Following the massive success of Blood Feast, Lewis and producer David Friedman were quick to cash in. With three times the budget, the help of the town of St. Cloud in Florida (now buried beneath Disneyworld!), and some inspiration from Brigadoon, they made probably Lewis's best film. A century after a Civil War massacre, the residents of Pleasant Valley divert six Yankees for a little fun, involving dismemberment, spiked barrels, barbecues and so on.
Although the effects now look amateur, it's a good storyline, efficiently told, and the torment before the actual violence still has surprising impact. One victim is tied beneath a teetering boulder, while locals casually hurl softballs to knock it down, and this remains grimly hypnotic. The music also anticipates O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and I remembered far too many lyrics to the catchy theme, despite it likely being a decade since last hearing it. Apart from Thomas Allen, the acting is "broad" (and that's being kind) but somehow fits the OTT carnage and fun-house attitude - if all the town's inhabitants wore evil clown make-up, it wouldn't seem out of place.
Perhaps the best tribute is this year's Wrong Turn, which has a remarkably similar basic premise. Yet, unlike Maniacs, I severely doubt we'll be watching that one with any degree of fondness, forty years down the line.
B-
