Greetings, readers.  I’m going to tell you a little secret.   I love rednecks. What’s a redneck, you may ask? In standard parlance, a “redneck” is a semi-derogatory term for white, usually poor, rural laborers.  Someone who works in the blazing sun all day, and develops a “red neck” for it.  In more modern, stereotypical terms, a redneck is a white, poor-ish, rural American with a love of cheap beer (and Jack Daniels whiskey), NASCAR, firearms, and probably Republican in terms of political leaning, with at least one Confederate flag — even in the North.  Female rednecks are, stereotypically, barefoot, on their twelfth pregnancy, in cut-off denim shorts, with curlers in their hair and a cigarette perpetually dangling from ruby red lips.

In my worldly travels, though, I’ve discovered that there is in fact a “redneck spectrum” — from simply Blue Collar to full-blown inbred white trash.  And while I’m a college-educated Northern Suburbanite, I’ve had the good fortune to date a couple “redneck” country girls and experience life in their families.  I’ve helped out on a beef cattle farm owned by a girlfriend’s father, had firecrackers thrown into my lap, fired off a rifle at empty beer cans, and gotten mosquito bites in awkward-to-explain places due to more than a few backwoods “hikes.”

Now, I’m sure we’ve all experienced horror films that take something we love and turn it on it’s head, deriving horror from this reversal.  I understand Dan Aykroyd still cries a little bit every time he opens a bag of marshmallows.

So anyways, I got to thinking about this reversal at work today (I have very little else to occupy my mind there), and decided that, since I have a tendency to apply high-brow thinking to fairly low-brow subjects, I’d see how low-brow I could go in terms of subject matter.  And what’s lower-browed than your stereotypical murderous redneck? So without further ado, I present my top five list of favorite killer redneck flicks.

#5: REDNECK ZOMBIES (1987)

No discussion of redneck horror would be complete without Pericles Lewnes’ shot-on-video, straight-to-video, Troma Studios release.  Thing is, I’m actually not a big fan of this film.  I know it has it’s following, but I can’t number myself among them.  I’m not entirely sure why, but I actually fell asleep while watching this film.  Watching a film about redneck zombies in the middle of the afternoon, with a top-heavy gal curled against my arm, I fell asleep.  And that’s really biased my view of this film.  HOWEVER, this is a list of the top five killer redneck films I’ve seen, and truth be told, I haven’t seen too many of those.  I’ve seen quite a few horror films featuring rednecks, but oftentimes those rednecks are victims (i.e., Jake and Bobbi Jo in EVIL DEAD II) or no more than set-dressing to remind the viewer that the film is taking place in a rural area.  So as far as killer redneck films go, REDNECK ZOMBIES does still fall into my top five.

Regardless of my personal preference, REDNECK ZOMBIES is a major milestone in terms of independent cinema, being among the first to be shot on video, the zombie make-up is none too shabby, and the gore is pretty well handled.

#4: DELIVERANCE (1972)

Some might argue that this isn’t a horror film.  Some then, haven’t been sodomized by inbred hillbillies in the backwoods of Georgia.  In some ways, I’d call this the ultimate “survival horror” film for it’s plausibility and gritty realism.  From the Dueling Banjos sequence to the dream-sequence zombie hand in the concluding moments, DELIVERANCE never takes it’s icy hands off your lungs, leaving you to struggle to breathe as the words “Squeal like a piggy” drag like a rusty sawblade across every nerve ending in your body.  Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight and Ned Beatty all give outstanding performances, and this is probably the only film about murderous, rape-happy rednecks that will ever be selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

This is the film most people instantly think of when they think of killer redneck cinema.  And if you can find me one person who can drive through a densely-forested, rural area without humming the iconic “Dueling Banjos” tune, I’ve got a bottle of prime Kentucky Lightnin’ waiting for you.

#3: THE HILLS HAVE EYES (1977)

I was almost hesitant to include this film in this list, because I have trouble conceiving of Papa Jupiter’s clan of inbred cannibals as “rednecks.”  They’re so far past “white trash” on the spectrum that the spectrum would have to be extended considerably to fit them in.  However, as rural, unwashed, uncultured Americans, I think they can be shoehorned in.  Loosely inspired by the Scottish urban legend of Sawney Beane, a highwayman who raised an extended, incestuous brood of offspring on the flesh and cash of ambushed travelers until King James VI (who would later also become King James I of England, making him King James VI and I, marking the end of the Tudor Dynasty in England and the rise of the Stuart Dynasty) sent an army after him.  This story is of questionable validity, of course.

Michael Berryman really gives the show-stopping performance of a lifetime here as the bloodthirsty Pluto, and of course the film built upon the grindhouse success of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT in elevating Wes Craven’s directorial career.

#2: THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974)

Ahhh, the classic.  Along with PSYCHO, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE heavily influenced the “Slasher boom” of the late 1970s through the mid 1980s.  Purporting to be based on true events, the film is a grisly romp through rural Texas as a poor family deeply rooted in the meatpacking industry is forced to turn to cannibalism and murder to survive after their jobs are lost to increasing industrialization.  While extremely loosely based on real-life serial killer Ed Gein (almost every fictional serial killer is), the film is more about director Tobe Hooper seeing how far he can push the envelope.  Despite the title, only one person is killed via chainsaw and the film is surprisingly blood-light, relying more heavily on suspense and periodic shocks.

Of course, the film is perhaps most notable for the introduction of Leatherface, who, along with Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger, would prove to be one of the most enduring and lucrative slasher villains.

Now, you may be wondering, readers, what I could possibly rank as my favorite killer redneck film, above THE HILLS HAVE EYES, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and DELIVERANCE? Well, I won’t keep you in suspense any longer…

#1: TWO THOUSAND MANIACS! (1964)

A sleazy, low-budget blood-soaked shocker from the twisted mind of Godfather of Gore Herschell Gordon Lewis, TWO THOUSAND MANIACS! marks the second entry in his “Blood” Trilogy, sandwiched between BLOOD FEAST and COLOR ME BLOOD RED.  Inspired by the musical “Brigadoon,” of all the damned crazy things, TWO THOUSAND MANIACS! is the story of Pleasant Valley, Georgia, a little town celebrating it’s centennial, and inviting a group of Northern tourists to participate.  The tourists are murdered in increasingly inventive and gory ways, culminating in a dunk-tank like device that drops a boulder on a bound woman once the target is hit.  Two tourists manage to escape and learn that the “centennial” being celebrated was the massacre of the entire town and mutilation of every man, woman and child dwelling within by Northern soldiers during the American Civil War.  The ghosts of Pleasant Valley have returned on the 100th anniversary of their murder to exact retribution, blood for blood.

TWO THOUSAND MANIACS! garners the #1 place for being so damn cheerful and upbeat.  The inhabitants of Pleasant Valley remind me of redneck barbeques I’ve attended, populated by bushy mustaches, plaid flannel shirts and giant belt buckles with built in bottle openers.

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So there you have it.  My top five movies about killer rednecks.  Feel free to let me know why I’m wrong, if you’re so inclined, or let me know yours.  I’m always looking for more redneck flicks.

Tags: Blood, cannibal, Deliverance, exploitation, Gore, Grindhouse, H.G. Lewis, Horror, Horror Movie, Michael Berryman, Redneck Zombies, survival horror, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, Tobe Hooper, Troma, Two Thousand Maniacs!, Wes Craven