Sssssss (1973) Review

Sssssss (1973) Review

 

“Don’t say it, hiss it!” Given a title like Sssssss, which is one of the worst titles I can think of for a killer snake movie, I didn’t have much hope for this one. I always find killer animal movies that predate Jaws to be interesting, though, because Jaws had such an influence on all natural horror films to come in its wake. This one was of particular interest to me because it was the first-ever Zanuck/Brown production, and they produced Jaws only two years later. Having said that, the two movies barely share any commonalities.  

Dr. Stoner is a snake expert who recently had his assistant quit on him, so he’s in search of a replacement, and recruits a high school student named David to assist him in handling and studying the scaly serpents. His daughter Kristina helps him look after them and put on little shows for the public to raise money, but it’s a dangerous job—so dangerous, in fact, that Dr. Stoner has to give David multiple injections of snake venom so he can build up an immunity to them, in case he’s bitten, and there are many potential biters, including a massive King Cobra. David and Kristina begin to fall in love, and Dr. Stoner’s former assistant has seemingly disappeared. What, exactly, is really going on here?

The movie opens with Dr. Stoner giving some mysterious creature in a big crate to the host of a carnival side show, and we don’t see what’s in the box, but hear its strange whining cries. When Dr. Stoner first starts injecting David, it seems a little odd, but not overly so. Then about half an hour in, the mystery is suddenly obvious: Dr. Stoner is trying to turn David into a snake man! His transformation is subtle at first. His skin starts to peel, Kristina mentions his face looks a little different, but physically he seems unchanged. Then one morning, he wakes up and his whole face is scaly and flat! The morphing process kicks in real fast after that, and the makeup effects are actually pretty good.

Sssssss has a fairly standard plot of a mad scientist turning a man into a monster, but it’s actually a suspenseful tale, if a bit weird. It reminded me of The Fly remake, except the romance isn’t as compelling, and the mystery of what is happening to the test subject is intended to be kept secretive until late in the story, even though it’s obvious so early on. The concept still holds a fright factor, and a huge part of why it works is Strother Martin’s performance as Dr. Stoner. He’s mostly cool and collected, but a little unhinged, and trusting enough that you can buy into how someone could be tricked by him. He has a boa constrictor named Harry, doubling as his pet and his drinking buddy, and there’s a mongoose among his collection of snakes, which makes a horrible sound that starts to get unnerving after a while, and it’s constantly trying to get out of its cage. The repeated cutaways to this unsettled creature adds a surprising amount of tension.

There are some really funny aspects to Sssssss, too. At one point Kristina and David stop off at a lake and go skinny dipping, but the producers really wanted to achieve that PG rating, so avoided showing nudity by obscuring the actors with foliage…only the leaves look like they were painted right onto the camera lens. It’s like the gag in Austin Powers, only not trying to be funny or obvious. Most of the snake kills are funny, too. Dr. Stoner unleashes a black mamba on a jock while he’s in the shower, and the attack is shot in dramatic slow-motion, though not really to the desired effect. As funny as the kills are, though, the snakes do exude real menace, because they are all real snakes. There’s even a disclaimer at the start of the movie saying that the snakes used were real, with a thank-you to the places that lent them for the production. Only a couple instances of puppets are used in close-ups, but they don’t shatter the illusion much. I give them props for using real venomous snakes, but hopefully they weren’t actually harmed. As far as I could tell from reading online, none of them were, though at the end there’s a fight between a snake and the mongoose that looks a little too real.

Sssssss is a weird little seventies thriller, and it was just weird enough to keep me watching. It should be of interest to anyone who is a snake enthusiast, and/or enjoys schlocky horror from this era.