Review: 2001 Maniacs (2005)

I'm not gonna be breaking any new ground with my review of 2001 Maniacs. I've read about 4 trillion blog reviews as well as the usual slavering Fangoria publicity surrounding the flick, and I'm just not in the mood for nitpicking or coming up with some socio-economic slant within which to operate...

The remake (more of a tribute, really) to HG Lewis' famed cult hit, is every bit as funny, gory and over-the-top as the original. Robert Englund and Lin Shaye nail their parts and provide plenty of yucks to keep you interested between kills.

There's also plenty of HG Lewis' music in the form of two minstral hillbillies, plenty of racially charged tomfoolery, and some dynamite boobies. The kills take the cake, though. Gory, bloody and funny in an each-character-gets-what-they-deserve kinda way.

The pacing works out, too: the jokes come fast and furious and there's no really wasted dialogue or scenes. Director Tim Sullivan is by turns making you laugh, grossing you out, or showing you some sex.

The one point I'll make (and, I'm planning to do a longish entry about this, as soon as I can wrap my brain around some clear examples) is that horror movies don't seem all that concerned with scaring us anymore. I mean, for all of it's gallons of fake blood, Maniacs isn't in the least bit scary. The characters are caricatures that you hope get killed. In a funny way. I can't really tell you the last time a horror movie had me scared. And, I don't mean nauseated, in an Audition kind of way.

Oh well, if for some reason you've never seen this flick or the original, do so.