Sssssss

Plot synopsis:
The movie begins with Dr. Carl Stoner (Martin) selling a mysterious creature in a crate to a carnival owner. It is later discovered that the creature is actually part-man/part-snake, the result of one of Stoner's bizarre experiments. College student David Blake (Benedict) is hired as an assistant by Stoner, an ophiologist. It transpires that Stoner's previous assistant had mysteriously left town without telling anyone (Stoner explains that he had gone back home to attend to a sick relative).
Unbeknownst to David or anyone else, Stoner is a delusional man, convinced that humanity is doomed and is attempting to prepare for what he believes to be the inevitable by working out a method of transforming humans into reptiles that can survive pollution and any other ecological disaster that would wipe humanity out.
Stoner begins David on a course of injections, purportedly as a safeguard against being bitten by a snake in his lab. David's skin slowly starts to change and even peel like a snakeskin. He begins to have strange nightmares and goes into a coma when having dinner with Stoner and does not wake up until a few days later. He also begins to lose weight as well, but Stoner tells him those are side affects from the venom. David begins a romance with Stoner's daughter Kristina (Menzies), although her father objects and insists that she not have any sexual relations with him.
When David wakes up the next morning he looks in the mirror and looks in horror as he screams, so he calls Stoner. Later Dave, now fully dressed, is on the bed as he clenches his sheets with his hand as we see that his hand is grey and slightly scaly. Dr. Stoner arrives in the room and gives David a drink which he drinks but spits out. Inside the lab David, whose face is facing Stoner, begins to throb in confinement as Stoner tells David not to call the doctor as they will not know how to treat him. Then David begins to throb in pain feeling his stomach being twisted, so Stoner grabs another injection which David refuses to take, but Stoner says it will calm him, to which Stoner lifts his button shirt up and injects him. We also see scales on his chest. Meanwhile, a police officer arrives to inspect the property, and as David begins to get weaker, Stoner hides him in a corner, as he goes to take care of the officer. But David gets enough strength to walk to the window before resting his head, but when the officer arrives David lifts his head revealing his face to be green and very scaly, but before the officer can react Stoner knocks him out, and David walks from the window and collapses.
Kristina visits a carnival freak show and is horrified when she sees a bizarre "snake-man", whom she recognises as Stoner's previous assistant, Tim. Meanwhile, Stoner feeds the officer to his pet python. And as for David, David loses all strength from his legs and collapses and begins to move around like a snake before Stoner arrives.
Distraught, she races back home to save David who is currently mutating into a king cobra, brought about by the injections that Stoner has been giving him. Stoner is bitten by a real king cobra from his lab and dies, just as David's transformation is complete. Kristina arrives home and finds her father dead with the real cobra next to him. The police then arrive and shoot the king cobra before heading to the lab where a mongoose is attacking David's neck, attempting to kill him. But the police do not have a clear shot, and as Kristina screams David's name, the movie ends abruptly, leaving their fates uncertain.

Tags: revenge, cult, murder

Review:
A doctor who specializes in snakes develops a way to turn a human being into a king cobra!
Sssssss (love that campy title, that's seven S's folks) is an above-average man-becomes-creature horror film.
Also Reb Brown makes for a good bully.So, you don't have to like snakes to enjoy this intelligent old-fashioned horror tale.
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.
The film deals a mad doctor(Strother Martin),his former helper has disappeared and he asks to University professor(Richard B.
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).
Pretty silly horror movie about Dr. Carl Stoner (Strother Martin) who has perfected a drug that turns men into King Cobra snakes.
He wants to use it on young David Blaine (Dirk Benedict)...but his daughter (Heather Menzies) is falling in love with him.OK--the story is more than a little silly but this is fairly watchable.
They used real snakes in the film (as a statement at the beginning tells us) and just watching them is pretty interesting.
The acting helps--Martin is actually not bad as the doctor; Benedict (so young and handsome) is also pretty good as Blaine and Menzies overdoes it a little (particularly in an argument with Martin) but she's not bad.
But whether you love or hate snakes, wouldn't you agree that the snakes in this movie are/were more exciting to watch than the human actors?
Especially if you like to watch venomous snakes and specifically, King Cobras!I can't believe I sold my VHS copy of this movie at a pawn shop!
Well, Martin is the star of Sssssss(7 s's), and I must admit he is rather enjoyable to watch as a kindly, softspoken, insane, murderous herpetologist trying to save the human race by turning men into cobras.
Martin's over-the-top performance saves this film from being utterly mundane and makes it fun to watch..
After watching it recently, a little bit of that pent up fear was released -- although, I still can't stand snakes, not even to look at a picture of them in a book or anything -- except cobras, I really like cobras, now.Oh, well.
Granted, the story-line was a bit hokey, but just think what it could be like if they made a remake with really good special effects, really good horror movie actors, and a little bit of work on the script.Ssssssso long!.
