Often retitled as Kobra because of its deliciously stupid – and super campy – original title of Ssssss!, this is one of the many killer animals/nature gets revengeance of the early 70s… or is it?
Remember, despite it predating Jaws, killer animal movies did exist, i mean, look at the often brought up Frogs, released a year before, so it would be fairly logical to assume Ssssss is just another one of these that just happened to release before Spielberg’s shark opus made it trendy, profitable and popular, doing it before “it became cool to”.
And yet, Ssssss is not really that, but more of a 50s movie done in the 70s, and is about a college student, David, working as lab assistant to a mad doctor that is working on a serum that can turn people into snakes. David also begins to fall in love with the scientist’s daughter, but the good doctor plans to test the serum on the boy, stupid enough to work for someone that unironically, legitimately is called Dr. Stoner.
I guess a sign of the times as much as the opening disclaimer that says
“All the snakes in this film are real.
The King Cobras were imported from Bangkok, the Python from Singapore.
We wish to thank the cast and crew for their courageous efforts while being exposed to extremely hazardous conditions. “
Still, not as bad as when Kingdom Of The Spiders gloated about killing thousand of arachnids.
In spite of the marketing and things like the aforementioned pre-movie postcard about the snakes being real, the movie it’s actually a neat surprise in the sense it does play the premise seriously, and – here comes the real shocker – it’s fairly subtle, all things considered.
The scientist isn’t presented as an obvious crackpot madman, at all, at first he comes off as a kind old man, maybe overzealous in his work, a little weird yet still fairly amiable, but he slowly show his hand and true intentions, with his speeches becoming more worrisome and gaining sinister undertones, while he truly believes he’s forced to do what he must for the betterment of men, despite the audience being aware he’s done some shady shit and he’s up to something crazy.
He feels like a real character instead of a bidimensional stereotype, even more as he’s forced to do some weird carny-ish demonstration/performance with the snakes to rustic audiences in order to get some very measly funds for his research, hard to not feel bad for him, and even the other characters come off as likeable or reasonable at worst, especially the student David as he slowly turns into a reptilian through and through, with some clearly low budget effects but still pulled off well, minimal but used when needed, like the final act reveal of David’s “lizardfos face”.
I’d still wish they had more budget to show in more detail David’s transformation, though.
Plus, gotta love a good ol school “tripping on acid” scene where they throw into the montage old medieval paintings of demons and hell, and as a bonus there’s some enviromental message, akin to the aforementioned Frogs but more as motivation for the scientist, making for a nice combo with the body horror aspect and making Ssssss a very decent and very underappreciated “snake flick” that goes for a more classier, slow burn pace and manages to pull it off well, making one overlook the not too original plot and the on-the-nose “snake charming” music thanks to likeable characters.
Holds up surprisingly well, too, so it’s a definitely one i do recommend to horror fans.
Wise Cafe (International) 