Two Thousand Maniacs!(1964)
1964 · Herschell Gordon Lewis · 87 min
Six people are lured into a small Deep South town for a Centennial celebration where the residents kill them one by one as revenge for the town's destruction during the Civil War.
Horror
5.5138 votes
TMDB score
3/5
Intensity
4/5
Gore
2/5
Stays with you
How Two Thousand Maniacs! scares
Watching this feels more like a twisted carnival sideshow than a real scare—it's gleefully over-the-top rather than tense or dreadful. The pace is loose and goofy, with folksy small-town charm leading into sudden bursts of graphic, exaggerated violence. There's no real suspense or mind games here, just shock value and dark humor aimed at people who like their horror cheap, gory, and a little ridiculous. It's a good pick if you enjoy old-school shock cinema and can laugh at bad effects instead of being unsettled by them.
On The Horror Database's 0–5 scare profile, Two Thousand Maniacs! rates psychological 1/5, visceral 4/5, gore 4/5, lingering effect 2/5, and overall intensity 3/5.
- Psychological: 1 of 5
- Visceral: 4 of 5
- Gore: 4 of 5
- Lingering: 2 of 5
- Intensity: 3 of 5
Slow burn vs Jump scares: 25 of 100 — leans Slow burn
Supernatural vs Real-world: 92 of 100 — leans Real-world
Fun-scary vs Disturbing: 20 of 100 — leans Fun-scary
Intensity over runtime
Shape only — no eventsReveal pacing shapeHide pacing shapeHidden by default — shows where the tension peaks and lets up.
A folksy, festive setup slides into escalating bursts of gruesome carnival-style violence that peak hard before a quick wind-down.
Intensity across the runtime, 0 to 100: 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4, 4, 5, 4, 3.
How scary is Two Thousand Maniacs!?
On The Horror Database's 0–5 intensity scale, Two Thousand Maniacs! rates 3/5 — solidly scary, building its fear through slow-burn dread rather than shocks. It attacks the body more than the mind — physical, in-your-face horror. Expect it to be heavy on gore and fun-first. Some of it will follow you to bed, but it lets go within a day or so.
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