Sssssss (1973) Reviews

• I hate snakes, but I love this film!

  Nightman852009-01-12

  A doctor who specializes in snakes develops a way to turn a human being into a king cobra! Will he use this on the college student who has just became his new assistant? Sssssss (love that campy title, that's seven S's folks) is an above-average man-becomes-creature horror film. The film is very well made and despite its seemingly cheesy premise actually creates itself an effectively serious tone. The story is intriguing, thanks largely to the likable and well-rounded characters, and builds to some terrifically chilling scenes as well as a nice show-down finale. The makeup effects are solidly created and genuinely creepy. The lovely music score by Patrick Williams is also a highlight. The cast is definitely one of the films best features. Veteran actor Strother Martin is excellent as he balances his performance between fatherly teacher and sinister scientist. Young Dirk Benedict is charming as Martin's young assistant and attractive Heather Menzies delivers a sincere performance as Martin's daughter, and Benedict's love interest. Also Reb Brown makes for a good bully. So, you don't have to like snakes to enjoy this intelligent old-fashioned horror tale. It's definitely one of the best of its kind and well worth catching for fans of old school B horror. *** 1/2 out of ****

• Still enjoyable after all these years.

  Bloody-Thumb2006-06-23

  I have fond memories of watching this film as a kid. So often those movies you enjoyed as a kid turn out to be trash when you watch them as an adult, but this was a rare case of a movie that managed to hold up. Sure it has it's faults, but nothing that can't be over looked. The plot is a bit silly, and the ending more so, but the way the movie is played you ignore the rampant over acting and outside of reality plot. Plus, the film doesn't seem aged. So many films from the Seventies look so out of place looking at them in modern times, but this film managed to avoid all of the trappings that put it out of time. It holds up amazingly well for a thirty plus year old movie. If you've seen this once and remember it fondly, i recommend a fresh look through grown up eyes.

• Clever Title, but it hurt Box Office

  g_man073022004-06-16

  Originally this was titled SSSSNAKE, but someone in Universal's publicity department thought SSSSSSS was clever. So the name was changed, and the movie did poorly in the theaters. In 1976, NBC acquired the rights to this film, and it became a sort of cult movie, growing stronger as VHS in 1997 and DVD in 2004 added fuel to the fire. This is basically your standard mad-doctor film. Strother Martin plays Dr Stoner, who believes man is doomed as a species. He wants to speed up man's evolution, and since the King Cobra is the deadliest creature on the planet, he wants man to evolve into the King. So he finds a college student to act as his assistant, and injects him with cobra venom (the student thinks the serum is an inoculation against snake bites). SPOILER ALERT ***** SPOILER ALERT **** SPOLIER ALERT **** For those of you you have seen the film, you know that the film ends on a freeze frame of Heather Menzies screaming as the David/Snake is killed by the mongoose. I've always thought this was a weak ending! If this movie is ever remade (as everything is these days), I hope the producers would consider this ending: Heather grabs the policeman's gun and shoots the mongoose. She saves David/Snake. Now that her father's dead, she runs the show on Sundays. She begins the show by saying: "The King Cobra is the deadliest creature on the planet. But I have a very special Cobra here" David slithers out. Heather pets David/Snake on the head. The crowd gasps in surprise. "He is a very special friend of mine".

• A mad doctor experimenting with snakes and humans with terrible consequences

  ma-cortes2007-01-15

  The film deals a mad doctor(Strother Martin),his former helper has disappeared and he asks to University professor(Richard B. Shull)a student. A young man called David (Richard Benedict)looking for employment is hired by the scientific.The doctor works a secrets experiments on snakes.Meanwhile David falls in love with his daughter(Heather Menzies).Then the ¨mad doctor¨ injects him a serum into becoming a King Cobra snake causing a horrible transformation. The motion picture packs horror,romance,shocks and is quite entertained. In the film appear known actors from the 70s and 80s as Dick Benedict(¨Galactica Battlestar,A Team¨),Strother Martin(Peckimpah's usual player:¨Wild bunch¨),Heather Menzies(Robert Urich wife and little girl actress in ¨Sound of music¨)and Reb Brown(a beefcake who played many hunk men vehicles). John Chambers provides a deliriously imaginative make-up ,he won an Academy Award by the classic ¨Planet of Apes¨and made the sequels among others films(Phantom of the paradise ans Island of Dr. Moreau).Executive producers are Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown ,short time after they produced the successful ¨Jaws¨to Steven Spielberg. The motion picture is well directed by Bernard L. Kowalski who worked with Roger Corman.Slick film aimed at youthful audiences and terror lovers.

• Sssssss

  Scarecrow-882007-04-24

  Doc Stoner(Strother Martin, who most know as the warden in COOL HAND Luke who utters the famous line, "What we got here is a failure to communicate.")who has grown quite mad over the years, injects an innocent, kind-hearted college student, David(Dirk Benedict;Face of A-TEAM fame)with an inoculation that is slowly turning him into a King Cobra. A missing student named Tim, we later find, was a tragic victim of Stoner's experiments in "tampering" with evolution so that civilization would continue after mankind was long past(..he's paranoid with the fact that mankind, as we know it, is certainly on the verge of collapse and extinction which fuels his obsessions with his work). What Stoner doesn't expect is that his daughter/assistant Kristina(Heather Menzies of PIRANHA fame)and David fall in love. Stoner, however, has grown diabolical and will kill one male behind the death of his pet snake and another quack doctor/professor, behind the school's granting him the annual grant that keeps his career going, who understands what he's up to regarding David, becoming lunch to his pet boa. Disturbing slow burning horror film works because we sympathize with David's eventual plight. He has no clue, at first, what the doctor is injecting him with. Also still, we witness David and Kristina's growing love for one another. But, the true terror is seeing poor David's agony and transformation as his insides and bone structure begin to shift. The make-up effects work well enough even if they are a bit hokey by today's standards. This film works more off the viewer's sympathies for the victim and what horrific lengths Stoner goes to see his work accomplished.