‘Sssssss’ (1973)
First of all the title isn’t a typo, that’s the letter ‘S’ x 7, as in the noise made by children and cartoon characters to impersonate a snake. “Don’t say it, hiss it” said the marketing. Although I’m not sure how you can hiss or pronounce seven s’s any differently. Amazingly this schlocker of a creature feature was actually a Zanuck and Brown production, aka the producers of another creature feature made two years later that would fair slightly better.., that being ‘Jaws‘. Starring a bunch of 70s character actors and the A-Team’s Face (Dirk Benedict) as a man who turns into a King Cobra, ‘Sssssss’ is 70s monster nonsense at its best. Watch on in amazement as Face tries his best to convey to us that’s he’s transforming into a snake at the hands of mad scientist Dr Stoner (would you take drugs from a Dr Stoner?). Channeling his inner Brudlefly, Face wackily (and I must admit semi-disturbingly) transforms into a snake by means of prosthetics, some dodgy dissolves, and finally an actual snake. Which is actually really stupid.., fans of monster movies don’t want a man to turn into an actual snake, they want some kind of super man-snake-jazz-fusion-hybrid. Anyway, they whole thing is great entertainment and finally the King Cobra formally known as Face fro the A-Team fights a mongoose. Yes a mongoose.
Step forward, who’s seen ‘Jaws’ long lost cousin?
Deadly Movies 
I first saw this movie in either 1979 or ’80 (I can be so specific, because I recall being in the 4th grade at the time). Very few other movies have ever scared me as much as watching this did at that time (seeing the original “Alien,” and the first “Evil Dead” during their cinematic runs, were probably the other two big traumatic experiences I have endured due to my love of horror films). I mentioned this movie to my wife, and she saw it way back when too (probably the same night I did, on KBHK-44, here in the Bay Area), and it also had the same impact on her. In 2004 or ’05, I came across this movie at a DVD rental store, so I got it in order to see if it would still freak us out. And sure enough, it totally did. This is one of the strangest and most unsettling horror films of all time, let alone the 1970s. Its one of those movies you pretty much HAVE TO SEE, else your claim on being a horror movie fan seems a tad hollow.
This bit of cinema made its way through the drive-ins and small town cinemass of Central Texas while I was in High School in the mid 1970s’. The ads ran on UHF tv stations at night. It usually ran as part of a double-feature with the likes of “Legend of Boggy Creek”.