2001 Maniacs Field of Screams Extreme Edition   Starring: Bill Moseley, Lin Shaye, Christa Campbell, Andrea Leon and Nivek Ogre Anchor Bay Films RRP: £15.99 ABD4790 Certificate: 18 Available 26 July 2010

In retribution for the innocent victims slaughtered during the American Civil War, an extended family of Confederates lures Yankees from the North to a series of inventive and gruesome deaths. But when the victims dry up, they decide to take their enticing mini carnival on the road. Enter a young amateur film crew, looking for unusual and exciting footage for their two star models. Outwardly friendly and inviting - if more than a little creepy - the family of Southern cannibals dispatches their 'audience' one by one, until the final few are forced to go on the run in a twisted act of sport...

If I were obliged to make a truly awful, tedious and clichéd movie, I'm pretty certain I would make this one. The central theme of eye-for-an-eye revenge for a massacre from history appears to be lifted directly from the Graham Masterton 1970s bestselling horror novel, The Manitou - wherein a powerful Red Indian medicine man resurrects himself with plans to kill the same number of white men as there were redskins slaughtered many years before.

This film makes an attempt to balance horror, sex and humour, a tenuous exercise with this trio which barely succeeds. As far as the horror is concerned, we get to view a number of set-piece killings - including the James Bond circular saw between the legs done to the point of blatant splatter - but I have to wonder at the justification, considering the plan is simply to kill unfortunate victims from the north and eat them for dinner! Although there are undoubtedly some lovely ladies in this movie, the teen sex moments achieve little to progress the plot - the only conducive moment being the chastity belt with teeth, used as an exponent to forcibly remove a gun shot victim's face. The humour is almost universally childish and silly; the only moment which made me smile is the family dinner consisting of recent body parts. One character is eating the flesh from a hand which still has the middle finger raised defiantly.

There are many who would argue that 2001 Maniacs is a competently constructed piece of entertainment; however, I'm not a fan of 2000 Maniacs and I certainly found significantly little to appreciate in this one. Extra include a Making of... documentary, and a trailer.

3

Ty Power