February 14, 2026

Certain movies are always with us. We saw them at such an impressionable young age that they’re forever burned into our psyche. Such is the case, for me, with all of the Universal Monster movies. The sequels tend to get jumbled up in my memory because I’d always catch little pieces of them on TV. But the Creature felt separate. He had a trilogy of films and one brief TV appearance with Abbott and Costello and that was it! What’s fun about revisiting movies (and franchises) is they can change based upon where you are in your life. The experiences you’ve had since last watching them, the little things you notice that maybe you never picked up on before, the environment in which you watch them. So, with Valentine’s Day on the horizon and love in the air, this was the week I decided to take a little trip back to the BLACK LAGOON (in 3D!) and see how the trilogy held up for me, now, in 2026!

CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954)

I have a great deal of affection for the CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON because of how indelible him and all of the Universal Monsters were to my childhood. And while I’m pretty sure THE WOLF MAN was my first Universal monster movie, I have strong memories of going to the local 7-11 to get the red and blue 3D glasses for a special TV presentation of the CREATURE!

Nowadays, I’m a huge advocate for home 3D TV’s, even though they are all but extinct. But hey, I still have mine and the best way to see the original CREATURE is in 3D!

Dr. David Reed (Richard Carlson ) is an ichthyologist out on an expedition on the Amazon with his girlfriend Kay (Julia Adams) when his former teacher, Carl Maia (Antonio Moreno), arrives with news that he’s discovered the skeletal hand of a creature unlike any in recorded history! Dr. Mark Williams (Richard Denning) is funding David’s current expedition, (and also happens to have history with Kay) and is excited at the prospect of bringing back something the world has never seen before. So, the entire group heads back to the lagoon to see if they can find the rest of the fossil. But instead, they come into contact with a living version of the creature, the Gill Man!

It’s basically the first half of KING KONG but done on the Amazon and with a humanoid fish man instead of a giant ape. The sequel, REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, takes a page from the third act of KING KONG.

What’s funny is, on this watch, the humans are totally the villains and completely at fault. It’s my favorite case of “mess around and find out.” They impede on the Creature’s turf and steal the skeletal hand / remains of his companion. Then they go trotting into HIS lagoon, closed off by the outside world. Then, they literally drop dozens of poison pellets trying to drug the Creature and make him come to the surface. When Mark first sees him, he shoots him with a harpoon! From the Creature’s perspective, he’s got to be thinking “who do these nimrod’s think they are?!” He gets one look at Kay and decides, “ya know what? Screw these clowns. They’re trying to kill me and everything in my lagoon. I’m taking their girl! I need a new companion anyways!” In my eyes, he’s just yet another of Universal’s sympathetic monsters that doesn’t know he’s a monster. He’s minding his own damn business when these humans come into his world, starting nothing but trouble!

All that said, for a sci-fi creature feature from the early 50s, and a Universal monster that came a decade or two after the other characters were introduced and established, it’s really a well made, put together movie thanks to director Jack Arnold. Sure, it may borrow from KING KONG, but it’s got a style of its own. The Creature’s POV as he swims directly underneath Julia Adams is directly referenced in JAWS! I also kind of love that for the first 20 minutes, all we see is the Creature’s hand repeatedly coming out of the water to the same over-dramatic music cue! We don’t get our first full look at the Creature until the 24 minute mark! And I also love the animalistic howl this thing lets out. Still scary after all these years!

CREATURE is truly great and I love revisiting it ever couple of years. And credit where credit is due, the Creature is portrayed by TWO actors. Ben Chapman gets the majority of the credit as the Creature even though he only plays him on land, which is some of the more prominent, timeless imagery from the third act. Ricou Browning, also uncredited, plays the Creature in all the great underwater sequences and hence has a hell of a lot more screen time. Browning also reprised the Creature (underwater) for both sequels. Speaking of credit, Milicent Patrick created the infamous Creature design and wasn’t celebrated enough for her contribution to cinema history while she was alive. Regardless, the Creature will forever live on, as will the work of all these incredible creatives!

REVENGE OF THE CREATURE (1955)

The Creature returns!

