2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams (2010) review

THE DIS LIST

For this entry of the low brow list reserved solely for those movies I find insufferable experiences, it's this asinine sequel to 2001 MANIACS, the so-so refurbishment of H.G. Lewis's classic, 2000 MANIACS (1964). Tim Sullivan and his conspirators surely had the best intentions, but what we have here is one of the all time worst ever. It's not even bad enough for a Razzie, or a Golden Turkey. This overlong 80 minutes of torturous cinematic constipation will strain the limits of one's intestinal fortitude. Yes, bowel movements are better than this movie. This is....


2001 MANIACS: FIELD OF SCREAMS 2009

Bill Moseley (Mayor George W. Buckman), Lin Shaye (Granny Boone), Christa Campbell (Milk Maiden), Katy Marie Johnson (Rome Sheraton)

"Directed by" Tim Sullivan

***WARNING! This review contains images of a sexual nature and bloody, but shoddily accomplished (well, what they could afford on a tattered shoestring of a budget) violence***


"I decided to make FIELD OF SCREAMS for the 14 year old version of me."--Director, Tim Sullivan

The above quote perfectly surmises what to expect from this amateurishly retarded, hopelessly shoddy movie that does in fact look to have been made by 14 year olds. For what its worth, I'm foregoing my usual synopsis and just say that the Maniacs go on the road by bringing the South to the North with a poverty row traveling carnival act. They trap a group of obnoxious, beyond brain dead young adults working on an even more impoverished reality show modeled on THE SIMPLE LIFE. The ribbing of Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, a jab at our current President, a literal rendition of "Brokeback Mountain" and a cannibalistic recreation of The Last Supper is about as intelligent (I use the term lightly here) as this movie gets. Now on to the review, ya'll!

"Come get a taste of the old South...and let the old South, get a taste a you!"

FIELD OF SCREAMS is a stunningly awful horror-ible movie, a sequel to 2005's 2001 MANIACS, a movie I wasn't all that high on to begin with. The director, Tim Sullivan, obviously has an enormous amount of enthusiasm for this material, but all it translates to onscreen is a vastly childish, irrepressibly nonsensical celluloid puke stain. It makes any Troma picture look like Masterpiece Theater by comparison. Easily the worst movie I've seen this year, it triumphantly trumps the malignant mess that was CABIN FEVER 2 (put your year here since it sat on a shelf for several of them). At least that movie started out with some semblance of cohesion.

If you ever wanted to see Bill Moseley and Lin Shaye have simulated sex, it's in there, pardner!

And then there's this...!

Here, it starts out like a child's weekend project and ends...well, hell, I only got through the first 30 minutes. Guess I should try and sustain my patience and sanity and soldier on through this migraine inducing movie, this gutter spooge of mountainous proportions. Be back shortly....


....Okay, I finally managed to get to THE END, but I think I'd rather drink curdled milk if ever given the option of seeing this again, or even a third entry in this increasingly infantile "franchise".

What a creative camera angle. You can see the bright "sun" just above those two "mountains".

I love how DVD's have these disclaimers before the actual movie that states "Interviews and commentaries do not reflect the opinions of such and such individuals." When it comes to the actual content of some of the movies themselves, such as the one being reviewed here, these DVD companies should alter that to "Productions like this do not reflect what we'd normally put out, we're just doing somebody a favor." Maybe even calling 2001 MANIACS: FIELD OF STEAMING PILES OF SHIT an actual "production" is giving it entirely too much respectability.


Originally titled, 2001 MANIACS: THE BEVERLY HELLBILLY'S, that version of the film was to have been too much of a monetary undertaking, so what we got is this even less inspiring, frequently offensive and infrequently funny moron movie. Robert Englund wisely chose to decline reprising his role as Mayor Buckman possibly either due to the lower budget, or the lousy script.

This ridiculous cun-traption is what passes for a creative kill in this movie

The very first screen credit, which speaks volumes about what you are about to see, reads, 'Social Capital Films in association with Tax Credit Finance presents'. This movie reminds me a lot of the dozens of under budgeted shot on video shit heaps that were unloaded on video store shelves back in the 1980's. No doubt the director loves this stuff and had good intentions, but none of that translates in this movie at all, at least not to me. Please, please, Tax Credit Finance, if there is to be a third chapter in this, dare I say, "franchise", please, I implore you to lend the filmmakers a few hundred extra dollars to realize their vision, ever how blurry, or blind it may be.


Also, this isn't a foreign film that needs to be dubbed in various languages for export. This picture, which, forgiving the fact that its budget looks like it wouldn't cover a car rental for a couple weeks, appears to have been dubbed. The audio itself seems to fluctuate from one scene to the next--loud one minute, then slightly muffled the next.

Lin Shaye and her girls get 'Physical'.

The director says in the 'making of' on the disc that he sees this as a "horror comedy...a gag a minute...laugh a minute..." Well....there's lots of horror, only not the horror you expect from a bonafide 'horror' movie. There's no real comedy here, nor gags, nor laughs. Maybe I have no real sense of humor, but what passes for comedy here is incredibly juvenile and painfully strained. There's one, or two minor moments that brought about a slight giggle, but there's virtually NOTHING here that redeems the notion of actually buying this movie. If I were a religious person, I'd say "Thank God I didn't buy this garbage!" Personally, it's not even worth the $3.00 rental I plopped down for it last night. I wouldn't have even bothered doing a review for it were it not for 'The Dis List' being neglected as of late. At least my viewing last night of THE LOSERS (2010) was a winner.


No doubt this picture will incur brain rot, so approach with extreme caution. The director refers to this film as the representation of exploitation, or grindhouse cinema. While it's definitely un-PC, filled with sometimes sloppy, yet splattery gore and XXXploitation, his comments are pretty much an insult to those damned daring, savage and salacious shockers of a bygone era in my view. Incidentally, the film does trot out the barrel gore gag from the Herschell Gordon Lewis 1964 original and poorly recreates it here. Speaking of that, how 'bout simply rewatching that one again? It's far more successful handling this material than either of these two incarnations could ever hope to be.

Would you accept an invite to a barbecue from these three? Only if the proceeds went to the budget of a third film and if said budget was moderately higher than $35.

If similar wastes of film such as BLACK DEVIL DOLL (2007;whose makers seem to have intentionally forgotten to mention the awful 1984 original movie they ripped off) tickle your funny bone, then 2001 MANIACS: FIELD OF SCREAMS (2010) is just the ticket for you. Otherwise, take the "Detore" clear away from this movie and heed the words of director, Tim Sullivan, "If you don't like my movie, kiss my Dixie!"

This review is representative of the First Look DVD