[ Review ] Dave Rewinds Creature From The Black Lagoon

Dave’s Rewind 

The Creature from the Black Lagoon

Of all the classic Universal movie monsters, Creature from the Black Lagoon is the only one I had not seen. I am very familiar with the Gill Man as he is one of the featured monsters in The Monster Squad which I had seen a bunch but never actually watched any of the original versions, unless you count an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, which I don’t. So the basic plot is a group of scientists go on an expedition to the Amazon for research and the team members get picked off one by one by the Gil Man. He takes the female scientist as his prey or trophy, gets riddled by bullets by the remaining team members and goes back into the water from where he came. Nothing revolutionary but a fun time.

This is definitely the movie that started the rubber movie monster craze of the 50’s, but it’s also arguably the best. For it’s time the creature effects were pretty great with articulated facial movements. This creature is featured often and not always in the shadows so money was well spent on the creature. I am not sure, but I believe this is one of the first movies that used jump scares effectively. The creature has a theme that plays nearly any time he is on screen. It is a blast of horns that basically scream duh duh duh. But this is effectively used at times as I was listening through headphones. Nice calm, quiet moment and then the creature’s hand pops up and duh duh duh. It threw me off guard the first time, which of course if the point. A lot has been said before about whether the creature has a sexual lust for the female damsel, and I can see this argument when laid out, but as I was watching the movie I did not immediately pick this up. So judge for yourself. 

This monster movie was originally filmed in 3-D to cash in on the craze at the time and was lucky enough to find an old red/blue 3D version on Roku. Luckily enough I do have an old set of 3D glasses and was able to watch it. If you have ever watched a 3D movie this way you know it is not perfect, but it was watchable and actually pretty effective given the old technology. Especially in the underwater scenes there is an added layer of depth that makes it fun to watch and when the heroes are shooting harpoons at you underwater it definitely adds some excitement. Although either way you watch Creature, it is a fun watch.

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