If you don't want to hear me ramble on about herpetology, you can go ahead and stop reading. The film has a title card in the beginning that explains "All reptiles in the film are real". Well yes they are, but apart from the King Cobra, the snakes are all mislabeled. Now, obviously this was done to protect the actors from being bitten by venomous snakes on the set, but for someone like me who takes it seriously, it's really irritating. With all that aside though, the film has a pretty ridiculous plot, some crazy dude wants to turn people into snakes. Yes, into snakes. The movie would be more watchable if he was trying to turn them into say, half reptilian humanoids, but no, this guy wants them to actually become snakes, identical to the ones he has in his lab. Now that's just weird. I won't lie, when the guy who was only "half snake" was found at the circus show, his obvious state of pain and misery was really heart renching. Decent acting, decent movie, but could use some work.

Demented herpetologist Dr Carl Stoner (Martin) develops a serum capable of transforming human beings into King Cobras, whilst ostensibly conducting neurotoxin research for the local university. With his research grant under threat from rival academic nemesis (Shull), Dr. Stoner must take matters into his own hands to secure the birth of his penultimate mutation – arousing the suspicions of his somewhat bookish daughter (Menzies) who has fallen for his unfortunate intern cum guinea pig.Taut little shocker succeeds with marvellous make-up effects (courtesy of John Chambers), convincing action sequences, and, particularly good characterisations from the versatile cast. Martin is superb as the reclusive, brilliant but ultimately disturbed scientist, spellbound by his King Cobra's majestic superiority, and possessed to find the formula to transform man into snake. Benedict (future "Battlestar Gallactica" and "The A-Team" star) is also good as his ill-fated assistant, while veterans Jack Ging and Richard B.Shull provide contrasting characterisations amply in support.Whilst the film's climax requires a fair amount of creative latitude to be appreciated, it's the gradual transformation and constant obstacles that generate the most interest throughout the film. Benedict's character suffers from a major case of minor hero worshipping of the eminent snake doctor, leading him to almost blindly accept painful inoculations that cause strange abnormalities to emerge with each lethal injection. With his naïve assistant plagued by severe, chronic dermatitis and deformation of the facial features, the spectre of being discovered becomes too intense for the usually mild-mannered doctor, and he employs his deadly black mamba to full effect on those who threaten the success of his deranged experiments.Made on a b-grade budget, the sets are simple but realistic, the outdoor shots garish, with a truly seventies surrealist hallucination scene, intelligent dialogue and memorable music. Overall, if you can suspend disbelief for an hour-and-a-half, you'll be well entertained with "Sssssss".

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 ****

"SSSSSSS" is an interesting but ultimately too slow creature feature.**SPOILERS**Eager to continue his research, Dr. Carl Stoner, (Strother Martin) asks old friend Dr. Daniels, (Richard B. Shull) to recommend a student for an assistant, and selects David Blake, (Dirk Benedict) for the purpose. Meeting with his daughter Kristina, (Heather Menzies) in their lab, and witnesses a public display for the group. As he continues to work in the lab, he begins to worry about the constant inoculations and treatments and tries to begin a relationship with Kristina. As he begins to secretly transform into a snake, he tries to hide it from her, and when the transformation finishes he looks less and less like his former self.The Good News: There really wasn't a whole lot here, and what's here isn't that bad. The film's main claim to glory is the constant and continuous focus upon the snakes, and if they're a creep-factor for yourself, then this will undoubtedly feature a lot of moments that are pretty unsettling. There's plenty of time spent among them and around them, from handling them in their cages to researching them to milking them, and it'll be a little tense whenever those milking scenes occur as the anticipation of whether they're going to bite or not will really give some shivers. The main moment, though, is the sideshow display, which features a really big snake is let loose in front of a group of watchers and a display is put on with it in an attempt to milk it, and the constant use of it hissing and ducking whenever the hand comes near the head to grab it does have some unnerving quality to it. There are some individual scenes that are pretty good, such as the fight at the carnival which ends in a really unique fashion, or the bathroom attack, which is really creepy and is quite creative, being simple examples of it being entertaining without the focus on the snakes. The transformation isn't that bad and must've been really impressive back then, as the face itself, which doesn't have any snake-like features, to transform into a reasonable facsimile of one, is pretty impressive. It doesn't look that bad, and has some nice features to it.The Bad News: This really wasn't that impressive, and there's a couple reasons for that. The main one is that the film is very, very slow. It takes forever for something to happen, and aside from the two scenes above, it's really unspectacular when it does happen. The snake wrangle and milking scene does have a few tense moments but it does seem to drag out and on, taking twice as long as it should've been. The moments at action don't really come to pass and move along quite unspectacularly, and it moves onto something else. The only thing remotely considered action comes in the final minutes, and then it just ends. There's really no set-up or anything, the action starts, then finishes and then the film just ends. It's quite unremarkable and seems weird. The film's other fatal flaw is that, unless snakes creep you out, there's nothing of interest in the middle of the film. The middle is based around the concept of "snakes are creepy," and unless that applies to you, all the contact time with them won't register and it becomes an endless series of scenes that don't do anything other than induce boredom. Its not the kind of response a film really wants, but it's the one main flaw in the film. Otherwise, this wasn't bad, if only it would've moved along faster.The Final Verdict: This one really could've used a faster pace to be more interesting, since most of what's wrong is derived from that fatal flaw. It's still a cheap B-movie, so if that appeals to you, then give it a shot, there's nothing here that won't upset them, but those fearful of snakes are advised to seek caution, there's tons of time with them in the film.Today's Rating-PG-13: Violence and Brief rear Nudity