SSSSSSS is not a great film by any stretch of the imagination; it is rather heavily flawed and definitely very silly, but it's also rather original, very inventive and certainly makes for an interesting watch, so the bad reputation is baffling!
Along with spiders and scorpions, snakes are another interesting animal that often finds itself a part of horror films, and SSSSSSS puts it's focus squarely on the scaly reptiles, in particular the impressive King Cobra.
The film obviously takes its influence from mad science horror films; in particular the likes of Frankenstein and puts snake twist on it.
However, unbeknown to David, the treatment is actually a plan by the not so good doctor to turn him into a King Cobra!
Much to the dismay of the doctor's young daughter...It is a silly story, but the way that it's portrayed is good in that it's always interesting.
The cast is good, with character actor Strother Martin managing to be both sinister and gentle at the same time.
Cult TV actor Dirk Benedict is at the centre of the cast as the unlucky medical student, while the cast is topped off by the beautiful cult actress Heather Menzies as the doctor's daughter.
At the start of the film we are told that all the snakes used are real snakes, and I can believe it as they do look real and they're also rather impressive - the King Cobra is the centrepiece, but a twenty foot long python also makes its impression!
Some of the special effects are decent, but not enough to carry a movie.Strother Martin plays a doctor working with grant money.
The doctor's daughter (Heather Menzies) falls in love with her father's current assistant (Dirk Benedict)and fails to stop the body change process.Familiar actors Tim O'Connor and Jack Ging also appear.
In my review of BUG (1975), I had written that I didn't have the courage to watch this title because of my fear of snakes; a mere 2 days later, I learned of its director's recent passing – so, I said to myself, slimy critters be damnednow's the time to check out this bugger!!
Besides, I never thought I'd say this but I actually came to like Strother Martin's pet snake Harry (with its fragile squeak, as opposed to the reptile's typical aggressive hiss, and penchant for alcohol – "Look sober, Harry!", advises Martin as disapproving daughter Heather Menzies arrives home) and felt sorry when it was killed.
These include: the opening scene involving a mysterious container, and the later revelation of its carrier as a carnival-show proprietor; the lecture given by the Professor about the subtle difference between two particular species of snake, and the quandary he finds himself in when a prisoner in Martin's basement; the isolation of a sick python, which eventually gets the better of the afore-mentioned Professor; Dirk Benedict drawing Heather Menzies' attention to the carnival Snake Boy's blue eyes (remarked upon again by a postal worker from town), which alerts her to the fate of Martin's former assistant; Benedict's contention over Menzies' grief at her favorite pet's demise – "Harry was just a snake!" – which, of course, takes new and ironic meaning when he starts turning into one himself; also, Martin's taking a rather unwise condescending attitude towards the cobra throughout – which, inevitably, sets up his painful come-uppance at the end.Martin is brilliantly cast: benign-looking yet utterly chilling when he's spouting the requisite mad doctor credo (by quoting the passage by Walt Whitman which also found its way in the contemporaneous THE WICKER MAN [1973] – though, in its case, available only in the "Extended Version").
Well, I have to hand it to all the actors here in showing this much commitment to their craft: it takes guts to act – and, with respect to Martin, sustain the necessary concentration to deliver quality work – around a plethora of deadly snakes (reportedly, Martin got bit for his troubles)!
Incidentally, the actor showed a surprising branching-out into horror roles during this period – THE BROTHERHOOD OF Satan (1971; which I own on DVD and is an even superior effort) came prior to SSSSSSS, while NIGHTWING (1979; with which I'm unfamiliar, but it doesn't seem to be readily available for appraisal) followed later on in the decade.Benedict is pretty bland at first, but his emotional breakdown – as the snake genes begin to take over his body – is reasonably convincing; true, it's kind of dumb of him to take so long to realize just what's really going on with his frequent inoculationsbut, then, who could have truthfully conceived of Martin's demented plan?!
The film, then, concludes abruptly on a freeze-frame of her screaming as she witnesses Benedict-as-cobra fighting a mongoose.John Chambers' make-up is remarkably effective in detailing the various stages of Benedict's 'affliction' (as well as the botched Snake Boy); however, it was disappointing that the metamorphosis from man into snake is so complete (the finalization process itself was pretty silly) – to the point where one can't tell the two cobras apart!
Actors know how to act and what to do, and that's very good for the movie.
The movie was shot in the beginning of Dirk Benedict's Career, so his performance not as good as it became later, but he was a very talented and promissing actor.
No snakes were harmed during the filming of this movie.
Before "Battlestar Galatica" or "The A-Team" Dirk Benedict does this horror movie dealing with snakes.
He meets a lab assistant(Strother Martin) who works with snakes who has a beautiful young daughter Kristina(Heather Menzies, before she married Robert Urich,1946-2002).
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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'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.
So this film has its good points, but a lot of bad points too.The story has a man who researches snake venom requesting a student at a local college to help him around his place.
