A team of scientists join salty skippers aboard the “Rita” and embark on an Amazonian expedition of scientific research. Spurred by the discovery of a fossilized webbed/skeletal hand, the team hopes to find evidence of an undiscovered amphibious species—the missing link between land and sea animals. Part scientific curiosity, part bravado, they journey into the locally known Black Lagoon, a “paradise from which no one has ever returned”. As they begin their work, they are stalked by a rubbery monster, a half-fish/half-man creature, who begins to off members of the crew. The team tries to study or capture the beast but when a scientist is severely injured by the creature, the divided crew elects to return to civilization. But alas, the creature blocks the lagoon’s entrance and abducts Kay Lawrence (the film’s single female scientist?/eye-candy/damsel-in-distress/professional-screamer). The crew must work together to outwit the fishy-fiend, rescue Kay, and return to civilization to tell the tale.
Like last week’s “The Mummy”, I compliment “Creature” for refining the medium and assembling a familiar formula, but found this film to be bland and boring. The story brings a suggestion of adventure and action-hero bravado to the genre but ultimately, the characters are pretty vanilla—archetypal in the least fun way. I found I didn’t care about them or their survival. This extends to the Creature itself, (“Gill-man” as it's come to be known). Dracula, the Mummy, Kong, Frankenstein’s Monster—each has a certain driving motivation, special power, and potential for a wide-berth of destruction. But “Gill-man” is just a strong fish-dude in a very specific pond in the the Amazon. I was never convinced of his practical threat, his design hasn’t really aged well, and he lacked the metaphor that carries other monsters where they flounder. Finally, the film is chock-full with underwater photography which might have seemed innovative or interesting at the time, but was simply boring, unclear, and too long. For me, when it comes to horror, there are other fish in the lagoon.