One mere year after the release of the original CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, Universal managed to fast track this sequel! And while it’s definitely not nearly on the same level as the first film, director Jack Arnold returns, as does Ricou Browning, who played the Creature in all the underwater scenes for an interesting follow up, primarily set up at the Sea World-esque Ocean Harbor Oceanarium. (Tom Hennesy takes over from Ben Chapman as the Creature on land.) Whereas the first film borrowed loosely from the first half of KING KONG, this one is basically the third act of KING KONG and also the inspiration for JAWS 3!

The movie opens with Captain Lucas (Nestor Paiva, the only on-screen character from the first movie to return!) taking yet another expedition into the lagoon with a new group to capture the famed Gill-man. (Doesn’t he know better?!) They poison the lagoon (again!) and this time manage to capture the Creature. They bring him back to an ocean themed amusement park, both for studying, but also as an attraction. It’s pretty funny, they even have a cardboard cut out of a publicity shot of the Creature from the first movie.

They chain him to the bottom of their tank and try to “train” him by hitting him with a prod anytime he tries to get food. No wonder the Creature hates humans?! Of the couple examining him, Clete and Helen (Lori Nelson), the Creature forms an infatuation for Helen. (I don’t blame him!) As can be expected, there’s only so much you can prod and hurt the Creature before he strikes back. He manages to break his chain, murder some people, wrecks havoc at the park and flees into the ocean. Later, he comes back to kidnap Helen. Maybe he’s not sure exactly what he’s doing, he just wants to take this woman with him!

He terrorizes along the coastal shore until he’s eventually tracked down, shot at, and supposedly dies in the ocean. (Yet again, using the exact same final shot of him floating from the last film.)

I will say this. The 3D makes the movie much, much better. It’s not a bad film, but it’s not great either. And on previous viewings, I used to find it rather boring compared to the first. But that’s because a lot of the lingering shots in the ocean are meant to be seen in 3D, with depth of field! And fishes swimming by the lens. And the Creature flexing his claws towards camera, or Clete swimming straight for us with his prod. The 3D version adds quite a bit. I’m just surprised there’s not much more to the story, but then again, Universal managed to crank three consecutive Creature films in three years, and that was the end of the franchise. They drove it into the ground in record time!

Of note, Clint Eastwood makes his first onscreen appearance as a professor trying to remember where he put those blasted mice for his snake. Ricou Browning also has a cameo in his regular human appearance!

THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US (1956)

Whenever I revisit the first CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, it’s almost a given that I’m going to watch the entire trilogy that week, and so I finally finished up with THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US, a conclusion that, to this day, completely baffles me in every single decision.

Picking up roughly a year after REVENGE, now the Creature (Don Megowan) is spotted in the Florida Everglades and a… (let’s call him unstable) scientist, Dr. William Barton (Jeff Morrow), is hellbent on capturing him with the sole purpose of experimenting on him. He’s got his young wife on board, Marcia (Leigh Snowden) whom he’s extremely jealous and abusive with. Jed Grant (Gregg Palmer) is their ocean bound guide and captain, who repeatedly hits on Marcia in front of Barton. (She shoots him down every time, but this guy won’t give up!) Dr. Morgan (Rex Reason) is the man of reason, both with trying to keep the peace among this crew but also when it comes to compassion for the Creature.

The Creature does attack and they set him on fire, then bring him on board and… decide to open up his “human” lungs so he can breath on the surface, but this also renders him forever incapable of going back in the ocean! (That’s just cruel!) And I guess they perform plastic surgery on him too? It’s a bit fuzzy why he has this radically changed appearance in this movie. Caused by the third degree burns? Because he’s evolving? OK, but then, why now? It’s the least appealing look for the Creature. It’s just bizarre and he’s bulky ala Frankenstein’s monster. (I joked to my friend Rob, “who would want an action figure of THIS Creature design?!)

As usual, they keep him captive in a cage and as long as he’s unprovoked, he remains docile. It’s only when he’s confronted by violence that the Creature also turns violent. For example, when a mountain lion enters his cage to hunt his neighboring sheep, it doesn’t end well for the lion.

