Two Thousand Maniacs (1964)

Tom White (William Kerwin, billed here as Thomas Wood) and Terry Adams (Connie Mason) are heading to Atlanta when they are lured via a fake detour into the small Southern town of Pleasant Valley (population 2,000) by the locals, who want them to be the guests of honour in the celebration of the centennial of an important event in the history of their town.

They find two young couples already there – the Millers (Jerome Eden and Shelby Livingston) and the Wells (Michael Korb and Yvonne Gilbert) – also visitors from the northern states who were lured into town by the locals.

Little do the six guests realise that as guests of honour they will be terrorised and tortured by Confederate ghosts from the strange town that rises every 100 years, Brigadoon-style,  to avenge Civil War atrocities.

And so the “festivities” include a woman being dismembered and barbequed, a man being drawn and quartered having had his arms and legs tied to four horses, and the infamous “barrel roll” sequence where a man is pushed down a hill in a barrel that has nails driven into its sides.

The gore, while unrealistic and obviously fake, actually becomes disturbing at times.

Terry Adams
Connie Mason
Tom White
Thomas Wood (William Kerwin)
Mayor Buckman
Jeffrey Allen
Lester
Ben Moore
Billy
Vincent Santo
John Miller
Jerome Eden
Bea Miller
Shelby Livingston
Rufe
Gary Bakeman
Harper
Mark Douglas
Betsy
Linda Cochran
Beverly Wells
Yvonne Gilbert
David Wells
Michael Korb
Musicians
The Pleasant Valley Boys

Director
Herschell Gordon Lewis

Video