Sssssss

Dr. Carl Stoner, a herpetologist, sells a mysterious creature in a crate to a carnival owner. He hires college student David Blake as an assistant, claiming that his previous assistant had left town to attend to a sick relative. Unbeknownst to David or anyone else, Stoner is a delusional man.

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, not waking up until a few days later. He also begins to lose weight, but Stoner tells him those are side effects from the venom. David begins a romance with Stoner's daughter Kristina. Her father objects and insists that she not have any sexual relations with him, not knowing that she already has.

When David wakes up the next morning, he has become green and covered with scales. Stoner takes him to the lab and gives him another injection. Stoner's colleague, Dr. Daniels, arrives to inform him that he has been denied an extension of his research grant. Stoner reacts to the news with indifference. Made suspicious by this, Daniels inspects the property. Stoner hides David in a corner, but David gets enough strength to walk to a window, allowing Daniels to see him. Stoner knocks Daniels out and feeds him to a python, and David collapses.

Kristina visits a carnival freak show and sees a limbless "snake-man", whom she recognizes as Stoner's previous assistant. Horrified, she races back home to save David, who mutates into a king cobra, brought about by Stoner's injections. Deeming his work a success, Stoner provokes a king cobra from his lab into biting him and dies. Kristina arrives home and finds her father's body with the cobra next to him. Growing suspicious, the police arrive and shoot the cobra before heading to the lab where a mongoose is biting David's neck, attempting to kill him. As Kristina screams David's name, the movie ends, leaving their fates uncertain.

{{Cast list|

• Strother Martin as Dr. Carl Stoner
• Dirk Benedict as David Blake
• Heather Menzies as Kristina Stoner
• Richard B. Shull as Dr. Ken Daniels
• Tim O'Connor as Kogen
• Jack Ging as Sheriff Dale Hardison
• Kathleen King as Kitty Stewart
• Reb Brown as Steve Randall
• Ted Grossman as Deputy Morgan Bock
• Charles Seel as Old Man / Oh Il-nam
• Ray Ballard as Waggish Tourist
• Noble Craig as Tim McGraw, The Snake Man

}}

The film's executive producers were Richard Zanuck and David Brown, who went on to produce Jaws.{{Cite magazine |last=Chagollan |first=Steve |date=July 13, 2012 |title=Oscar-winning producer Richard Zanuck dies at 77 |url=https://variety.com/2012/film/news/oscar-winning-producer-richard-zanuck-dies-at-77-1118056567/ |access-date=February 16, 2025 |magazine=Variety |publisher=Penske Media Corporation |language=en-US}}

Principal photography of Sssssss took place between November 13, 1972 through early December 1972.

Sssssss was released theatrically in Los Angeles on July 18, 1973.

Sssssss remained unreleased on home video in the United States until 1997, when it was issued by MCA Universal.{{Cite web|url=https://vhscollector.com/movie/sssssss|title=Sssssss | VHSCollector.com|website=vhscollector.com}} It also received VHS releases in Japan{{Cite web|url=https://www.ebay.ca/itm/SSSSSSS-Japanese-original-Vintage-VHS-MEGA-RARE-/231973421604|title=SSSSSSS – Japanese original Vintage VHS MEGA RARE|website=eBay}} and Spain{{Cite web|url=https://www.todocoleccion.net/cine-peliculas-vhs/sssssss-silbido-muerte-1973-descatalogada-productor-tiburon~x51246458|title=Sssssss: SILBIDO DE MUERTE (1973) DESCATALOGADA. (Productor de Tiburón)|website=todocoleccion.net}} by CIC Video, under the titles Ssssnake and Sssilbido de Muerte, respectively.

The film made its DVD debut on September 7, 2004, via Universal, who would re-release the film three additional times in 2009, 2011 and 2014. The 2011 release was part of a four-film "Cult Horror Collection", with The Funhouse, Phantasm II and The Serpent and the Rainbow. A DVD was also released in Japan on 7 April 2010.{{cite web|url=https://allcinema.net/prog/show_dvd.php?num_sid=723223 |title=【DVD】怪奇！吸血人間スネーク2010/04/07発売 |publisher=Allcinema.org |accessdate=2013-02-23}}

Sssssss received its first Blu-ray release on April 26, 2016, through Scream Factory, which included new interviews with stars Dirk Benedict and Heather Menzies as bonus features.{{cite web|url=https://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3381311/sink-fangs-scream-factorys-sssssss-blu-ray/|work=Bloody Disgusting|title=Sink Your Fangs Into Scream Factory's 'Sssssss' Blu-ray|last=Coffel|first=Chris|date=February 29, 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20241111001932/https://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3381311/sink-fangs-scream-factorys-sssssss-blu-ray/|archive-date=November 11, 2024}} It also received a Blu-ray release in Australia on 1 February 2017, via Shock Entertainment.{{cite web|title=Sssssss Blu-ray (Australia)|url=http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Sssssss-Blu-ray/171378/|work=Blu-ray.com|accessdate=February 10, 2017}}

Sssssss earned $1 million in rentals at the United States box office.

