A villainous westerner steals the snake lover of a Nagin (an Indian snake deity) so that she will follow him back to the city.

The Nagin, which transforms into the shape of a beautiful woman, sets out for revenge…

HISSS was directed by Jennifer Chambers Lynch, David Lynch’s daughter, who disowned the project when it was completed without her involvement. According to Jennifer, the film that she wanted to make was a love story, but it eventually took the shape of a horror film after the producers took creative control of it. The movie was shot simultaneously in English and Hindi.

So was HISSS so bad it had to be disowned by Jennifer? Hell, no – I thought this English/Hindi movie was certainly a bit cheesy, but it was also lots of fun to watch.

The transformation scenes are a real hoot, using a mixture of make-up, prosthetics, animatronics and some not too hot CGI. There’s a nice touch in one shape-changing scene where the eye slides horizontally across the creature’s face.

In an early transformation, set in the muddy jungle, the snake turns into a kind of cocoon, from which its female human form emerges.

Robert Kurtzman was the creature makeup effects designer, so the overall snake-woman creature look is good.

There’s an exciting sequence involving a chase on foot through the city backstreets, plus there’s even a brief Bollywood-style song and dance moment!

After swallowing one victim whole, we see the half woman/half snake Nagin lying on her bed, digesting her meal with a distended, reptilian belly. That is certainly a memorable visual!

The late, always-reliable Irrfan (JURASSIC WORLD) Khan plays the cop lead and sex symbol Mallika Sherawat is the snake woman, who has a love scene towards the end of the film, in which she is in human form as she caresses her cobra love: lots of tongue action!

Finally, here’s another behind the scenes shot…