Revenge of the Creature

There are three prevailing mindsets behind horror-movie sequels. The most typical goes something like, “We can squeeze out some more bucks here and don’t need to put a lot of thought into anything.” A rarer approach is concerned with quality and extending a story, delving deeper into characters, motives, next moves. Then there’s the third: you don’t want a great monster to go to “waste” with he, she, or it having but the single cinematic appearance.

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) kicked up sizable waves for the Universal movie-monster brand. That brand had been splashing around in the kiddie pool in the years following 1941’s The Wolf Man. Pictures from the 1930s like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and Bride of Frankenstein—a gold standard in sequels—were seen as legitimately frightening within the context of their times. Times change, though, and fright can wear off; yesterday’s nightmare-inducing fears are today’s salubrious entertainments. Universal transitioned. Monsters became your buddies—especially if you were a kid—and not some threat from under the bed.

Jack Arnold’s Creature from the Black Lagoon tilted the paradigm toward the past. You were supposed to dread the Gill-man, who could emerge from the depths of that brackish water and pull you down. He represented the beast-from-below before Jaws and was also perhaps the coolest-looking monster ever, with the open ending of the first film allowing for his return in 1955’s Revenge of the Creature.

The follow-up is also directed by Arnold, and if you’re into horror, you know you can’t go very wrong when he’s calling the shots. Certain names are synonymous with films of a bound-to-be entertaining quality. John Agar, the male lead in the movie, is another example, so it’s like we have a double guarantee.

The Gill-man hits the road in Revenge of the Creature. Riddled with bullets at the conclusion of the first movie, there was enough life left in the old boy that he could be scooped up from his Amazonian lair and transported to an aquarium in Florida for further study. As with the earlier installment, his Royal Amphibiousness has an eye for the human ladies and matters proceed in the familiar beast-loves-beauty-but-this-isn’t-going-to-end-well fashion.

We’re not here for the plot, though, so much as we are for a horror hangout. You like to spend time with Revenge of the Creature as though it were some friend who was passionate about the same things you were. There are no delusions of artistic eminence, but nor is there that style of franchise-milking we’re so accustomed to with sequels. The Gill-man has returned for what feels like a purity of purpose: because those who loved the first film will be happy to get to spend more time with him. A collective, Ah, Gilly—glad to have you back.

In the first film, those Amazonian banks were tantamount to the haunted house of the piece. The ostensibly more controlled—fat chance, though—human setting of the sequel is comparable with the spirit behind the fright-filled castle that sets up shop every October on your town’s village green. You know how it’s going to go, but you still look forward to attending and are glad the kids are old enough now for you to take them. We have our favorite movies, but we also have these movies we may watch more than we watch our favorite movies. Revenge of the Creature is classic horror fun, if not additionally classic horror cinema. But who’s counting? 🩸