The episode of Greatest Horror Film You By no means Noticed overlaying 2001 Maniacs was Written by Cody Hamman, Narrated by Kier Gomes, Edited by Juan Jimenez, Produced by John Fallon and Tyler Nichols, and Government Produced by Berge Garabedian.
Robert Englund doing a demented Colonel Sanders impression. Lin Shaye placing on a lethal track and dance routine. Sufficient politically incorrect components to offend just about all people. Buckets of gore. Gratuitous nudity. And a cameo look by Eli Roth, enjoying his Cabin Fever character. Put all of this collectively and also you get 2001 Maniacs (watch it HERE). The director calls it a “splatstick” film. Splatter mixed with slapstick comedy. We name it The Greatest Horror Film You By no means Noticed.
Herschell Gordon Lewis was a cultured man, however he specialised in making films that weren’t stylish. His purpose was to present the grindhouse and drive-in crowds the issues Hollywood wasn’t giving them. Noting an absence of nudity in Hollywood productions, he began making movies known as “nudie cuties”. However then porn confirmed as much as take consideration away from these softcore nudist films. So Lewis determined to carry a brand new stage of bloody violence to the display screen. In 1963, he made the primary gore movie. Blood Feast. Which splattered brilliant purple blood everywhere and earned Lewis a nickname: The Godfather of Gore. He adopted that up with a number of extra blood-soaked films. However the one many followers think about to be his masterpiece is the 1964 launch Two Thousand Maniacs!
The story of Two Thousand Maniacs was impressed by the stage musical Brigadoon. Like we stated earlier than, Lewis was stylish. That musical tells the story of American vacationers travelling by means of Scotland and discovering a spot known as Brigadoon. A magical village that solely seems for sooner or later each 100 years. Lewis took the fundamental thought and moved the setting to the American south. Then he lined the whole lot in gore. His movie is about in Nice Valley, inhabitants two thousand. In April of 1865, rogue Union troopers laid waste to this city. Killing each man, girl, and little one that lived there. 100 years later, Nice Valley has re-appeared, with all of its residents. And to rejoice their centennial, they trick six Yankee travellers into taking a detour by means of their city. They seize these individuals, calling them their visitors of honor. And proceed to homicide them in quite a lot of crowd-pleasing methods. A lady is hacked up and become barbecue. A person is tied to horses and torn aside. One other visitor is put in a barrel filled with nails and rolled down a hill. One has a boulder dropped on her. And when the get together is over, Nice Valley disappears.
Forty-one years later, director Tim Sullivan made his characteristic debut with the remake 2001 Maniacs. Which makes use of the identical set-up as its predecessor, however goes wild with it. The characters we comply with into the story are a trio of annoying school guys. They’re planning to spend their Spring Break at Daytona Seaside. However they take a detour into the city of Nice Valley. The place they grow to be the particular visitors on the Guts and Glory Jubilee, alongside 5 different Yankee travellers. The visitors are extra numerous this time round, which supplies the Accomplice villains much more purpose to be postpone by them. And to drop some offensive dialogue whereas wiping them out. There’s a bisexual man, a black man, and an Asian girl. And sure, their races and sexual orientation are referenced in methods that can in all probability shock and disgust some viewers.
Heading up the Guts and Glory festivities is Nice Valley Mayor Buckman. Whose full title is George Dubya Buckman. As a result of this film was made within the early two 1000’s and Sullivan wasn’t being refined. Solid as this deranged character was horror royalty: Robert Englund, who was contemporary off starring in Freddy vs. Jason when he reported to set. One other style icon, Lin Shaye, was solid as Buckman’s spouse Granny Boone. However she wasn’t but the horror star she is at present. Positive, she had been in A Nightmare on Elm Avenue and Critters. However she was higher identified for her roles in comedies like There’s One thing About Mary and Kingpin. Giuseppe Andrews performs Nice Valley dreamboat Harper Alexander. Company of honor are performed by the likes of Marla Malcolm, Matthew Carey, Gina Marie Heekin, Brian Gross, Mushond Lee, Dylan Edrington, and Bianca Smith. Jay Gillespie performs Anderson Lee, a Yankee with southern roots. So there’s a risk he could possibly be drawn into the Nice Valley lifestyle.
