Books like 'Two Thousand Maniacs!'
Readers who enjoyed Two Thousand Maniacs! by Herschell Gordon Lewis also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
horror small town folk-horror rural
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The Cure of Souls by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAs high summer bakes the rich earth of north-east Herefordshire, dark shadows gather around a converted hopkiln where the last owner was savagely murdered. Though the local vicar dismisses claims by its current occupants that the place is haunted, their story is soon splashed over a Sunday newspaper—and Merrily Watkins is directed by the Bishop of Hereford to defuse this situation... -
![The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale]()
The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe narrator of The Bottoms is Harry Collins, an old man obsessively reflecting on certain key experiences of his childhood. In 1933, the year that forms the centerpiece of the narrative, Harry is 11 years old and living with his mother, father, and younger sister on a farm outside of Marvel Creek, Texas, near the Sabine River bottoms... -
![The Midwives by Duncan Ralston]()
The Midwives by Duncan Ralston
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA killer on the loose. A writer on the run. A town plagued by an ancient evil. On tour with his latest book, true crime writer Martin Savage discovers one of his most-dangerous subjects has escaped. The so-called "Witch Hunter," a delusional murderer of women and their unborn children, holds a deadly grudge. He'll stop at nothing to get his revenge, and destroy everything Martin cares about... -
![The Quiet Boy by Nick Antosca]()
The Quiet Boy by Nick Antosca
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsBut there was no Goldilocks in his story. There were only the Wolfs, who lived together in a cave above a town. Big Wolf, Middle Wolf, and Little Wolf. Big Wolf was a brute. Little Wolf was timid. Middle Wolf was the peacemaker... -
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![Blood and Water by J. David Osborne]()
Blood and Water by J. David Osborne
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAfter discovering a body in a local fishing hole, two brothers come to terms with their own poverty as they're inescapably drawn into a surreal world of dangerous criminals.Set against a rural Oklahoma backdrop, Blood and Water is a story of family responsibility, the lure of easy outs and even easier scores, and our own violent impulses... -
![The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor]()
The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsAn unconventional vicar moves to a remote corner of the English countryside, only to discover a community haunted by death and disappearances both past and present--and intent on keeping its dark secrets--in this explosive, unsettling thriller from acclaimed author C. J. Tudor.Welcome to Chapel Croft. Five hundred years ago, eight protestant martyrs were burned at the stake here... -
![Ghost on Black Mountain by Ann Hite]()
Ghost on Black Mountain by Ann Hite
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsONCE A PERSON LEAVES THE MOUNTAIN, THEY NEVER COME BACK, NOT REALLY. THEY’RE LOST FOREVER. Nellie Clay married Hobbs Pritchard without even noticing he was a spell conjured into a man, a walking, talking ghost story. But her mama knew. She saw it in her tea leaves: death. Folks told Nellie to get off the mountain while she could, to go back home before it was too late... -
![Eternity by Tamara Thorne]()
Eternity by Tamara Thorne
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIf you always wanted to see Dexter visit Eureka or Haven, the small town of Eternity is the place for you to be.WELCOME TO ETERNITYA LITTLE BIT OF HELL ON EARTHWhen Zach Tully leaves Los Angeles to take over as sheriff of Eternity, a tiny mountain town in northern California, he's expecting to find peace and quiet in his own private Mayberry. But he's in for a surprise... -
![The Other by Thomas Tryon]()
The Other by Thomas Tryon
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsEntranced and terrified, the reader of The Other is swept up in the life of a Connecticut country town in the thirties—and in the fearful mysteries that slowly darken and overwhelm it.Originally published in 1971, The Other is one of the most influential horror novels ever written... -
![Blood Harvest by Sharon J. Bolton]()
Blood Harvest by Sharon J. Bolton
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsShe's been watching us for a while now...Now you see herGillian is haunted by the disappearance of her little girl two years ago. A devastating fire burned down their home, but she remains convinced her daughter survived.Now you don'tTen-year-old Tom lives by a neglected church... -
![Candlenight by Phil Rickman]()
Candlenight by Phil Rickman
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsJournalist Giles Freeman and his wife Claire are thrilled when they inherit a cottage far from the noise of the city. And though the locals are slow to welcome them, the Freemans believe that in time they will be accepted. But the Freemans have fallen under an ancient Celtic curse--and soon they will learn the truth about what it means to be outsiders. HC: Pan (UK)... -
![Devil's Creek by Todd Keisling]()
Devil's Creek by Todd Keisling
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGIVE US THAT OLD-TIME RELIGIONAbout fifteen miles west of Stauford, Kentucky lies Devil’s Creek. According to local legend, there used to be a church out there, home to the Lord’s Church of Holy Voices—a death cult where Jacob Masters preached the gospel of a nameless god.And like most legends, there’s truth buried among the roots and bones... -
![The Fog by Dennis Etchison]()
The Fog by Dennis Etchison
