In the dying hours of 2024, I sat down to watch one of my all time favourite films: Creature from the Black Lagoon, which celebrated its 70th anniversary last year (and, watching it prior to midnight on the 31st of December, I was still able to watch it during its anniversary year!).

I have long had quite a fascination, if not obsession, with Universal’s classic monster movie. It started in the early 90s, and began in an unlikely way: with the then-new, Creature from the Black Lagoon pinball machine. I loved that machine, and it’s perhaps one of my favourite pinball tables to this day; from there, I read the wonderful comic adaptation of the film itself, by Art Adams; in the early 90s, it wasn’t easy to watch the film itself, so the comic book was the next best thing.

I didn’t expect to ever get the chance to see the film on the big screen, but in 1994 I did get to see it, in its 40th anniversary year – thanks to a 1950s nostalgia night, which was held at the peerless Prince Charles Cinema in London’s Leicester Square. Titled ‘Night of the Rock and Roll Alien Delinquents’, there were live dancers, a tongue in cheek, 50s-style host (Jivin’ James Farquarson-Smythe), classic commercials from the era and a movie double bill. One of the movies was The Girl Can’t Help It, a hugely entertaining romantic comedy, and of course Creature from the Black Lagoon – in its original 3D form too.

I received the Creature trilogy on Blu-ray for Christmas, so what better time to revisit it? And is it still as good as I remember it being?

In Creature from the Black Lagoon, a fossilized forearm and hand is discovered in the Amazon, belonging to what appears to be an amphibious humanoid. A group of scientists and the expedition’s sponsor make their way down to the Amazon, and the titular Black Lagoon, to see if they can find the rest of the specimen, convinced that they’re on the cusp of a huge discovery about the origins of humanity. However, what they don’t bank on is the fact that a Gillman is still very much alive, and he doesn’t take too kindly to the humans poking around his territory.

Despite its age, the underwater, black and white photography in Creature from the Black Lagoon is genuinely impressive; the Gillman himself is a brilliantly timeless and iconic creation (shout-out to Millicent Patrick, whose contribution as the designer of the creature was stolen by a man, who I won’t name here, with her only being credited relatively recently) too.

The story is pretty straightforward, seeing the crew chased away from the site by the Gillman, before he traps them and forces a confrontation. Despite the shocks being very tame by today’s standards, there’s still a wonderful, primal tension to the underwater chases; not to mention the beautiful scenes of the Gillman mimicking the swimming motions of the crew’s lone female member (played by Julia Adams).

It’s a product of its time in terms of the science, the attitude of the men towards the female character and of course, the dialogue and performances too. Yet it remains a pretty potent creature feature, which doesn’t outstay its welcome.

Though I received the full trilogy of movies featuring the Gillman, I’ve yet to revisit the much weaker sequels; though they’re far from lazy retreads, both taking the story away from the Amazon and back to civilization, they’re just not as compelling as the first film.

A recent comic book, Creature from the Black Lagoon Lives, was a better (and very modern) continuation of the classic story than the actual sequels. Remakes have been on the cards for years, but have stalled for various reasons; I believe the closest these projects previously were to being made was in the 90s, with John Carpenter attached. However, James Wan is now in charge of a remake that looks set to hit the big screen in the next few years, with the Gillman making a long overdue return for the first time in almost seven decades.

Regardless of the remake or other reboots of the story, the original film is a classic for a reason, and despite some creaky elements, it’s still one of the very best examples of a type of monster movie that really hit its peak in the 1950s.

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