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Creature from the Black Lagoon


#432 - Creature from the Black Lagoon
Jack Arnold, 1954



An expedition into the heart of South America discovers a monstrous amphibian creature who intends to either capture or kill the explorers.

I haven't really tried all that hard to keep up with the various classic movie monsters from the first half of the 20th century. Creature from the Black Lagoon is a pretty lean and mean little movie that doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel but it doesn't make for the most engaging film of its type either. I'm not really sure how best to appreciate old-school horror movies either. Age should not be a significant barrier when it comes to judging classics, but one wonders whether or not this really deserves to be considered a classic beyond the iconic nature of its creature and title. It's not like it doesn't try to be a good movie as far as technique goes - the rubber suit used to bring the eponymous creature holds up relatively well for someone jaded by MST3K episodes featuring monster movies from the same era. The plot and characterisation, meanwhile, is about as passable as it gets without being truly terrible.

Given the time period, it's unsurprising that the film would rather try to pad out its extremely brief running time by drawing out the suspense, even if it is by rather ridiculous means (why yes, token pretty female character, take a leisurely swim in the mysterious Amazonian lagoon - even without the threat of a "gill-man", that still seems awfully hazardous). It gets some credit for its underwater photography and a decently conceived creature, but it's difficult to care a whole lot about the human cast beyond not particularly wanting them to get attacked by the creature. Not automatically terrible, but I'd have a hard time recommending it to people who didn't already have some interest in classic monster movies.