Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964)

Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964)

It was in 1963 when director Herschell Gordon Lewis and producer David F. Friedman decided to leave the production of nudist films and opted for making horror movies. In those years, independent cinema was on the rise and the two filmmakers took advantage of being out of the studio system to push the envelope further and give their audiences more in terms of violence and sexuality. With the release of "Blood Feast", Lewis and Friedman introduced graphic gore to American horror and inaugurated the "splatter" sub-genre, beginning a new style of horror that would become a staple of the drive-in theater market. While honestly "Blood Feast" wasn't really a well done film, it was only the beginning for Lewis, as 1964's "Two Thousand Maniacs!", Lewis' next venture in the horror genre, proved that there was real talent in the savvy businessman.

In "Two Thousand Maniacs!", Tom White (William Kerwin) and Terry Adams (Connie Mason) are traveling through the American south heading to Atlanta when suddenly they are lured into the small town of Pleasant Ville by the citizens, who want them to be the guests of honor in the celebration of the centennial of an important event in the history of their town. In Pleasant Ville, they find another two young couples who were also lured by the villagers, the Millers (Jerome Eden and Shelby Livingston) and the Wells (Michael Korb and Yvonne Gilbert). Together, the six guests are invited to participate in the town's festivities without any information about what exactly is the town celebrating, however, they find themselves seduced by the charm of the southern townspeople. But they don't know that as guests of honor, they'll become the victims of a town made up of two thousand maniacs. (IMDB José Luis Rivera Mendoza)