Snakey (The Slime People’s Les Tremayne) is a crotchety old snake handler who has the local kids round up mice to feed to his pet snakes. Their schoolteacher Cynthia (Bebe Kelly) really likes Snakey’s pet snake, Lucifer. And I mean she REALLY likes him! When the local grocer Sis (Alice Nunn, Large Marge from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure) and her sleazy brother (Bruce Kimball) catch wind of all this, they blackmail Cynthia and force her to call off the illicit relationship. After they kill Snakey’s beloved snake, he snaps and sets out to use his snakes to get revenge on those who’ve wronged him (which, fortunately for the audience is quite a few people).
This could’ve been an ordinary snake-themed revenge thriller (like, say… Stanley), but nothing about Holy Wednesday is ordinary. Just about everybody in this movie is a miserable old cuss. They almost feel like characters from a Coen Brothers movie, except the writing isn’t as good. Let’s take our main character, Snakey for example. He’s a John Philip Sousa super fan that gets drunk and blares “Stars and Stripes Forever” and rants about snakes and band music to anyone who’ll listen. Only in the ‘70s would you get this kind of psycho character and be expected to root for him.
The snake fucking scenes are handled with restraint. In the first sequence, all we see is Cynthia’s shadow on the wall, but we can easily get the gist of what’s going on. Heck, even the scene where she is gangbanged to death by snakes is tastefully done. (Now there’s a sentence I’d never thought I’d type.)
The movie is also surprisingly progressive. Cythnia’s predilection for snakes is presented without judgment. There is no kink shaming here, which is kind of refreshing. (There’s a great scene where we see her lying in bed and looking longingly at pictures of snakes.)
This was director Arthur A. Names’ only film. He worked in sound most of his career. He probably knew he couldn’t top this one. Better to quit while you’re ahead.
AKA: Fangs. AKA: Snakes. AKA: Snakelust.
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