Brendan McCarthy performs Buckman’s son Rufus. Adam Robitel, who would go on to direct Lin Shaye in Insidious: The Final Key, performs Lester. Who’s a bit too near his sheep Jezebel. Ryan Fleming is overgrown little one Hucklebilly. Future Texas Chainsaw 3D producer Christa Campbell is a personality known as the Milk Maiden. Wendy Kremer is Peaches. Cristin Michele and Kodi Kitchen play kissing cousins Glendora and Hester. Peter Stormare makes a fast look as a school professor, an professional on the Civil Battle. Nation music star Travis Tritt exhibits up as a creepy gasoline station attendant. Eli Roth has a cameo as Justin, the character he performed in his personal film Cabin Fever. And if you happen to look within the crowd of Nice Valley residents, you’ll spot Kane Hodder. Enjoying a personality credited as Jason.
This film took place when Two Thousand Maniacs producer David F. Friedman met a fellow producer named Chris Kobin. And Kobin satisfied Friedman to let him have theTwo Thousand Maniacs remake rights. Then Kobin turned to filmmaker Tim Sullivan, who was producing Detroit Rock Metropolis round that point, to put in writing the screenplay with him. The inspiration behind the mission was the truth that main Hollywood producers had simply shaped Darkish Fortress Leisure. with the intention of giving William Fortress films like Home on Haunted Hill and 13 Ghosts shiny, huge finances remakes. So Kobin and Sullivan needed to do an H.G. Lewis remake that might be the other of these Hollywood initiatives. A down and soiled unbiased manufacturing that might be as perverse and subversive as doable. As Sullivan instructed ShockYa, he was uninterested in horror films that teased the viewers. “You realize, those like I Know What You Did Final Summer season, City Legend, Valentine… Those the place, as an alternative of getting a monster on the poster, they’ve the pouty solid of no matter WB or Fox present was on hiatus. In case you’re gonna make a splatter flick, present some blood and guts and T and A! Mainly, I got down to make 2001 Maniacs as a result of I hadn’t seen that form of movie because the ‘80s.”
At first, Kobin and Sullivan had been planning to put in writing the script and cross it over to a longtime director. Somebody like Tobe Hooper. However quickly they determined that Sullivan ought to direct it as his first characteristic. Then got here the problem of getting the mission into manufacturing. It took a while. 2001 Maniacs was first introduced not lengthy after the flip of the century – and there may need even been some hope that it could possibly be made within the yr 2001. However that wasn’t to be. At one level, it was simply three days away from the beginning of filming when the financing collapsed. At one other time, a wildfire destroyed the backlot it was going to be filmed on. Proper when 2001 Maniacs acquired again on its ft, Robert Englund needed to go work on Freddy vs. Jason. So manufacturing was delayed one other yr.
Sullivan was acquainted with Englund and acquired him hooked up to the mission early on. Then made certain he stayed hooked up by means of the ups and downs by having interviewers ask him about it on a regular basis. Englund promoted it to Ain’t It Cool Information by saying, “It’s by far essentially the most politically incorrect movie I’ve ever learn. It’s like Li’l Abner meets Jackass. Nobody survives the film. And I play this sort of psychotic Colonel Sanders from Hell. It’s a enjoyable half for me. … It’s going to be a lot tacky, southern redneck, traditional, over-the-top enjoyable. Nearly cartoony.” Others who had been solid early and caught with it embrace Milk Maiden Christa Campbell and Hucklebilly Ryan Fleming. Which is why everybody acts like Hucklebilly is slightly child, however he appears like an grownup. Fleming was extra age acceptable for the position when he was first solid. Then he grew up quick.
2001 Maniacs’ fortunes modified when Eli Roth, straight from the success of Cabin Fever, determined to come back on board. Roth produced the movie by means of his newly shaped firm Uncooked Nerve, which he based with Scott Spiegel and Boaz Yakin. That’s why Roth exhibits up within the film. So does Spiegel, enjoying a minstrel alongside Johnny Legend. And Craig Stark, who performed an ill-fated character in Spiegel’s slasher film Intruder, seems as a sheriff. Kobin claims Roth banned him from the set, however no less than he acquired the film made.
