Creature from the Black Lagoon

Released - 1954
Genre - Horror, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Director - Jack Arnold
Starring - Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, Nestor Paiva, Bernie Gozier

This classic monster movie was first released in 3D. It tells the tale of a group of scientists in the Amazon who encounter an amphibious monster. They charter a riverboat and are shocked when local legends about the creature in the black lagoon prove to be true. The savage beast attacks and kills a string of ethnic assistants while the dashing scientists unleash a series of stupid plans to defeat it. They use a harpoon gun, poison the water, bludgeon the beast and eventually shoot it. The monster suit is good for the time but the hammy acting, misogynistic tone and general lack of action leave you wondering how this film managed to make such a mark on the popular psyche. The best sequence features underwater shots as the hapless female assistant swims in the lagoon with the creature shadowing her beneath the surface. This is surprisingly dull and tough to recommend. There are plans afoot to remake it and the new version is due in 2011. As Hollywood plunder through the back catalogue of horror films in their quest to remake everything ever made it may have been inevitable that they would eventually reach this film but the fact it has taken this long should tell you something.

Gore - no this is black and white and completely gore free

Monster - the classic toad faced Gill man in his aquatic rubber wetsuit with webbed hands and feet

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