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA novelization of the 1980 John Carpenter film.From the back cover...Tonight the fog that rises off the California coast is different. And deadly. A writhing icy mist pulsing with terror. It is too late to escape. Even now the people of Antonio Bay are cut off, engulfed. Along darkened streets, death searches them out. There is no sanctuary for the living. Those who are doomed will die horribly... -
![Sacrifice by Sharon J. Bolton]()
Sacrifice by Sharon J. Bolton
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn this masterful debut that starts off as a mystery and becomes much more, Tora Hamilton is an outsider at her new home on the rocky, wind-swept Shetland Islands, a hundred miles from the northeastern tip of Scotland. Though her husband grew up here, it’s the first time he’s been back in twenty years... -
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![The Wine of Angels by Phil Rickman]()
The Wine of Angels by Phil Rickman
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe first in the historically rich, atmospheric mystery series featuring female exorcist Reverend Merrily WatkinsThe new vicar had never wanted a picture-postcard parish—or a huge and haunted vicarage... -
![Bone White by Ronald Malfi]()
Bone White by Ronald Malfi
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA landscape of frozen darkness punctuated by grim, gray days. The feeling like a buzz in your teeth.The scrape of bone on bone. . .Paul Gallo saw the report on the news: a mass murderer leading police to his victims graves, in remote Dread's Hand, Alaska.It's not even a town; more like the bad memory of a town. The same bit of wilderness where his twin brother went missing a year ago... -
![Hollow Girls by Jessica Drake-Thomas]()
Hollow Girls by Jessica Drake-Thomas
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTwenty four years ago, Olive and Stacia went into the woods. Only Olive returned. She does not remember what happened after she followed Stacia into a cave in the woods. Now, Olive's father has vanished, leaving behind research which indicates that he has found out what lives in the woods. It wakes up every twelve years, taking only children. It has been doing so for at least two hundred years... -
![The Creeper by A.M. Shine]()
The Creeper by A.M. Shine
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSuperstitions only survive if people believe in them...Renowned academic Dr Sparling seeks help with his project on a remote Irish village. Historical researchers Ben and Chloe are thrilled to be chosen—until they arrive...The village is isolated and forgotten. There is no record of its history, its stories. There is no friendliness from the locals, only wary looks and whispers... -
![The Storycatcher by Ann Hite]()
The Storycatcher by Ann Hite
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsShelly Parker never much liked Faith Dobbins, the uppity way that girl bossed her around. But they had more in common than she knew. Shelly tried to ignore the haints that warned her Faith’s tyrannical father, Pastor Dobbins, was a devil in disguise. But when Faith started acting strange, Shelly couldn’t avoid the past—not anymore... -
![The Wicker Man by Robin Hardy, Anthony Shaffer]()
The Wicker Man by Robin Hardy, Anthony Shaffer
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFirst published in 1978, five years after the release of the classic horror film from which it is adapted, The Wicker Man is a gripping horror classic.It is the tale of Highlands policeman, Police Sergeant Neil Howie, on the trail of a missing girl being lured to the remote Scottish island of Summerisle. As May Day approaches, strange, shamanistic and erotic events erupt around him... -
![Mr. Hands by Gary A. Braunbeck]()
Mr. Hands by Gary A. Braunbeck
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIncludes The Bonus Novella Kiss of The MudmanIt was an odd doll, carved out of wood, with stubby legs but long arms and huge hands. So little Sarah named it Mr. Hands. She loved that doll. . . until the day she was murdered. Now her mother, Lucy, has discovered something amazing about her daughter's doll - it allows her to control another Mr. Hands. But this one is no doll... -
![A Wee Dose of Death by Fran Stewart]()
A Wee Dose of Death by Fran Stewart
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA second dose of Scottish charm from the author of A Wee Murder in My Shop. While business is booming at the ScotShop in Hamelin, Vermont, proprietor Peggy Winn doesn’t have time to toast her good fortune thanks to her hot-tempered, fourteenth-century Scottish companion... -
![Brodmaw Bay by F.G. Cottam]()
Brodmaw Bay by F.G. Cottam
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAnother masterpiece of suspense from the author of the acclaimed The House of Lost Souls It's the perfect seaside village—no crime, no one from the city. When things start to go badly wrong for James Greer in London, Brodmaw Bay seems to be calling him and his family... -
![Conjuring the Witch by Jessica Leonard]()
Conjuring the Witch by Jessica Leonard
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThere are witches in the woods. These are the words the reverend of the Lilin Assembly of Our Lord repeats to his parishioners each week. Steve and Nicole Warby think it’s just a metaphor, until Nicole takes a walk in those woods and comes back changed... -
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![The Forest by Lisa Quigley]()
The Forest by Lisa Quigley
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEveryone in Edgewood believes their annual tithes at the fall festival are what purchase Edgewood’s safety, but as Faye and her husband prepare to take over as town stewards—a long tradition carried out by her family for generations—they learn the terrible in order to guarantee the town’s safety, the forest demands an unthinkable sacrifice... -
![Cast a Cold Eye by Alan Ryan]()
Cast a Cold Eye by Alan Ryan
