Entry 125: Sssssss (1973)

Sssssss (1973)

Dir: Bernard L. Kowalski

"Once this motion picture sinks its fangs into you, you'll never be the same."

 

I'm feeling a little cold blooded tonight, folks; better grab a sweater, bundle up and enjoy the 1973 fright flick Sssssss...Remember, "don't say it, HISS it!"

After his research assistant disappears under...*ahem*..."mysterious circumstances," herpetologist Dr. Carl Stoner (whose name will no doubt elicit endless guffaws from all your ganja-rocking buddies and who's played by Struther Martin, The Wild Bunch, Up in Smoke) hires grad student Dirk Benedict (TV's Battlestar Galactica and The A-Team) as his new assistant.  Benedict moves in to Martin's rural southern home, where he conducts mysterious experiments on reptiles and raises money for his research by treating tourists to a show in which he milks his prized possession, a huge Indian Cobra.  What Benedict doesn't realize is that Martin is a deranged coot who believes that reptiles are destined to inherit the earth, and that the "anti-venom serum" that Martin routinely injects him with is actually a mutagen designed to transform him into a snake.  Martin, in turn, doesn't count on the handsome-ass Benedict catching the eye of his twentysomething research assistant daughter, Kristina (Heather Menzies, Piranha, TV's Logan's Run), who has no idea of the more sinister agenda behind her father's work.  This raises the ire of her dumb, redneck, jock suitor, Steve (Reb motherfucking Brown, The Howling II, Space Mutiny, in a VERY early role), who retaliates by killing her favorite pet snake!  As Benedict and Menzies get closer and begin swapping spit, Martin uses venomous snakes to bump off Brown and a meddling colleague (Richard Shull, Klute, Cockfighter).  When Benedict and Menzies visit a traveling carnival, they encounter a pathetic, mewling reptile man in the freak show who makes them both uneasy.  When Benedict refuses to see her the next day on the grounds of sudden illness, Menzies returns to the carnival for a closer look at the haunting reptile man.  Back home, Benedict begins to rapidly mutate into a great-looking snake man (makeup effects courtesy of John Chambers, who had worked on the Planet of the Apes movies and would go on to do the prosthetic effects for Blade Runner).  When Menzies gets a good look at the circus freak snakeman's eyes, she recognizes her father's previous research assistant and rushes home to warn Benedict...But can she possibly make it in time?

Sssssss was a late-night local station staple when I was a kid, and it served as one of my earliest introductions to the lurid, sleazy, often downbeat world of 70s exploitation flicks, and for that I owe it a debt of gratitude.  It's a classic 50's mad scientist/creature feature retrofitted with a veneer of southern-gothic atmosphere and 70s cynicism (I remember the ending REALLY bumming me out as a kid).  It's got GREAT effects and director Kowalski (Attack of the Giant Leeches, Flight to Holocaust) creates a nice, ominous atmosphere shot through with rural weirdness.  The performances are solid, as well-Benedict is a fairly bland lead initially, but really pulls through in conveying his character's anguish in the final third of the movie.  Martin brings just a bit of sympathy to his role as a murderous madman in the Victor Frankenstein mold and Menzies...Well, as much as I wallow in nudity and degradation down here (this IS the Basement of Sleaze), it's nice to see a female lead in this type of film who isn't overtly sexualized or victimized; her character is ultimately defined by her brains, not her boobs (though Kowalski can't resist slipping one brief topless shot into the movie's sole love scene).  And it's DAMN fun to see Brown, several years before becoming a Z-grade action movie hero, bringing his...unique delivery and acting choices to a "douchy frat guy"-type role.  As an aside, Menzies would reunite on-screen with Brown six years later, playing the love interest to his Steve Rogers in the 1979 Captain America TV movie.

Sssssss is EXACTLY the kind of movie folks went to the drive-in hoping to see 40 years ago.  Those days are long gone, but there's no reason you can't have a blast watching it with a few friends...
Recommended!