Fangs is an Egyptian remake/rip-off of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It starts off with a fairly close copy of the famous opening credits sequence, complete with the close-up of the lips. It even begins with the Egyptian Brad and Janet stand-ins getting stranded along the side of the road and going to a mysterious house. Heck, we even have film breaks with a criminologist who helps explain the plot.
Sadly, there’s no sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania. Instead, it’s just a lame dude who dresses like Dracula and looks like Erik Estrada. There’s no “Time Warp” either, but we do get a cool little disco theme with guys in vampire capes and KISS-inspired make-up.
Then, the wheels fall off. Fast. Real fast.
The scene that totally does the movie in occurs about halfway in where we see scenes of Brad and Janet living their lives, but the vampire keeps popping up to spoil things. His appearances are accompanied by music stolen from The Munsters, The Pink Panther, James Bond, and Jaws, among others. In fact, the further away it gets from its original inspiration, the worse it becomes. After the non-Rocky rip-off scenes (which MAYBE were supposed to be spoofing Egyptian TV shows and/or commercials, I’m not sure), it never recovers. Moments like Dracula’s rival donning a Rocky Horror shirt or the Hammer-inspired scenes of the vampire burning up in sunlight are amusing, but ultimately come up a day late and a dollar short.
This all might’ve been tolerable for an hour or so. However, it’s downright excruciating at an even one-hundred minutes. I’m sure a lot of the humor got lost in translation, but that doesn’t excuse the confusing narrative or the bad musical numbers. You may enjoy it more than I did, especially if you view it as its own thing and not strictly as a Rocky Horror rip-off. Then again, it’s telling when the moments that crib from RHPS are easily the best parts of the movie.
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