Ssssss

Richard Zanuck and David Brown reeled off a string of major hits like Jaws, The Sting and Cocoon. But their very first production in 1973 was Ssssss! ("Don't say it, hiss it!" explains the trailer), a TV-friendly mad scientist story about a herpetologist who injects his assistant with a secret formula in hopes of creating a race of highly evolved snake-men. It's an idea as corny as anything produced in the mutated monster craze of the '50s. But the final product actually rides the wave of Animal Attack! films that would peak with Spielberg's toothy blockbuster.

Dr. Carl Stoner (Strother Martin) and his daughter Kristina (Heather Menzies) are struggling to keep their research afloat, their only income derived from selling venom and putting on a dangerous snake charming show for tourists. Out of necessity, Stoner recruits David Blake (Dirk Benedict) as his new assistant from the local college. But his motives are much more sinister than his daughter suspects.

After injecting David with a series of inoculations, supposedly to provide a resistance against any accidental bites, Stoner watches and waits as his human experiment begins to slowly transform into a cold-blooded hybrid. And if an unlucky townie or two happens upon the truth, the good doctor is only too happy to unleash his pet reptiles to keep things quiet.

By all rights, Sssssss should be a complete mess. Produced at a time when horror was just about to hit its cinematic renaissance, director Bernard L. Kowalski was an old-school TV veteran who towed the studio line (although he did dabble in this sort of material before with 1959's Attack of the Giant Leeches) and kept stylistic flourishes to a minimum. The episodic pace and backlot locations only reinforced the idea that this was a small-screen story that somehow snuck into theaters.

But even with the studio system in decline, Universal had resources to spare. Like Strother Martin, who relished the opportunity to play an educated man after being pigeonholed with characters that "crawled out from under a rock." He lends the film a bit of respectability and even engenders some sympathy; no small trick considering he strangles his friend with a python, tosses a Black Mamba in someone's shower and feeds his daughter's boyfriend to a mongoose. Dirk Benedict, the epitome of an arrogant rogue in Battlestar Galactica and The A-Team, is more than a little miscast as the 98-pound weakling who naively submits to anything Stoner injects him with. While Heather Menzies makes a good impression in a role that isn't much to speak of.

I'm sure even the actors knew that the real stars were the snakes. And Sssssss wisely puts them front and center, beginning with a title card that brags about the dangers faced by the cast and crew. That sort of thing is usually promotional fluff, but after watching each actor get bitten several times by various (one would assume) non-venomous snakes, the film begins to earn a little more respect. The sequences are cleverly cut together and create a genuine sense of danger, rather than relying on computer graphics as a crutch as would be the case today.

But for kids of the '70s who grew up watching the film on TV, the most memorable element is the imaginative make-up used for Benedict's transformation, covering the actor in green scales, peeling skin and a hinged jaw. The big finale is accomplished with a cheesy series of dissolves but that initial glimpse inside the carnival tent (where Stoner's previous assistant wound up) is still a shocker!

The movie sheds its skin on Scream Factory's Blu-ray too, looking far better than one might expect. Besides the new hi-def transfer, extras include the theatrical trailer and a pair of interviews. First up is Dirk Benedict, who looks quite a bit rougher than his salad days. He is good for a particularly bawdy story involving Strother Martin though. While Heather Menzies comes across as classy and not at all embarrassed of her early dabbles in the horror genre.