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2004 - 88m.

Yee-haw! The South's gonna rise again...

For the first title under their newly formed Raw Nerve banner, executive producers Eli Roth, Boaz Yakin, and Scott Spiegel decided they needed something that would capture the attention of long-time horror fans everywhere. Something that would perk their interest and make them want to see other Raw Nerve movies. That something would turn out to be a loose remake of Herschell Gordon Lewis' 1963 campy gore flick, Two Thousand Maniacs! And it would also star genre cult figure Robert Englund for good measure. It's just too bad we had to wait almost a year for it to finally be released on DVD by horror friendly Lionsgate.

Three college friends are on their way to Daytona Beach for spring break and along the way they end-up in Pleasant Valley, Georgia. A small town that looks like it has barely taken any steps outside of the Civil War. Everyone there seems nice, Mayor Buckman (Englund) and his Rebel flag eye patch couldn't be more welcoming, and a few other people have also ended up in the town - two girls they ran into earlier at a gas station, the girls' gay friend, and an African-American motorbiker and his Asian girlfriend.

Pleasant Valley is certainly, well, pleasant. All the new guests are invited to stay for the upcoming "Guts And Glory Jubilee", given all the food and drink they could ever want, made part of the town's celebration, and also tempted with promises of sex from a few of the local gals and guys. Little do they realize that this little jubilee may be a lot more dangerous than the "redneck extravaganza" they're expecting.

That's right, kiddies, turns out the people of Pleasant Valley are the murdering sort, have a hankering for the taste for human flesh, and that the jubilee is their way of getting back at the Union Army for destroying their village way back in 1865.

From there the blood starts to flow as we see one girl drawn and quartered, someone have a cocktail of acidic moonshine, hotel marm "Granny" (character actor, and sister of New Line cinema CEO Robert, Lin Shaye) ring the "bell" on someone, and various other semi-creative methods of dispatch (with our African-American victim getting a fittingly ironic send-off - although a few of the deaths do seem pretty pointless). Amongst all this, we get Englund and Shaye hamming it up for all it's worth, a duo of singing strolling minstrels (actually co-producer Spiegel and the iconic Johnny Legend), goofy humour, and a whole lot of cameo appearances to please fanboys.

While 2001 Maniacs is never as outrageously over the top as I'd of liked (it can't quite hit the insanity of Lewis' 1963 flick, even lacking the spike-filled wooden barrel), it does offer a few chuckles, an unserious tone that generally works, some pleasing enough bloodshed, and a few stand-out performances (Ryan Fleming almost steals the show as the childish "Hucklebilly"). In other words, it's quite entertaining if you're in the mood for such a thing.

Keep an eye out to see co-producer Roth make a dopey cameo as the same stoner character he played in Cabin Fever and for a quick glimpse of Kane Hodder, the man tons of horror fans agree is the one and only Jason Vorhees (he portrayed our favourite undead, hockey masked killer in entries 7-10 of the Friday The 13th series). (Chris Hartley, 5/8/06)

Directed By: Tim Sullivan.
Written By: Tim Sullivan, Chris Kobin.

Starring: Robert Englund, Lin Shaye, Giuseppe Andrews, Jay Gillespie.