Sssssss

Forget Lassie and Flicka. Two years before Richard Zanuck and David Brown gave us a new kind of animal picture with Jaws, they produced a ssssssickie that gave character actor Strother Martin a rare lead. [22 Aug 2006, p.4D]

Compellingly slimy special effects highlight this horror flick about a mad scientist who can turn people into snakes. [12 Apr 1997, p.2G]

A complete mess, with biblical references (for some reason the central love story parallels the Fall), hallucinatory sequences, laboured borrowings, and moronic direction, yet quite enjoyable in its rubbishy way.

A lightness is maintained throughout, which leads one to believe the makers were not too concerned about taking their material seriously. The result is an unpretentious, sometimes funny, but not quite scary effort.

Toned down, without the final fireworks, the picture would have emerged as a real sleeper for thriller fans, who should catch it anyway. It's certainly original.