3 posts tagged “creature from the black lagoon”
Finally, the trilogy is complete. Or should I say my trilogy of reviews of the Gill Man movies is complete.
As is common with sequels, this is undoubtedly the lowest budgeted of the three films. It is so low budget that they couldn't really afford the entire Gill Man suit. Early on there are some scenes which seem to be from the earlier movies but for the rest of the movie what we get is someone in the Gill Man mask who is wearing a large suit. Yes, you read that right, they put the Creature from the Black Lagoon in a suit.
In the beginning of the film we meet the aging scientist who is incredibly jealous of anyone talking to her beautiful younger wife. We also meet the shiphand who is an ass who keeps trying to seduce/rape the wife. All of them are led by the male scientist who has some interesting ideas about evolution. And by interesting I mean totally non-scientific.
They attempt to capture the Gill Man but in doing so he gets caught on fire which results in 3rd degree burns over a lot of his body. Luckily for him, he is an evolutionary missing link and has more human-like skin under his reptilian gills. Thanks to the random and never explained drugs the scientist injects him with the skin heals and the Gill Man develops lungs. All the while the husband continues to be jealous and the shiphand continues to be lecherous.
And really this is what the movie is about: the jealous husband and the lecherous near-rapist shiphand. They try to teach the Gill Man not to kill but of course mayhem ensues between the husband and the shiphand.
Besides the boring main story of the conflict between the two unlikable
characters there is this whole narrative about evolution and civilizing
the Gill Man. All of this is really kind of weird. Because the film
is black and white, the Gill Man's skin, which I can only assume was
supposed to be green, looks dark. With the suit covering up the Gill
Man's body he almost looks like a black man. So all of this talk about
civilizing him and helping him to evolve is kind of disturbing. It is
very easy to read this as some sort of commentary on race and I'm not
at all sure if it was meant to be intentional or not.
Over all, this is just a weird weird film.
one thumb up.
An allegory?
Weirdness is interesting
The story is bad.
As is common with sequels, this is undoubtedly the lowest budgeted of the three films. It is so low budget that they couldn't really afford the entire Gill Man suit. Early on there are some scenes which seem to be from the earlier movies but for the rest of the movie what we get is someone in the Gill Man mask who is wearing a large suit. Yes, you read that right, they put the Creature from the Black Lagoon in a suit.
In the beginning of the film we meet the aging scientist who is incredibly jealous of anyone talking to her beautiful younger wife. We also meet the shiphand who is an ass who keeps trying to seduce/rape the wife. All of them are led by the male scientist who has some interesting ideas about evolution. And by interesting I mean totally non-scientific.
They attempt to capture the Gill Man but in doing so he gets caught on fire which results in 3rd degree burns over a lot of his body. Luckily for him, he is an evolutionary missing link and has more human-like skin under his reptilian gills. Thanks to the random and never explained drugs the scientist injects him with the skin heals and the Gill Man develops lungs. All the while the husband continues to be jealous and the shiphand continues to be lecherous.
And really this is what the movie is about: the jealous husband and the lecherous near-rapist shiphand. They try to teach the Gill Man not to kill but of course mayhem ensues between the husband and the shiphand.
Over all, this is just a weird weird film.
one thumb up.
An allegory?
Weirdness is interesting
The story is bad.
Here it is the sequel to Creature From the Black Lagoon. It was an ok movie. If you remember last time I watched this movie before I saw the original Creature From the Black Lagoon. Despite this, I don't really remember all that much about this.
I do remember that this one starts with the Creature in a coma. So the dashing young scientist walks him around in a wading pool to make water run over his gills. When he wakes up they naturally take the King Kong route and put him on display and try to tame him. They somehow think it is a good idea to shock the Gill Man with a cattle prod as a way of teaching him. Amazingly, that doesn't work out too well for them. Of course he escapes.
Now the thing is that the Gill Man is the most amazing stalker ever. Somehow he knows where the attractive woman he wants will be at any time of day. She goes to this resteraunt-type place he's there. She goes to the park, he's there. It is also amazing how quickly he can swim to these places.
Of course he gets the woman. However, it is just lucky that he's been shocked enough times that when the hero yells "stop!" the Gill Man instinctively stops, allowing the woman to get away and the militia shooting him.
This one is pretty forgettable.
one thumb down
How is this revenge?
Stuck in marine land and shot?
No one even dies!
I do remember that this one starts with the Creature in a coma. So the dashing young scientist walks him around in a wading pool to make water run over his gills. When he wakes up they naturally take the King Kong route and put him on display and try to tame him. They somehow think it is a good idea to shock the Gill Man with a cattle prod as a way of teaching him. Amazingly, that doesn't work out too well for them. Of course he escapes.
Now the thing is that the Gill Man is the most amazing stalker ever. Somehow he knows where the attractive woman he wants will be at any time of day. She goes to this resteraunt-type place he's there. She goes to the park, he's there. It is also amazing how quickly he can swim to these places.
Of course he gets the woman. However, it is just lucky that he's been shocked enough times that when the hero yells "stop!" the Gill Man instinctively stops, allowing the woman to get away and the militia shooting him.
This one is pretty forgettable.
one thumb down
How is this revenge?
Stuck in marine land and shot?
No one even dies!
This is one of the classic monster movies. Although there were at least 2 sequels, the Gill Man never really got his due. It is a great design even if the film itself isn't all that great.
It is basically a generic monster movie but it is interesting that it is so blatant about talking about evolution. I doubt that a modern remake would do so out of fear from angering morons.
It starts off with a team of archaeologists finding the petrified remains of an arm from the Gill Man. They go looking for the rest but it isn't there so they speculate that the hill has been washed further down the river. Of course they find a living one who goes around terrorizing them. Only of course he doesn't. If they would have just left him alone, then he wouldn't have tried to kill anyone. This another interesting thing about the movies of this era. In many of them going at least as far back as King Kong the monsters would have left people alone if they hadn't gone looking for them. Of course, while they are busy giving some moral about how limited man's knowledge is they never stop to think, "Maybe we shouldn't be out looking for monsters." That would be crazy talk!
I don't really remember the end of the movie. So that says something about how uninteresting this movie is. It might be because the order of the disks got mixed up and I saw the second and third movie before this one. I might have been a little Gill Man-ed out by that point. I would say it is worth watching even if only to look at the design of the Gill Man.
three thumbs up
The scary Gill Man
He just wants someone to love
Why is he alone?
It is basically a generic monster movie but it is interesting that it is so blatant about talking about evolution. I doubt that a modern remake would do so out of fear from angering morons.
It starts off with a team of archaeologists finding the petrified remains of an arm from the Gill Man. They go looking for the rest but it isn't there so they speculate that the hill has been washed further down the river. Of course they find a living one who goes around terrorizing them. Only of course he doesn't. If they would have just left him alone, then he wouldn't have tried to kill anyone. This another interesting thing about the movies of this era. In many of them going at least as far back as King Kong the monsters would have left people alone if they hadn't gone looking for them. Of course, while they are busy giving some moral about how limited man's knowledge is they never stop to think, "Maybe we shouldn't be out looking for monsters." That would be crazy talk!
I don't really remember the end of the movie. So that says something about how uninteresting this movie is. It might be because the order of the disks got mixed up and I saw the second and third movie before this one. I might have been a little Gill Man-ed out by that point. I would say it is worth watching even if only to look at the design of the Gill Man.
three thumbs up
The scary Gill Man
He just wants someone to love
Why is he alone?