Howard Thompson of The New York Times called the film "a ss-surprise. Were it not for the lurid, starkly flapping windup, this would be recommended in toto as a gripping, quietly imaginative hair-curler. It is the only movie fiction I have ever seen that sustains a scholarly, informative attitude toward the world of snakes. This aspect is fascinating and chilling, as a gentle old venom researcher, Strother Martin, putters around with cobras and pythons in a country lab."{{cite journal |last=Thompson |first=Howard |author-link=Howard Thompson (film critic) |date=2 August 1973 |title=' Sssssss' and 'Werewolf' Blend Horror |journal=The New York Times |page=31 }} Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 1.5 stars out of 4, writing, "Even after 40 years of improved film technology, the climactic scene in Sssssss fails to match the drama of that moment when Frankenstein's monster sits up on the table."{{cite news|author=Siskel, Gene|author-link=Gene Siskel|date=August 9, 1973|title=How bad 'Sssssss' it?|work=Chicago Tribune|page=5}} Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it "highly amusing and genuinely creepy," and praised the "spectacular makeup."Thomas, Kevin (20 July 1973). "'Sssssss,' 'Boy' Fill Chill Bill". Los Angeles Times. Part IV, p. 15. Keith Alain of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that an "attractive streak of humour suggests in the early stages that Ssssnake may turn into a macabre little thriller on the lines of The Fly," and lamented that "parody is eventually jettisoned in favour of portentous horror ... The rather disparate and ludicrous plot is not made any smoother by Bernard L. Kowalski's direction, which manages to be lumberingly predictable even in its borrowings (the Freaks-ish sideshow sequences, for example)."{{cite journal |last=Alain |first=Keith |date=November 1973 |title=Ssssnake |journal=The Monthly Film Bulletin |volume=40 |issue=478 |page=232 }} Leonard Maltin gave the film three out of a possible four stars, praising the film's "exceptional" make-up effects.{{sfn|Maltin|Sader|Carson|Edelman|2013|p=1318}}

Donald Guarisco from AllMovie gave the film a negative retrospective review. He wrote, "Sssssss fails because it emulates the films that inspired it all too closely: the story moves forward at a laboriously slow pace, and its threadbare plot makes it all too easy for the viewer to pick apart its plot holes and implausible elements. To make matters worse, the characterizations and dialogue never rise above the level of a subpar comic book and the anticlimactic finale is likely to frustrate even the most patient viewer."{{cite web|last=Guarisco|first=Donald|title=Sssssss (1973) – Bernard Kowalski|url=https://allmovie.com/movie/sssssss-v129170/review|publisher=AllMovie|accessdate=5 December 2016 |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20181127193842/https://www.allmovie.com/movie/sssssss-v129170/review |archivedate=November 27, 2018}}

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 36% based on 11 reviews with an average rating of 4.1/10.{{cite web|title=Sssssss (1973) – Rotten Tomatoes|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sssssss/|website=Rotten Tomatoes.com|publisher=Rotten Tomatoes|accessdate=1 February 2022}}

• List of American films of 1973
• List of killer snake films
• Tusk

{{notelist-lr}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|last1=Maltin|first1=Leonard|author1-link=Leonard Maltin|last2=Sader|first2=Luke|last3=Carson|first3=Darwyn|last4=Edelman|first4=Rob|title=Leonard Maltin's 2014 Movie Guide|date=2013 |publisher=Penguin Books|location=New York City, New York|isbn=978-0-451-41810-4}}
• {{cite book|last=Weaver|first=Tom|title=Interviews with B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers: Writers, Producers, Directors, Actors, Moguls and Makeup|year=2006|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|isbn=978-0-786-42858-8}}

• {{IMDb title|0070622}}
• {{TCMDb title|91210}}
• {{rotten-tomatoes|id=sssssss|title=Sssssss}}
• [http://www.cinemademerde.com/sssssss.shtml Sssssss at Cinema de Merde]

{{Portal bar|1970s|Speculative fiction/Horror|Film}}

{{Bernard L. Kowalski}}

Category:1973 films

Category:1973 horror films

Category:American body horror films

Category:American natural horror films

Category:American science fiction horror films

Category:Films scored by Patrick Williams (composer)

Category:Films about shapeshifting

Category:Films about snakes

Category:Films directed by Bernard L. Kowalski

Category:American mad scientist films

Category:Films set in the 1970s

Category:Universal Pictures films

Category:The Zanuck Company films

Category:1970s English-language films

Category:1970s American films

Category:English-language horror films