I feel a special affinity for Jack Arnold's Creature from the Black Lagoon. Most of the footage for the monster was shot on location at Wakulla Springs, Florida, a spot that I used to visit yearly during summer vacation trips to my grandmother's house. I swam in the same spots that the creature was filmed! So I've always wanted to see this film...and I'm a little surprised that it's taken me this long to see it. Creature from the Black Lagoon is one of the last films to establish a permanent member of the Universal Monsters club, including Dracula, the Wolfman, Frankenstein's Monster, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, and Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. So how does it stand up? Decently. A group of scientists travel to Florida, ahem, I mean the Amazon River, and discover the Creature, an evolutionary remnant from prehistoric times. Of course, the monster greets these visitors by killing them off one by one. There are some interesting moments and set pieces that are par for the course for Universal Horror. But the film certainly shows its age, particularly in its laughable depiction of South Americans and their female scientist. But overall, it's an enjoyable movie. Now to wait for the inevitable Hollywood remake.......ugh.
7/10
The Creature is a fun monster, though I don't think he's the equal of the Frankenstein monster, Dracula, the Wolfman, or the Mummy. Apparently the Creature's producers had 'King Kong' in mind when they developed the film (there are some plot similarities). They even made 2 sequels: 'Revenge of the Creature' and 'The Creature Walks Among Us.' After watching all 3 films, you may start to feel a bit waterlogged...
ReplyDeleteInteresting...I wonder if the other two were also filmed at Wakulla Springs....
ReplyDeleteI've actually never seen this but its cool that have been to where it was filmed! I've been to a few locations where movies have been filmed... I think write a blog post about that sometime!
ReplyDeleteoh yeah...Wakulla Springs was also the filming locations of a bunch of other movies, too!
ReplyDeleteThe Creature is one of my very favorite monsters of all time. I love that movie! Rico, the swimming stunt man, did such a great job -- the shot of him swimming upside down below the girl scared me a lot when I was a kid, and still has that creepy quality. Other parts of the movie show their age, as you said, but the Creature lives on!
ReplyDeleteI have incredible respect for Rico. That was some difficult shooting that he had to go through. But the end result was worth it!
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