Snakes

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.

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

In FANGS (aka: SNAKES), Les Tremayne stars as Snakey Bender, the local snake seller in a small, rural town. This befuddles the town preacher, Brother Joy (Marvin Kaplan), to no end. Snakey has quite a surprising little side business with his writhing reptiles, and the womenfolk are... um... all worked up about it.

When Snakey's slithery friend, Lucifer the King Cobra is killed, it's payback time.

This is definitely one weird movie. The town appears to be an innocent place, but it sure has a darker, rather perverse side! In addition to the "house calls" of Snakey Bender, there's also the creepy duo of Sis and Bud Palmer (Alice "Large Marge" Nunn and Bruce Kimball), who both set their lascivious sights on the school teacher (Bebe Kelly).

The real action starts around the 40 minute mark, when murder and mayhem ensue. From this point on, things veer off into psycho-ville, in a good way. Watching Snakey's homicidal glee is a true wonder to behold! This is probably the best performance that Mr. Tremayne has ever given.

The Bottom Line: Do not mess with Snakey's Wednesday night routine!...

Ok well if you've come this far, you can't be expecting anything good. I can tell you this much though, I would file this movie under instant classic. Not a good movie, but there is something about it that you just can't put your finger on. Whether it be the ancient look of the film, or the band music that plays after Snakey Bender has given what is owed to those comrads who turn against him due to peer pressure. Also a bonus is Sis, perhaps she looks familiar and for good reasons. Take a peek at Large Marge in Pee-Wee's big adventure and you might notice some similarities. I do. Well its a fun night with Fangs so I would recommend it to you B-Movie fans.

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