There’s a bit of a love triangle between Marcia, her husband Barton, and the sly captain Grant. And maybe with Morgan too? Honestly, these guys all look so similar that I actually kept confusing Grant with Morgan and wondering why he was nice sometimes and other times a slimeball. (Grant’s the slimeball.) And in a fit of rage, Barton kills him and tries to frame the Creature! That doesn’t go well either.

The ending gets a bit ambiguous. The Creature escapes and it’s implied that he goes back to the ocean, which will kill him. But that’s all he wants is to return to the ocean! And these humans completely changed his appearance and anatomy preventing him from ever doing that again! It’s such a bizarre direction to go in. And remember, they cranked these out one per year for three years straight and essentially drove their new Universal Monster franchise right into the ground.

I know the rumor now is that James Wan is finally remaking this with Sean Tretta writing the script. Well, gents. It’s a very low bar to clear! The first one will always remain the best of this bunch, both in terms of the quality of the film, but also in the Creature design. Credit always to Milicent Patrick who created the distinctive Creature design that stands the test of time! (Don’t change or update it!) It’s been a hell of an (underwater) journey.

Justice for the Creature!

BONUS!

UNIVERSAL MONSTERS: THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON LIVES! (Graphic Novel)

Now this is pretty cool. Image Comics has been bringing on board various creators to do new stories featuring the Universal Monsters! And back in 2024, writers Dan Watters and Ram V with artist Matthew Roberts tackled the CREATURE! I’d read the series based on DRACULA, THE MUMMY, and FRANKENSTEIN and each team does their own take. In some cases, it’s a retelling of the original movie, in others its more of a sequel. The latter is true in the CREATURE’s case.

Journalist Kate Marsden has been on the trail of notorious serial killer Darwin Collier for a while now, ever since she narrowly escaped being one of his victims! The former Marine has disappeared somewhere into the Amazon, working with the cartel. She follows a doctor that she assumes will lead her to Collier but it turns out to be Doctor Edwin Thompson! (He was in the original 1954 movie played by actor Whit Bissell and the one that gets his face horribly slashed by the Creature when he escapes his cage on the Rita!) It’s been 30 years since the events of the first movie, and Thomson has been looking for the Creature ever since. (For revenge? For science? He’s ambiguous in his motivations.)

In typical Creature fashion, once he gets a look at Kate, after saving her from drowning, the Creature becomes infatuated and keeps a close eye on her. When they do finally track down Collier, he’s even more twisted than imaginable. He has been slowly performing surgeries on himself to become more like the Creature!

I definitely welcome the sequel approach here, especially after the disappointing two movie sequels and think this is a fun way to continue the Creature story. I don’t know if the “serial killer trying to turn himself into the Creature via surgery” totally works, but sure. Why not? I’ll take a wild swing over the same old thing, and I’d guess this has to be a strange homage to THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US where they tried to turn the Creature into a human. What if, this time, a human turned into the Creature? I also welcome bringing back old characters! It’s comic books after all. And the beautiful thing about this medium is you can literally do anything and bring back anyone!

Now, you know what I’ve always wanted to see? THE WOLF MAN VS. THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON! Make it happen, Image Comics!

THE UNITED MONSTER TALENT AGENCY (2010)

After revisiting the entire CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON trilogy, I was reminded of this humorous short film Greg Nicotero made that features the original Creature design!

What if all the monsters were actual monsters that were loaned out to Universal for shoots by The United Monster Talent Agency? What if Eli Roth directed the Wolfman transformation in ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN? Kudos for re-doing it exactly as they did in the old days! It proves my point that you don’t have to update the Wolf Man design. He still looks scary as is! Same for The Creature. That design has, and always will be, perfect!

It’s 8 minutes and a love letter to monsters AND monster kids everywhere. Watch it below!

And this is exactly how I feel the Creature really feels about everyone. (Courtesy of Frank Dietz!

*All of the above reviews have come from my personal Letterboxd account where I’ve gotten back into the habit of reviewing all of the films I watch. Please feel free to follow along: https://letterboxd.com/RobertVGalluzzo