The boys have been chewed out by their mean American History professor, who, knowing the boys are goof-offs, still entrusts Nelson with his PowerPoint presentation on the devastation of the South by Union troops during the Civil War ... with predictable results. Unless the lads can rewrite their term papers on the Civil War by the end of spring break, they might be expelled, a fact that doesn't seem to dampen their hijinksy spirits.

On the way south, the boys meet gym-rat swingers Kat, Joey and Ricky. Due to a twist of fate that would make a rhesus monkey suspicious of a trap, all six wind up in Pleasant Valley, population 2001, a quaint little town deep in the Georgia woods that is holding a special celebration in Civil War period dress.

Mayor Buckman (Englund) is emcee for the festivities, and the Yankees are Pleasant Valley's extra-special, extra-honored guests, along with biker couple Malcolm and Leah. The good folks of Pleasant Valley seem intent on leading their guests off alone. The Yankees' numbers seem to be dwindling. And is that the smell of barbecue wafting over the dirt-paved streets of Pleasant Valley? And wasn't Pleasant Valley wiped out by Union troops more than a century ago? If so, the Yankees don't have a ghost of a chance!

As bland as cornbread from a mix

2001 Maniacs, a semi-sequel, semi-remake of Herschell Gordon Lewis' 1964 splatter groundbreaker Two Thousand Maniacs!, features lots of gore, gratuitous T&A and dumptrucks of sick humor. And it is painfully, astonishingly boring. What went wrong? What audience doesn't want to see a movie that gene-splices the best of Russ Meyer and Herschell Gordon Lewis (which seems to be the mission statement of this flick)? Gore, shots of topless, jiggly coeds and dumb jokes have entertained generations of red-blooded drive-in fans. 2001 Maniacs is a bitter and cruel betrayal of this glorious tradition.

The bashing of Southerners in this flick is tired and unimaginative; the characters refer to Deliverance just moments after the film itself quotes a scene from Deliverance. Anyone making a drinking game of this movie, knocking back a shot each time a character says "Yeee-haw!", would wind up in a Leaving Las Vegas-worthy state in a matter of hours. Regional stereotypes are fine and good in a work of cheeseball exploitation, but there's only so much redneck rampaging 87 minutes of film can withstand. The gleeful parody of 1987's classic Redneck Zombies felt much more whimsical and honest.

The cheap thrills of the movie, the gore, T&A and humor, all feel forced, thus squandering the great talent of stars like Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund, Lin Shaye and country-music bad boy Travis Tritt. 2001 Maniacs is so broad, and so farcical, that it can't really be good, clean antisocial fun. The smug cartoonishness of the execution makes all the proceedings seem contained and safe. What should have been a meat-and-potatoes guilty pleasure feels like a stale Slim Jim. From last summer. Dug out from under a car seat.