A classic and an unofficial sequel tonight. Been a bit since I have seen either, but longer for the first.
This is another classic I watched with my dad. The Gill man is one of the very few Universal Monsters that was not directly tied to old world myths or classic novels. As such, as far as I can tell, he is one of the few monsters where Universal holds all the copyrights. Now, that being said, the copyrights are on "Gill-man" and "The Creature from the Black Lagoon." There have been other amphibious monsters to appear in movies, and I am covering one later tonight.
The plot is, well, the same a King Kong really. Scientists go to a remote area, this time the Amazon, find a creature, try to take it back. It falls in love with a beautiful woman, they have to kill it.
There are some good scenes in this one and I am a little surprised by how much of it I remember once watching it again. Not scary by today's standards, but still effective. It has a charm. Also the rubber suit doesn't get better looking with age, but I can ignore that.
The Shape of Water (2017)
Guillermo del Toro's love letter to the Creature from the Black Lagoon is an unofficial sequel. It picks up the events nearly 10 years later where the creautre (or one like it) is being held in a US facility in Canada. Mute cleaner Elisa Esposito (played by the amazing Sally Hawkins) discovers the creature and they fall in love. There were other standout performances by Michael Shannon and Octavia Spencer, as expected. They are both fantastic. Special shoutout to Doug Jones (Saru in Star Trek Discovery) playing the Creature.
Yeah, not your typical horror flick.
It was fun, though, watching them back to back. You do feel like these movies were made for each other. I would love to see Guillermo del Toro do a remake of Creature from the Black Lagoon, with Doug Jones back as the Creature.
When the Screaming Stops (1973)
While reading up on these movies I also came across this one, also called "The Loreley's Grasp." In this during a full moon a woman (played by Helga Liné, in one of her many horror roles) "reverts" back to an earlier form, a reptilian river monster that looks related to our Gill-men here.
The implication is that all of our Gill-men are somehow related to humans.
This one is a German flick playing on the myth of the Lorelei. A Nymph of the River Rhine. There is a nearby boarding school for girls, so naturally, they are the prime target of our monster.
It's not a great flick, but it is a new one to me.
Featured Monster: Locathah and Sahuagin
There are no lack of sea-people monsters in D&D. The trick is finding the ones with Gill-man DNA and the ones with Deep Ones DNA.
Since I am watching Gill-Man movies, I think the Locathah and Sahuagin fit best, and the Kuo-toa are more "Deep Ones." Though the implications of The Shape of Water show that there might be only one species here and they are linked back to humans.
October Horror Movie Challenge 2024
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