I respect Creature from the Black Lagoon for being one of the Universal Horror Classics, but it's actually not that good. The story is just too thin and the blaring horns in the soundtrack are more annoying than frightening. Gill-man's costume still looks great, though, and the underwater scenes are impressive. I'm glad I saw it, but I probably won't watch it again.
... View MoreCreature From The Black LagoonUnlike as its genre suggests it isn't scary or frightening at all even though the attempt is admirable and the background score work in its favour and addition to that what's appreciative here is that somehow they have managed to pull off the vision considering the restrictions or constrictions in visuals or technology. Creature From The Black Lagoon stands apart in respect to those Dark Universal features and yet is one of them for it doesn't just focuses only on an individual characters but gives enough range to each and every characters floating around the primary ones which shows the excellence in writing and even execution. The creature that was supposed to scare the bejesus out of the audience fails on so many level that it feeds only on its primary objective directed to it for it isn't saved by a performance like Boris Karloff or Lon Chaney. Creature From The Black Lagoon is intriguing enough for the audience to invest in it and even though it may not win them the whole package back it won't get petty or childish which was easily possible.
... View More(Flash Review)A great classic piece of 50's monster fright. Scientists searching for fossils encounter a gilled man beast. A debate ensues whether to take it alive to study it in the name of science or to kill it .only because it has been terrorizing and killing them. Ha. The costume is great and obviously fake in a charming way and there are lots of underwater scenes (innovative for the time?). There was a really tense scene of the monster following an unaware female swimming in the lagoon. Several unsurprising cheesy scenes but it was good fun nonetheless. Overall, the film felt a little thin.
... View MoreA typically engaging '50s monster romp in which a gill-man bumps off the crew of a stranded barge one by one. This was the last real classic monster that Universal created and it managed to give a generation of children nightmares (my father told me he saw the trailer which was enough!). However deep down, the story is one of doomed love, harking back to the days of KING KONG; our creature has fallen for a female research scientist.It is this multi-dimensional aspect to the monster which makes the film interesting. Otherwise, it is absolutely flawless in terms of photography (there's plenty of nice-looking underwater scenery), acting and pacing. The Amazon location is played for all it's worth, with crocodiles lurking around in the bushes. Richard Carlson is the square-jawed hero, and Richard Denning is his stubborn adversary who is obsessed with capturing or killing the monster. The tension and wordplay between these two is excellently played, and you could cut the atmosphere with a knife. Down in the cast list you might notice Whit Bissell as a doctor who gets his face hideously scarred. Bissell of course would go on to create his own monsters in various Herman Cohen B-flicks.The monster itself has a superb design; the rubber suit looks realistic and getting a real swimmer to fill out the suit gives it grace and presence as it glides through the water. Indeed, the scenes in which Adams and the creature swim side by side in the water are some of the most beautiful and understated of the decade. The pacing itself is fast, leaving little time for needless exposition, and there are plenty of battles and fights as both human and prehistoric adversaries come face to face. As an entertaining '50s B-movie, you can't do much better than this.
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