"...it may not have the 'tremendous production values' claimed by its maker but, technically, it's undeniably an advance on Blood Feast [1963], with a more literate script, varied and attractive locations (St. Cloud, Florida, now the site of Disneyworld), reasonable acting and relatively mobile camera. It's still extremely gory, however..."
- The Encyclopedia of Horror Movies, edited by Phil Hardy

"After the incredible Blood Feast, gore master H.G. Lewis made this unique look at Southern hospitality...The unsettlingly graphic effects still make it hard for many people to take."
- Michael Weldon, The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film

"2000 Maniacs is better than expected and not nearly as nasty as one is lead to believe...the imaginative staging of the set-pieces, suggests Lewis was a director of promise."
- The Camera Journal, from the Cambridge University film journal edited by Paul Sutton, 2007.
http://thecamerajournal.blogspot.com/2007/09/2000-maniacs.html

"There is an inspired lunacy in Two Thousand Maniacs!, a frantic madness that infiltrates nearly every aspect of this film...The film is actually more fun than frightening, a rootin' tootin' hee hawin' good time that, like Mountain Dew, will tickle your innards (as it slowly removes them...). When you have ghastly set pieces with names like "Old Teetering Rock" and "The Barrel Roll," you can tell that someone has their tongue firmly planted somewhere. Sure, they are still bloody and detailed, but they also smack of the gleefully extremist tone in place from the beginning."
- Judge Bill Gibron, DVD Verdict

"Two Thousand Maniacs! contains plenty of humor, courtesy of the colorful Southern characters. There's also a superb, banjo-fueled score (again by Lewis), including the super-catchy theme song (sung by Lewis!) with its chorus of `Yeeeee-ha! Oh, the South's gonna rise again!' Unfolding with the logic of a bad dream and blessed with fairly decent production values (relatively speaking, of course), Two Thousand Maniacs! is an unabashed classic of exploitation cinema. While Blood Feast is essential because it was the first gore film, Two Thousand Maniacs! is a must-see because it was the first great gore film."
– Reel.com review by Mike Gregory.
http://www.reel.com/movie.asp?MID=41356&PID=10082699&buy=closed&Tab=reviews&CID=18#tabs

"From its genuinely catchy theme song...to its effectively creepy ending, this is easily Herschell Gordon Lewis' best film. Lewis proves to be a much more assured filmmaker here, contributing some surprisingly good camerawork and an effective opening credits sequence."
– "The Horror Film", 1989 Cinebooks, Inc.

"This splatter update of Brigadoon succeeds in being genuinely sardonic, slickly paced, memorably scored and even downright entertaining...this is easily H.G.'s best effort, and even those disinclined to Lewis in particular, or gore in general, may well find this one as much fun as we did."
– "The Phantom's Ultimate Video Guide", The Phantom of the Movies, 1989 Dell Trade Paperback.

"This is by far the best of the Blood Trilogy...the story and the acting are slightly better in this one than in the others and the killings are "fun". They're surrealistic enough not to be believed and it's all done with a wink and nudge, unlike today's `this could happen to you' horror."
– The Digital Bits, review by Todd Doogan, 4/21/2000 http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviews/bloodtrilogy.html

"Though boasting marginally better production values and direction than its immediate predecessor, Blood Feast, the second part of the so-called Blood Trilogy produced by David Friedman and directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis is again a fundamentally awful film by conventional standards of good cinema, its primary raison d'être a willingness to push the boundaries of graphic gore."
- Kinocite, http://www.kinocite.co.uk/18/1889.php

"...there's a surprising amount of energy here most of the time, and I attribute this to a variety of reasons. For one thing, it wasn't produced by Lewis himself, and the budget was somewhat higher than is usually the case for his movies. But the biggest reasons may be the use of crowd scenes and the bluegrass music of the Pleasant Valley Boys; both of these elements add a marked energy to the proceedings."
– Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings, review by Dave Sindelar, 2/25/2007 http://www.scifilm.org/musing2023.html

"Two Thousand Maniacs! is a gem of a little film from 1964. It's got charm and gore and it's entertaining. How many films can say they have all 3? You'll keep humming the music once it's finished as well."
– Popcorn Pictures.co.uk http://www.popcornpictures.co.uk/tfilms/2000maniacs.shtml

"Two Thousand Maniacs! is usually spoken of as one of the best of Herschell Gordon Lewis's films because it has an unusual twist ending that gives it something more – a unique surprise that turns it into sort of a splatter version of Brigadoon (1954). Some of the anachronisms, like why the Confederates are driving around in 20th Century cars, are never adequately explained, nevertheless it is intriguing. Lewis himself also composes a truly amazing Confederate bluegrass song that acts as the film's theme. There is the usual bad acting for a Lewis film, although the show is fairly much stolen by Vincent Santo as the obnoxious kid Billy."
– Moria: The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review. http://www.moria.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3870Itemid=1

Compiled by Eric Weber