El hombre cobra

Pretty silly horror movie about Dr. Carl Stoner (Strother Martin) who has perfected a drug that turns men into King Cobra snakes. (Yeah--I know it's ridiculous). WHY he wants to do this is never fully explained. He wants to use it on young David Blaine (Dirk Benedict)...but his daughter (Heather Menzies) is falling in love with him.

OK--the story is more than a little silly but this is fairly watchable. They used real snakes in the film (as a statement at the beginning tells us) and just watching them is pretty interesting. The story itself moves pretty quickly and (science aside) is pretty involving. The acting helps--Martin is actually not bad as the doctor; Benedict (so young and handsome) is also pretty good as Blaine and Menzies overdoes it a little (particularly in an argument with Martin) but she's not bad. There's also some fairly impressive (for the time) makeup and special effects. It's OK.

Trivia: Flashes of nudity (mostly from Menzies) are inexplicably "covered up" in the prints now in circulation. Strange--it was OK for a PG in 1973.

Ok, I've got to qualify that "Ssssssscary as Hell!!!" statement. I first saw this movie on TV when I was like 5 years old. My babysitter wanted to watch it, despite the fact that it scared me to death. In fact, this movie is the one defining moment in my life that made me forever ssssssscared ssssssspitless of sssssssnakes.

About a year or so ago, I saw the ad for this movie on the SciFi channel and it again made my blood run cold. But I decided to watch it anyway, finger on the remote switcher button, to see if it was really as I remembered it 25 years ago. Granted, the special effects were exceedingly lame and the acting was even worse, but remember, this was made back in the early 70's -- long before Industrial Light and Magic and when the only prerequisite for acting was big boobs and a tight butt. Regardless, this movie, in it's time, really was ssssssscary. So scary, that after watching it (at that young age), that I refused to get in a shower (I'd only take baths) until I was probably 12. Oh, and I did actually get through the whole movie on SciFi and actually developed feelings for the pet cobra that gets...well, something happens to it, but I'm not telling what for those who haven't seen it. After watching it recently, a little bit of that pent up fear was released -- although, I still can't stand snakes, not even to look at a picture of them in a book or anything -- except cobras, I really like cobras, now.

Oh, well. I recommend the movie. Just remember the time period it came out of and watch it for what it is. Granted, the story-line was a bit hokey, but just think what it could be like if they made a remake with really good special effects, really good horror movie actors, and a little bit of work on the script.

Ssssssso long!

It's not too bad of a film - for a B horror it's decent, kinda keeps me interested. Warning: If you have a huge fear of snakes then this film is NOT for you! They use real snakes in the making of this film.

Dr. Stoner seems to have it in his head that snakes and humans become one they will rule the planet - outlasting plagues, viruses, natural disasters, holocausts, and other things of this nature. He slowly transforms humans into the snake/human crossbreeds.

The ending could have been better: I mean David was, or looked like, a full-on King Cobra and not part human so why or how did Kristina know that snake was David? She couldn't even see his eyes because the mongoose was on the snake David. Otherwise it's a fairly decent 1970s B horror film that can entertain to a degree.

6/10

No snakes were harmed during the filming of this movie. The concept was interesting. A brilliant doctor has the formula to help mankind survive the event of the holocaust and other cataclysmic proportions. Think of this, a snake with the intelligence of a human. So the girlfriend of the human test subject, David, witnesses her boyfriend's demise in the freakish predicament of a snake, his precious life ends at the paws of mortality itself, the otherwise innocuous ferret, who, in this case, does not stop to think that the snake he is killing for his next meal might and could just be a human, which the very same species he depends on for his survival.

How could the so-called medical geniuses not have seen it all along, turning humans into snakes to endure the next holocaust? What are my hard earned tax dollars going toward if not funding for the study of human-snake transformation! Idiots!

I have fond memories of watching this film as a kid. So often those movies you enjoyed as a kid turn out to be trash when you watch them as an adult, but this was a rare case of a movie that managed to hold up.

Sure it has it's faults, but nothing that can't be over looked. The plot is a bit silly, and the ending more so, but the way the movie is played you ignore the rampant over acting and outside of reality plot.

Plus, the film doesn't seem aged. So many films from the Seventies look so out of place looking at them in modern times, but this film managed to avoid all of the trappings that put it out of time. It holds up amazingly well for a thirty plus year old movie.

If you've seen this once and remember it fondly, i recommend a fresh look through grown up eyes.