Two Thousand Maniacs! opens across the U.S. in 1964. The Southern gore film, also known as “hicksploitation,” is the second of what is called “The Splatter Trilogy,” including Blood Feast and Color Me Blood Red by director Herschell Gordon Lewis and is shot in 15 days. All three films feature Playboy Playmate Connie Mason. The film, loosely based on the musical Brigadoon, is about tourists being tortured by the Confederate ghosts who have taken over a southern town. Severely cut by the MPAA, the film plays mostly – and is wildly successful – at drive-ins in the South, but immediately becomes a cult hit and proves to be hugely influential to slasher films, especially The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
This Day in Halloween: Herschell Gordon Lewis' Southern gore classic "Two Thousand Maniacs!" opens across the U.S. in 1964. / Illustration by Kyo Johnson
