How do you respond to a movie that was ahead of its time yet laughably outdated now? I suspect a lot of the 1950's creature features fall into this category, creating a bunch of memorable monsters and scary moments that would seem amateurish by today's standards. That being said, I typically do not hate on the special effects, make up and costumes of older movies. In fact they are often quite good, such as the giant ants in Them!, a fellow B rate sci-fi film released the same year as Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Just take a look at the creature in the picture. Is he a convincingly scary monster? Perhaps to a child, but I suspect to everyone else it looks obviously like a guy in a rubber suit. I'm willing to let that slide though. I'm willing to let the creature enter the crevices of my mind and scare me a little. It's just too bad he sort of mails it in here. Much of the fright relies on the atmosphere and mood created by the creature and as much as I tried, I just couldn't get into it. So I ended up watching the movie with a sort of bemused detachment rather than letting it soak in. Combine that with the subpar acting and the generic plot and you get a pretty middling movie. I don't care how important or influential the film is, it just doesn't hold up that well. Compare that to Them! which is a stronger movie all the way around and is still legitimately awesome today.
The beginning sequences are rather promising. As is customary with these films, we only catch brief and incomplete glimpses of the creature at first, here his webbed claw reaching out of the water. It is accompanied by a loud and ominous musical score that will become the creature's theme song. An early attack on a campsite instills a sense of fear and danger in our minds that unfortunately is never again realized for the rest of the film. I think the main problem occurs when you see the entire creature for the first time. It just looks too awkward and walks like a crippled zombie. It makes you wonder how anybody ever gets caught by him on land. The film would have been better served if the creature remains mostly hidden and mysterious. I feel like you get to see too much of the creature for too long. The longer you see him on screen in full form the more you realize how bad and un-scary it looks. Also, a murkier swampy setting would have been better to set the mood; the creature looks out of place in a couple of shots.
The underwater scenes do look nice. One shot in particular reminded me of Jaws where we get to see Julie Adams from underneath the surface of the water with the creature lurking below. That is a very good shot.
At first I liked the musical score but I think it's overused a bit. Also how many times must you see the girl shriek in terror in one film? The humans are pretty dumb, but that's too be expected. All that being said, I can still appreciate the film for its significance and it is easy enjoy through nostalgic amusement, which probably is a bad reason to like a film.
Grade: C+
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