terror/
(Channel 31 is a blog run by Webster University Associate Dean of Communications Aaron Aubuchon. “Meaning” was chosen to be posted on the website out of several essays submitted to Aubuchon from his “Grave Tales: Horror and Media in Culture” class in Spring 2023.)