2001 Maniacs lastly went into manufacturing on November third, 2003, and filming wrapped on December 1st. Then followers who had already been ready years to see Englund play Mayor Buckman had one other lengthy wait to endure. The movie didn’t have its world premiere till a competition screening in July of 2005. It made the competition rounds for some time. Then Lionsgate lastly gave it a straight-to-video launch in June of 2006. With Englund within the lead and an irreverent, offensive humorousness, it rapidly gained a cult following. And because it was made on a finances of simply one-point-five million, it was additionally capable of make a revenue.
This gave Sullivan the prospect to construct a franchise. However up to now he hasn’t been capable of make as many chapters within the franchise as he hoped to. A 2001 Maniacs comedian ebook that explored the origins of the Nice Valley characters was printed. However a second comedian ebook that might have seen the characters battling terrorists has by no means made it to print. Sullivan was capable of make a sequel on a decrease finances. Invoice Moseley changed Robert Englund as Mayor Buckman in 2001 Maniacs: Area of Screams. Which takes the characters on the highway to Iowa – a cheap rewrite of a much bigger thought Sullivan had. He needed to make Beverly Hellbillies, which might have taken Buckman and firm to Los Angeles. However the cash wasn’t there for it. Area of Screams wasn’t very well-received, which is why we nonetheless haven’t seen the opposite sequel Kobin and Sullivan talked about. They needed to carry Englund and Moseley collectively for Buckman vs. Buckman, the place the Mayors combat over their love for Granny Boone. Perhaps it’ll occur sometime. The franchise hasn’t been all it may have been, however no less than we acquired 2001 Maniacs out of it.
It is sensible that Eli Roth was drawn to this mission. As a result of a few of these party-minded characters are rather a lot like characters in his films Cabin Fever and Hostel. Chances are high slim that viewers are going to love or care about any of the individuals in 2001 Maniacs. However that works for the type of film that is. And it’s not just like the characters in Two Thousand Maniacs had been something particular, both. These persons are simply there for the Nice Valley residents to homicide in distinctive methods. We’re not purported to be heartbroken when considered one of them exits the image. We’re purported to be clapping because the gore splatters throughout the display screen. Sullivan does try to make a couple of of the characters likeable because the story goes on. However for essentially the most half, we take pleasure in seeing them get dismembered greater than we take pleasure in spending time with them. And fortunately, the film by no means goes too lengthy between loss of life scenes.
Past the gore, the most important promoting level is Robert Englund’s over-the-top efficiency as Mayor Buckman. Watching him play a “Colonel Sanders from Hell” is simply as enjoyable as you’d hope it will be. It appears like he had a good time bringing this character to life. Bouncing dialogue off the opposite Nice Valley residents. Tormenting the Yankees. And collaborating in a climactic sword combat. This additionally has one of many extra lighthearted Lin Shaye horror film performances. Granny Boone’s standout sequence comes when she groups with the minstrels, Milk Maiden, and Peaches for a track and dance. Which ends with Granny killing a personality. And dropping a one-liner about their guts.
After all, the loss of life scenes are the perfect scenes. The gory murders had been the explanation for Two Thousand Maniacs to exist within the first place. They usually’re the primary purpose to look at 2001 Maniacs. Sullivan did his greatest to reside as much as the bloodshed within the H.G. Lewis unique. There are variations on the “torn aside by horses” and the boulder drop kills – with the boulder being changed by a bell. And there are a number of unique kills. Involving issues like acid, penis mangling, decapitation, anal skewering, and head crushing. Watching these deaths play out is enjoyable for the entire household. If the household occurs to be from Nice Valley.
It’s additionally enjoyable if you happen to’re a horror fan who simply desires to spend a while watching dimwitted characters get knocked off one after the other. H.G. Lewis films had been by no means excessive artwork. They had been gory spectacles to giggle at and be disgusted by. We’ve seen an entire lot of cinematic bloodshed since these movies hit the drive-in display screen. However sensible gore results have by no means misplaced their attraction. And 2001 Maniacs is an entertaining tribute to one of many first blood-soaked films. So head all the way down to Nice Valley and take a look at the Guts and Glory Jubilee. Watch the video games. Benefit from the barbecue. It may be the final Spring Break get together you ever attend. However it can undoubtedly be one for the historical past books.
A pair earlier episodes of the Greatest Horror Film You By no means Noticed sequence could be seen under. To see extra, and to take a look at a few of our different exhibits, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe when you’re there!