Revenge of the Creature

Starring: John Agar, Lori Nelson, John Bromfield, Nestor Paiva, Grandon Rhodes, Clint Eastwood (uncredited)
Directed by: Jack Arnold
Rating: Approved
Genre: Horror, Science Fiction
1955

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: After being captured by an expedition, the creature from the black lagoon is put on display at an aquarium.

Review:

Tim: I really enjoyed the original Creature from the Black Lagoon, so I was excited to see the sequel. While I'm really glad this film departed from the format of the original, it did lose some of what made the first film so good. I would say this was a decent film, but it doesn't reach the level of the original. That often happens with sequels, but I had hoped for more from this film.

What I loved about the original was the secluded, exotic feel of the Black Lagoon. It almost felt like a giant Gill Man could have been possible in such an isolated setting. All that is gone here (except for the opening sequence) because the creature is taken from his home and put into an aquarium. Now, in some ways, I love this move- it delivered a completely different setting for the sequel and was certainly not a rehash of the exact same thing in the exact same place. The different setting was a very good thing. The problem is that the Gill Man isn't all that frightening when on display for all the world to see. Seeing him swim around a giant aquarium delivered very few thrills. Sure, there were a few tense moments when the characters got into the water with him and then swam into the place where he could get at them (moronic move), but it just wasn't the same. You know that he'll escape eventually, but a large portion of this movie featured him chained up. It just didn't deliver anywhere close to enough thrills or suspense. In the end, the change of locale was appreciated, but it also hurt the movie.

The human characters were once again fairly disposable. The movie at least tried to humanize them a little bit, but the cast here is significantly less effective than in the original. In the first film, I actually cared a little about some of the characters. That wasn't the case here. I will say that I loved seeing Clint Eastwood in his very first role. He's uncredited, but it is clearly him and was an unexpected plus. As a whole, the cast left a lot to be desired.

As in the first film, the underwater scenes were some of the highlights. It's just hard to film well underwater, but some of the sequences here were really well done. Those were definitely among the highlights of the film. The movie needed more of these, and in more exotic locations than the bottom of an aquarium tank. Still, they were better than the other scenes we got.

A unique feature about Gill Man is that he always tries to kidnap women. I know women were often cast as damsels in distress, but it felt like an aspect of his character that was important here. It was a retread from the first film, but I didn't necessarily mind it. It gave him some personality. I do think that the insistence that the Gill Man couldn't be out of water for more than a few minutes at a time was a pretty big liability for him. It made the idea of escaping him pretty easy. I laughed out loud when the two main characters take a vacation near water when the Gill Man had escaped. What an idiotic thing to do. Hey, if there's a monster on the loose and he can't be away from water for more than a few minutes, maybe take a vacation in the Rocky Mountains. It might be a safer destination. I also didn't like that the Creature was very afraid of light. He's not afraid of light during the day, but it freaks him out at night apparently. It just contributed to making him a less scary antagonist.

While I certainly wanted this movie to be better, I still had fun watching it. The creature is interesting to me and while we saw too much of him here, it was still enjoyable watching his continued exploits. I know there was a final Gill Man film in the 50s, and this one was decent enough to make me interested in seeing the conclusion of the trilogy.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend:
Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Creature Walks Among Us