A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

If you don't want to hear me ramble on about herpetology, you can go ahead and stop reading. The film has a title card in the beginning that explains "All reptiles in the film are real". Well yes they are, but apart from the King Cobra, the snakes are all mislabeled. Now, obviously this was done to protect the actors from being bitten by venomous snakes on the set, but for someone like me who takes it seriously, it's really irritating. With all that aside though, the film has a pretty ridiculous plot, some crazy dude wants to turn people into snakes. Yes, into snakes. The movie would be more watchable if he was trying to turn them into say, half reptilian humanoids, but no, this guy wants them to actually become snakes, identical to the ones he has in his lab. Now that's just weird. I won't lie, when the guy who was only "half snake" was found at the circus show, his obvious state of pain and misery was really heart renching. Decent acting, decent movie, but could use some work.

"Dr. Carl Stoner" (Strother Martin) is a herpetologist who is working on a special serum and needs funding from the nearby university to continue. Unfortunately, due to the lack of funds available he decides to take a serious shortcut and begins to experiment on humans. 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. Now, rather than reveal any more of the movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that even though there were some scenes which were a bit creepy there were also other scenes that I thought were a little dull and predictable. Along with that, although I liked all three of the actors I just mentioned, I thought the overall plot was kind of silly and towards the end I found it rather difficult to watch without shaking my head in disappointment. Obviously, others may disagree but even so I rate the movie as below average.

I had never seen this but am a big fan of B horror flick, so I gave it a spin. The opening statement about the bravery of the animal handlers gave me pause, and for good reason. Were we really this stupid about treating the acting animals so badly! Through the movie, snakes' heads are rested in liquid to simulate their drinking alcohol...a mongoose is cooped up in a Havahart trap through the entire movie, making me very uncomfortable.The plot is actually funny. It is predictable and aside from some violence and gore, entertaining enough. Lots of 70's stuff. Funny skinny dipping scene with the leaves over the camera lens.I hated the ending. I didn't watch it, as it contained guns and violence to the animals. Take it or leave it. I won't watch it again.

"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. Shull) to recommend a student for an assistant, and selects David Blake, (Dirk Benedict) for the purpose. Meeting with his daughter Kristina, (Heather Menzies) in their lab, and witnesses a public display for the group. As he continues to work in the lab, he begins to worry about the constant inoculations and treatments and tries to begin a relationship with Kristina. 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. There's plenty of time spent among them and around them, from handling them in their cages to researching them to milking them, and it'll be a little tense whenever those milking scenes occur as the anticipation of whether they're going to bite or not will really give some shivers. 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 doesn't look that bad, and has some nice features to it.The Bad News: This really wasn't that impressive, and there's a couple reasons for that. The main one is that the film is very, very slow. It takes forever for something to happen, and aside from the two scenes above, it's really unspectacular when it does happen. The snake wrangle and milking scene does have a few tense moments but it does seem to drag out and on, taking twice as long as it should've been. The moments at action don't really come to pass and move along quite unspectacularly, and it moves onto something else. The only thing remotely considered action comes in the final minutes, and then it just ends. There's really no set-up or anything, the action starts, then finishes and then the film just ends. It's quite unremarkable and seems weird. The film's other fatal flaw is that, unless snakes creep you out, there's nothing of interest in the middle of the film. The middle is based around the concept of "snakes are creepy," and unless that applies to you, all the contact time with them won't register and it becomes an endless series of scenes that don't do anything other than induce boredom. Its not the kind of response a film really wants, but it's the one main flaw in the film. Otherwise, this wasn't bad, if only it would've moved along faster.The Final Verdict: This one really could've used a faster pace to be more interesting, since most of what's wrong is derived from that fatal flaw. 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