Creature from the Black Lagoon
October 16, 2008
"Creature from the Black Lagoon"
1954, directed by Jack Arnold
Coming at the end of Universal's two-decade run of monster films, "Creature" has become an icon of the 1950s sci-fi/horror era. One of the first of many films to employ the "scientists being terrorized by rubber-suited man" plots, it was in its way nearly as successful as "Dracula" or "Frankenstein" in inspiring endless slews of terrible imitators. While "Creature" never rises to the heights of gothic atmosphere contained within the early Universal horror films, it tells its simple story with focus and makes the whole absurd affair compelling. A scientific expedition to the Amazon, a strange fish creature, lady scientist in danger, etc. You can fill in the rest from there. It's pop entertainment done well, with a great rubber suit and some solid underwater photography. The scenes in the boat, as the scientists attempt to capture the "gill-man" are an obvious inspiration for that godhead of summer blockbusters, "Jaws." If the film has a definite downside, it's the fact that it was shot in 3-D and as such has one too many scenes of things flying at the camera in order to show off the technology. Watching it flat makes this a distraction, and the odds of finding a revival showing with a projectionist who can pull off the 3-D is slim to none.
[ Back to Review-o-Matic menu ]
This page is part of www.zombieunderground.net. If you're not seeing a menu on the left, please click here to reload.
Everything on this site is the © author (please see the "About" section).