Snakes

The highlight of this undistinguished drive-in vehicle is the unchained ham-on-wheels performance by Les Tremayne as Snakey...an eccentric old codger who enjoys listening to marching band music, scaring the local bratty kids, and occasionally dispatching his pet snakes to rid his little town of its more unsavory denizens.

Enjoyable enough underdog rerun of the WILLARD idea with some uproariously bad dialog, and all the charmingly unextravagant production values we've come to love in regional cinema. Should you run across a copy of this obscurity, give it a whirl with the understanding that a "fun" movie doesn't necessarily need to be a "good" movie.

4/10

I recently watched Fangs (1974) on Shudder. The storyline follows an old hermit on the outskirts of town who keeps to himself and takes care of his pet snakes. When he's down on his luck and asks for help from the townspeople they turn their backs on him. He decides to use his snakes to go on a killing spree.

Directed by Art Names in his inaugural directorial project, the film stars Les Tremayne (War of the Worlds), Janet Wood (Foul Play), Bebe Kelly (The Streets of San Francisco), and Alice Nunn (Minnie Dearest).

This is a unique movie with a solid villain and premise. The soundtrack, cars, and cinematography authentically capture the era, providing a grindhouse vibe. There are captivating scenes, including some with dancing ladies. However, the snake bite scenes tend to be more comical than thrilling, often featuring characters in tighty whities pretending to be scared of snakes.

In conclusion, Fangs is a mediocre to bad addition to the horror genre. It has enough distinctive elements to engage genre enthusiasts, but the humorous snake scenes detract from its overall impact. I would rate it a 4/10 and recommend a one-time viewing.

Snakey Bender (played with offbeat charm by veteran character actor Les Tremayne) is a friendly, misunderstood eccentric psychopath who loses it after several strange characters push him over the edge. He decides to get even using his slithering serpents as instruments for revenge. FANGS (the name of the video I saw) refreshingly goes out of its way to be different, especially with an odd assortment of characters. A cheerful schoolteacher livens up her weeks by having sex with a huge blacksnake name Lucifer (shown in shadow). A redneck grocery store clerk and his obese lesbian sister try to seduce the teacher and kill one of Snakey's beloved pets. Snakey's former best friend, his much younger wife who's been cheating on him (Janet Wood), and a corrupt preacher (Marvin Kaplan) are other victims. He even keeps Wood tied to a chair and makes her watch as he kills everyone. Several of the murders (a hidden pit full of rattlesnakes, an interesting poisonous snake-in-a-barrel game) are bizarre and made even more bizarre because they're set to marching band music (!) The score of the film is actually credited to John Phillip Souza!

Score: 6 out of 10

I actually own this film. Why is a unique story in itself, but suffice to say, I found it to be a funny camp movie. Of course it's bad. It's made in the 70's with a $100 or so budget and employs all the locals around Oak Glen/Cherry Valley California. Hysterically funny every time Snakey drives the SAME CAR off the cliff and marches back to town. I am surprised this has not shown up in midnight movie houses complete with characters in costume.

Some familiar faces show up in this movie and while you've seen them before in bigger better flicks, there is no comparison for the "acting" job done here.

Why, doesn't every town in CA have an old codger who collects snakes from the local school children? Ya gotta love Snakey. Hey Snakes are people too!

A pretty memorable movie of the animals-killing-people variety, specifically similar to "Willard" in that it stars an aging character actor (in this case, a step down a bit to the level of Les Tremayne, who puts in the only distinguished performance I've seen him give) in a role as a man whose life is unbalanced and who subsequently decides to use his animal friends to exact revenge on those who have wronged him. Yes, this is one of those movies where pretty much everybody is despicable, so that you will cheer when they die, and really the selection of actors, locations, etc. couldn't be better at giving the film an atmosphere of shabby decadence.

Tremayne's character is "Snakey Bender", and he is certainly the most interesting thing about the movie: an aged snake collector who is obsessed with John Philip Souza's music. When the local preacher clamps down on his practice of collecting small animals from the local schoolchildren as bait for his snakes, and his friend gets married to a stripper (thus upsetting his ritual Wednesday night band concert) he goes on the rampage, in the process creating a memorable pile-up of clunkers beneath the cliff where he dumps the wrecks after disposing of their unfortunate owners. One amusing game you can play while watching "Snakes" is to place bets on which cars will land the farthest down the cliff.

All in all, very cheap and exploitative, but will really be a lot of fun for fans of these kinds of movies.