In 1964, Herschel Gordon Lewis and David Friedman, exploitation pioneers that they were, struck drive-in cinema gold with their ode to cannibal confederates, Two Thousand Maniacs!. Using that unsung gore film classic, Eli Roth and his Raw Nerve Productions have bankrolled Tom Sullivan's 2001 Maniacs, a remake/update/re-imagining/whatever of Lewis's forty plus year old film – how does it hold up? In short? Not bad, but hardly essential.

The storyline in the remake doesn't stray too far from the original though it mixes things up a little bit by throwing in the race card early on. Three boys, after getting into trouble with their history teacher for disrupting his lecture on the Civil War, head out to Daytona Beach for spring break. They get lost along the way and end up in the small town of Pleasant Valley, somewhere in the backwoods of Georgia. When they arrive, the town looks empty but imagine their surprise when almost out of nowhere hordes of hillbilly townsfolk swarm their car, lead by their mayor, Mr. Buckman (Freddy himself, Robert Englund), who tells them that they're just in time for the Guts & Glory Festival – an annual tradition in the town.

Our three heroes aren't too keen on sticking around until a car pulls up with the token gay guy and the two hot chicks that they met at the gas station earlier, followed by a black dude and his Asian girlfriend. They all agree to stay, and once they do, it's time to party. The guests are treated to some true southern hospitality and everything is going great – free food, free booze, and plenty of busty southern belles are around to keep the guys occupied, but soon they start to get an uncomfortable feeling. It starts when one of the girls who showed up with them disappears, but she's not the first or the only one to meet an awful fate, as soon it becomes evident that they're not only the guests of honor but also the main course.

2001 Maniacs is a fun movie with very little replay value. It's unashamed of its political incorrectness which it waves in the viewers face pretty much from the get go (racial jokes, sex jokes, gay jokes, toilet humor – it's all here). It does a good job of breaking up the more intense and horrific scenes with completely juvenile and sophomoric humor, almost in the same vein as frat boy party films like Revenge Of The Nerds. The movie also does a fine job of flinging gore at the viewer, not shying away from murder, mayhem, anal impalings, crushing, and multiple decapitations (though sadly and surprisingly – no barrel roll!). On that level ,the movie works well – it's fun, and it's dumb and it's entertaining – and on that same level, it fails to resonate. Granted, the filmmaker's weren't trying to make The Exorcist or even The Haunting here but some character development would have been nice, particularly when we get almost none. The movie is also almost completely void of tension, and as such, it's not scary so much as it is just silly (again, that was the point, judging by the commentary).

In terms of the performances, the only person really worth mentioning here is Robert Englund, who proves he's more than just Freddy Kruger by delivering a really good and completely appropriate performance. His accent might not be one hundred percent but he does make a fine one-eyed mayor and he definitely looks the part of the twisted southern gentleman who oh so many skeletons in his closet. Cabin Fever fans might get a kick out of seeing Eli Roth show up in a small part here, as he did in Hostel, others might say it was completely unnecessary. Speaking of Hostel, it's interesting that it shares so many of the same pros and cons as 2001 Maniacs as well as such a similar presence. In both films a group of idiotic frat boy types end up in a place they didn't intend to stay at, get sucked in by some lovely local ladies, and wind up getting offed by the locals. Lewis did it first, and he did it better, way back in 1964.

The cinematography is nice, the town has plenty of atmosphere, and the kill scenes are pretty creative even if the impalement was pretty crass, and sure to offend a few – such is life, it's only a movie. Sadly, the accidental charm that Lewis and Friedman somehow magically filled their film with is lacking in this modernized remake. Intentional camp is no replacement for the real thing and CGI gore effects can't replace even the primitive organic set pieces used in the original. Go in expecting to be entertained by the lower common denominator and you should be satiated, just don't hope for more than that – cause you ain't gonna get it.

Video:

The 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen on this disc is pretty nice despite an abundance of edge enhancement in some scenes. Black levels stay strong throughout, only showing mpeg compression in a couple of spots (which is good seeing as so much of the film takes place at night or in dark places) while aliasing and line shimmering are kept to a minimum except for a few scenes where the shimmering does truly shine through (look at the roof tops of the building with the press in it, it almost seems like its dancing – ick!). Flesh tones look lifelike and the red blood and guts effects are sufficiently bright without being too overpowering. There's a pretty decent level of both foreground and background detail present in the image pretty much throughout the movie. Overall though, 2001 Maniacs does look pretty good on this DVD.