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJack Quinlan, an American writer, travels to a small village in the remote western part of Ireland to research a book on the Irish Famine. The quiet, picturesque village seems just the place to spend a few months writing, but beneath its placid exterior lurk dark secrets... -
![Coffin County by Gary A. Braunbeck]()
Coffin County by Gary A. Braunbeck
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe small town of Cedar Hill is no stranger to tragedy and terror. Nearly two centuries ago, when the area was first settled, a gruesome mass murder baptized the town with blood. More recently there was the Great Fire, the notorious night the casket factory burned down, taking an entire neighborhood with it... -
![The Pariah by Graham Masterton, Ian Porter]()
The Pariah by Graham Masterton, Ian Porter
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe quaint little seaside town of Granitehead seemed like a perfect place for John and Jane Trenton to start their life together. But disaster strikes and Jane and their unborn child is killed. John’s grief is total, so when he starts to see the ghostly apparition of his wife he almost welcomes this supernatural phenomenon... -
![Ivy Cole and the Moon by Gina Farago]()
Ivy Cole and the Moon by Gina Farago
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIvy Cole has returned home to her North Carolina community with a special gift that erupts in howling on full-moon nights, and makes her judge, jury, and executioner. As Ivy says, "sometimes folks deserve a good killing." But this night, something wants her dead as well... -
![Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon]()
Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon
Rated: 3.85 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsOne of the touchstone horror novels of the 1970s, Harvest Home was Thomas Tryon's second novel and was published to wide critical and commercial acclaim. This new edition features the original color dust jacket art by Paul Bacon, new interior works by Alex McVey, a new introduction by Tim Curran, and an afterword by a number of Tryon associates... -
![The Auctioneer by Joan Samson, Grady Hendrix]()
The Auctioneer by Joan Samson, Grady Hendrix
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOne of the finest and best-selling horror novels of the 1970s returns at last to chill a new generation of readers In the isolated farming community of Harlowe, New Hampshire, where life has changed little over the past several decades, John Moore and his wife Mim work the land that has been in his family for generations... -
![American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett]()
American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett
Rated: 3.78 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSome places are too good to be true. Under a pink moon, there is a perfect little town not found on any map. In that town, there are quiet streets lined with pretty houses, houses that conceal the strangest things. After a couple years of hard traveling, ex-cop Mona Bright inherits her long-dead mother's home in Wink, New Mexico... -
![Sineater by Elizabeth Massie]()
Sineater by Elizabeth Massie
Rated: 3.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAccording to legend, the sineater is a dark and mysterious figure of the night, condemned to live alone in the woods, who devours food from the chests of the dead to allow them to ascend to heaven. To look upon the sineater is to see the face of all the evil he has eaten, and to become insane with the overwhelming presence of sin... -
![Crimson by Gord Rollo]()
Crimson by Gord Rollo
Rated: 3.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe small town of Dunnville is no stranger to fear. Evil has stalked its dark streets once before, twenty years ago, leaving in its wake a legacy of blood and madness. These days, no one in the town likes to talk about it much. Some folks deny it ever happened....But four boyhood friends are about to discover the truth, though no one will believe them... -
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![Spider Light by Sarah Rayne]()
Spider Light by Sarah Rayne
Rated: 3.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"The dangerous thing about spider light is that it hides things - things you never knew existed. But once you have seen those things, you can never afterwards forget them..."Antonia Weston has come to the sleepy market town of Amberwood in search of peace and anonymity after a shattering and all-too-public tragedy in her life... -
![Dead & Buried by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro]()
Dead & Buried by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHe thought dead men told no tales...The murders were bad enough but what Sheriff Dan Gillis couldn't understand were the newcomers to Porter's Bluff, and their eerie resemblance to people he had seen dead and buried.He couldn't tell Janet, because even his beautiful wife was acting strangely lately... -
![Walking Through Needles by Heather Levy]()
Walking Through Needles by Heather Levy
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA riveting, dark debut psychological thriller perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn, S.J. Watson, and Megan Abbott.When Sam Mayfair was sixteen, her life was shattered by an abuser close to her. News of her abuser's murder fifteen years later should have put an end to the torture she's endured because of one decision plaguing her life... -
![Winter Water by Susanne Jansson]()
Winter Water by Susanne Jansson
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn atmospheric and compelling Swedish suspense of a parent's greatest fear realized, written by a master storyteller. Martin, who has always been drawn to the ocean, moves his wife Alexandra and their two young children to his family's idyllic summer cottage in the picturesque island village of Orust, on the west coast of Sweden... -
