CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954) TURNS 70!!!

CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954) d. Jack Arnold (USA)
REVENGE OF THE CREATURE (1955) d. Jack Arnold (USA)
THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US (1956) d. John Sherwood (USA)

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One of the best sci-fi/horror efforts of the 1950s and must-see material for any card-carrying genre fan, Creature from the Black Lagoon was the brainchild of producer William Alland who blatantly riffed on King Kong’s storyline of a legendary beast sought out by civilized man for selfish designs. Screenwriters Harry Essex and Arthur Ross worked alongside legendary genre director Jack Arnold (who helmed such fare as It Came from Outer Space, Tarantula, and The Incredible Shrinking Man) to create an onscreen antagonist so fantastic that audiences could not help but empathize.

CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954) movie review

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) d. Jack Arnold (USA) (79 min)

A team of scientists (led by Richard Carlson, Richard Denning, and Julia Adams) head into the wilds of South America in search of a mythical “living fossil,” a scaly humanoid amphibian that could serve as a missing link between land and sea creatures. The testy love triangle between the eggheads provides the melodrama until the monster makes its presence (and its ardor for the lone female member of the expedition) known, leading to a fierce battle of wits and sheer animal instinct that will leave the Amazonian waters red with blood....

BLACK ROSES (1988) movie review

Black Roses (1988) (1st viewing) d. Fasano, John

One of a slew of ’80s rock n’ roll/horror features released in the latter half of the decade (none of which particularly lucrative, artistically or financially speaking), but there’s enough goofy charm and insane wardrobe choices to keep kitsch-loving viewers occupied. When the titular “bad boy” band rolls into the sleepy town of Mill Basin to launch their new album, the kids rally against their stodgy elders in support of their sonic messiahs, inadvertently falling under the group’s dark spell. Before long, the little burg’s youth are turning into hairsprayed, leather-clad, sex-obsessed murder machines, offing their parents and authority figures with wild abandon.

Oddly enough, the reason this fell off the “I’ll get that sometime” shelf into the player was that it represents one of Creature from the Black Lagoon star Julie (Julia) Adams’ very few other genre credits (even though she only briefly appears at the beginning as one of the teen’s moms and then disappears for the rest of the film) and I wanted to be able to ask her about it during the HorrorHound Weekend festivities. There’s some fun monster action, horrible pop rock tunes masquerading as heavy metal, the occasional glimmer of no-name female nudity, and a smattering of cheesy gory goodness. It’s not good, per se, but it ain’t boring.