The teacher lets him have one and you have to feel a bit for the guy as the researcher does not want to use him as an intern, but rather as the focus of an experiment to turn man into snake!
The researcher meets his end in utterly stupid fashion as he just has to talk down to his cobra face to face giving it multiple opportunities to bite him.The film features a few notable celebrities, the most notable being a young Dirk Benedict as the poor student who gets to be the researcher's assistant and Reb Brown who would go on to play in multiple B movies.
The scientist was played by Strother Martin who, while not a top guy, was in a large assortment of movies and television shows.
The make up effects are okay, but at the end they kind of go the cheap route, but then you can only use make up so much before the transformation into a snake can be made to look reasonably realistic.So it has some good points, but at the same time it has an equal number of bad, hence my score of five.
***SPOILERS*** A bit off the wall mad scientist,or herpetologist, movie about this harmless and kindly looking lunatic Dr. Carl Stoner, Strother Martin,who's come up with the bright idea of turning the human race into a half man half snake hybrid that will survive the terrors that nature and mankind has in store for it in the near future; pestilence famine and nuclear war.
As were told by Dr. Stoner in the movie snakes can survive many times as much radiation as humans can and eat once a month compared to people having to to eat three times a day.Experimenting in his lab Dr. Stoner did turn his assistant Tim McGraw, Nobel Carig, into a snake-man but it just didn't work out the way he planned it and had poor Tim taken away by this carnival owner Koger, Tim O'Connor,to become a part of his freak sideshow.
Getting a replacement for Tim Dr. Stoner gets collage student David Blake, Dick Benedict, who unfortunately for the good Doc has his mosey daughter Kristina, Hather Menzies, fall in love with him This as David is slowly being turned, through daily injections by Stoner, into a King Cobra.The movie slinks along with Kristina later getting involved with this gorilla-like, in mind as well as in body,collage football player Big Steve Randell, Reb Brown.
Harry old and not in the best of shape gets killed by the big ape who like the snake that he is slithers away from the Stoner residence and back to his collage dorm room.
While there he a good time with one of the many bimbo's who are just nuts about the big guy's psychical attributes.Grieving for sweet old Harry Dr. Stoner gets even with Big Steve by sneaking into his dorm room and, as he's taking a cold shower, slips a deadly African Black Mamba in the shower stall with him then quickly putting an end to Big Steve's future adventures forever.Back at the lab David slowly starts to turn into a snake-man that puts his affair with Kristina, who has no idea what's going on, on hold as he slowly mutates into a giant King Cobra.
The ending of the movie crosses into total insanity with Dr. Stoner, for reasons known only to himself, letting his prized King Cobra out on the lawn to have a game of tag with him only to get bitten by the killer snake and die!
Was this the directors bright idea of ending the movie?As David turns into a King Cobra a snake-killing mongoose thats in a cage in the lab breaks out and attacks Cobra/David.
The police who just shot and killed, by blowing it's head off, the King Cobra who killed Dr. Stoner break into the lab together with a hysterical Kristina who ends the movie screaming her head off as the closing credits start to roll.Worth watching only for the snakes in the movie who were both real and, in the case of the poisonous cobras mambas and pit vipers, un-fanged and not dangerous to the actors or stunt men, handling them.
The effects were impressive, although, I would like to see a snake man with arms.
"Dr. Carl Stoner" (Strother Martin) is a herpetologist who is working on a special serum and needs funding from the nearby university to continue.
When one of his lab assistants supposedly quits he finds a new one named "David Blake" (Dirk Benedict) who seems more than eager to help the kindly doctor as much as possible.
Also helping out is Dr. Stoner's daughter, "Kristina Stoner" (Heather Menzies) who seems to take a liking to David almost from the very beginning.
This is a one of those queasy low-budget downbeat horror films that proliferated in double features in the 1970s.Wacko herpetologist Strother Martin recruits college jock Dirk Benedict as a lab assistant in his work with snakes (ergo the title).
When not holding court over rodeo-style shows where he antagonizes a King Cobra to the amazement of a sparse handful of gawkers, Martin spends inordinate amounts of time in his lab - ostensibly doing work on creating antidotes for snake-bite victims.
Naturally, it does not take long for Benedict and Menzies to start making goo-goo eyes at each other, much to Martin's consternation.
Martin insists on injecting Benedict with a variety of serums, which he insists are standard for herpetology lab assistants.In fairness, the direction is fairly competent and there are some moments of suspense, which will probably be magnified for anyone with a fear of snakes.
What kills the film is that the storyline is so absurd and too much relies on characters acting stupidly – even more so than in the average horror flick.For instance early in the film, Benedict sheds a top layer of skin like a snake shedding its skin.
Shull who becomes suspicious when Martin starts limiting access to Benedict and strapping bully Reb Brown has designs on Menzies.
When Brown tries to sneak into Menzies bedroom and accidentally kills her harmless pet snake, you know his days are numbered.Character actor Martin takes the whole thing very seriously, which is not very helpful.