![The Orchard by Charles L. Grant, David Mann]()
The Orchard by Charles L. Grant, David Mann
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA warm evening in Oxrun Station - a lovely time for a picnic.If only they hadn't chosen to visit the orchard...It was the last lovely time. The first death seems to be an accident.But there's no doubt about the suicide, or the mutilation murder, or the horror that seizes the movie theater, or the terror that inhabits the hospital...All are the fruits of that night in the orchard... -
![The Wyrm by Stephen Laws]()
The Wyrm by Stephen Laws
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn a small town, mysterious forces try to protect the gallows from being torn down as an evil entity possesses the bodies of the living... -
![The Curse of Crow Hollow by Billy Coffey]()
The Curse of Crow Hollow by Billy Coffey
Rated: 3.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsStories are told of a witch who lives in the woods outside of town. But where does truth end and legend begin?A group of teenagers find strange prints seared into the ground around their campsite. They follow the tracks, thinking it will lead to fun.But it doesn't. They eventually arrive at the edge of Alvaretta Graves's property--house of the legendary Riverwood Witch... -
![Maynard's House by Herman Raucher]()
Maynard's House by Herman Raucher
Rated: 3.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAustin Fletcher, a disturbed young Vietnam War vet, is willed a small house deep in the woods of northern Maine. He comes to own it by the generosity of a brother-in-arms—a fellow soldier and confidante, Maynard Whittier, killed in action by a wayward mortar shell. The rugged landscape of Maine is an intoxicating blend of claustrophobic interiors and endless frozen wastelands... -
![The Bog by Michael Talbot]()
The Bog by Michael Talbot
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsHovern Bog. People live in terror of it-especially the residents of Fenchurch St. Jude, the little village located at its edge. They think of it as a living being. They've seen it reach out with sinewy tentacles . . . to take, entangle, and digest. When 2000-year-old bodies are recovered from the bog, perfectly preserved, it is the discovery of a lifetime for archaeologist David Macauley... -
![Goat Dance by Douglas Clegg]()
Goat Dance by Douglas Clegg
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom Douglas Clegg, award-winning author of The Hour Before Dark and The Abandoned, comes a novel of unimaginable terror and heart-pounding suspense. What secrets lie within the ancient place known as the Goat Dance? A Haunted Lake . . . Seven-year-old Teddy Amory should have died that winter's day on Clear Lake, when she fell through the ice while skating with her older brother, Jake... -
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![The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh]()
The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh
Rated: 3.73 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsFor fans of Gillian Flynn and Daniel Woodrell, a dark, gripping debut novel of literary suspense about two mysterious disappearances, a generation apart, and the meaning of family-the sacrifices we make, the secrets we keep, and the lengths we will go to protect the ones we love... -
![Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge]()
Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge
Rated: 3.66 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsHalloween, 1963. They call him the October Boy, or Ol' Hacksaw Face, or Sawtooth Jack. Whatever the name, everybody in this small Midwestern town knows who he is. How he rises from the cornfields every Halloween, a butcher knife in his hand, and makes his way toward town, where gangs of teenage boys eagerly await their chance to confront the legendary nightmare... -
![The Night Country by Stewart O'Nan]()
The Night Country by Stewart O'Nan
Rated: 3.58 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAt Midnight on Halloween in a cloistered New England suburb, a car carrying five teenagers leaves a winding road and slams into a tree, killing three of them. One escapes unharmed, another suffers severe brain damage. A year later, summoned by the memories of those closest to them, the three that died come back on a last chilling mission among the living... -
![The Hour of the Oxrun Dead by Charles L. Grant, David Mann]()
The Hour of the Oxrun Dead by Charles L. Grant, David Mann
Rated: 3.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWELCOME TO OXRUN STATIONOxrun station could be a spooky place, especially out by the Windsors', right next to the graveyard. At night Natalie heard eerie sounds out in the fog, among the tombstones, unnatural sounds made by unearthly things. Natalie's husband had been born in Oxrun Station. He loved the town, and served it well - and in return it killed him... -
![Hallows Eve by Al Sarrantonio]()
Hallows Eve by Al Sarrantonio
Rated: 3.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA cemetery with ghosts rising like screaming tendrils of smoke from their graves...• Trick or Treaters whose goblin features are real, not costumes...• An army of Pumpkin Men...• They're all here and more, waiting for Corrie Phaeder to come home.. -
![Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman]()
Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman
Rated: 3.65 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFailed academic Frank Nichols and his wife, Eudora, have arrived in the sleepy Georgia town of Whitbrow, where Frank hopes to write a history of his family's old estate-the Savoyard Plantation- and the horrors that occurred there. At first, the quaint, rural ways of their new neighbors seem to be everything they wanted...
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