Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964) on Netflix
NR19641h 23m
Phony detour signs draw six Northern tourists into Pleasant Valley, where the townsfolk greet them as guests of honor for a centennial celebration. Tom White and Terry Adams are among them.
- Netflix2.6/5
- IMDb5.7/105,672 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes45%
Trailer
Plot summary
Six Northern tourists travel south in two convertibles: married couples John and Bea Miller and David and Beverly Wells, and unmarried Tom White and Terry Adams. Signs set in the highway divert them into Pleasant Valley, a small Southern town marking the centennial of the two days when Union troops destroyed it near the end of the Civil War. Mayor Buckman, with his helpers Rufus and Lester, welcomes the group and makes them guests of honor, offering free lodging at the Hunter Arms hotel along with food and entertainment. Shop owner Harper and his girlfriend Betsy are among the residents they meet. The travelers accept the invitation and settle in for the weekend.
Cast
- Jeffrey Allenas Mayor Buckman
- Shelby Livingstonas Bea Miller
- Jerome Edenas John Miller
- Gary Bakemanas Rufus 'Rufe' Tate
- Stanley Dyrectoras Harper Alexander
- Linda Cochranas Betsy
- Yvonne Gilbertas Beverly Wells
- Michael Korbas David Wells
- Vincent Santoas Billy
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Two Thousand Maniacs! was banned in Chicago on August 3, 1964 by the local police department over its excessive violence, a ban upheld by the Chicago Motion Picture Appeals Board, and the film did not open in the city until late 1966.
- Taalkeus Blank, a nonprofessional Illinois stage actor nicknamed "Talky" his whole life, made his feature debut as Mayor Buckman under the pseudonym Jeffrey Allen because he was never a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Director Herschell Gordon Lewis kept hiring him for later films because he could perfectly mimic any Southern accent.
- The 1980s alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs took their name in homage to the film as a way of standing out on the college rock scene, and the John Waters film Multiple Maniacs is named in homage to it as well.
- The Orlando bluegrass group The Pleasant Valley Boys appear throughout the film, often narrating the aftermath of the murders through song, and perform its opening theme "The South's Gonna Rise Again", which Herschell Gordon Lewis helped compose.
- Two Thousand Maniacs! helped introduce the formula of Northern outsiders being murdered by rural Southerners, and has been credited as an influence on Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).
SPOILER
The boulder that crushes Beverly in the film's dunk-tank murder was made of papier-mâché and falls from a platform, one of the special effects contributions the elaborate murder scenes required.
