Movie Info
Movie Name: Revenge of the Creature
Studio: Universal Pictures
Genre(s): Horror/B-Movies
Release Date(s): May 13, 1955
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Oh man…this is turning into Blackfish!
The gill-man is back! Surviving the attack in the Black Lagoon, the creature has been captured and brought to Ocean Harbor Oceanarium in Florida for study. Professor Clete Ferguson (John Agar) and his student Helen Dobson (Lori Nelson) have been tasked with studying the strange scientific anomaly. When the gill-man manages to escape into the Florida swamps, it sets is eyes on its new obsession: Helen!
Directed by Jack Arnold (who also directed the original film), Revenge of the Creature was a follow-up sequel to the popular Creature from the Black Lagoon from 1954. Like the previous film, the movie was shot in 3D but unlike the original, the movie was poorly received by critics. The movie was featured in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K #801).
Creature from the Black Lagoon was one of my favorite monster movies. It looked great and had a fantastic monster in the gill-man though the story was a bit ho-hum. I have a bit of a soft spot for Revenge of the Creature that the gill-man is still cool…and like Creature from the Black Lagoon, I can remember staying up to watch this in a special 3D showing.
This never ends well for me…
Like the first movie, the story is rather weak and even made weaker in that it feels like rehash of the first film with the gill-man once again falling in love with a human woman. As the audience can see long before the “intelligent” scientists, it isn’t going to end well and of course the designated madness ensues. It is predictable and expected.
As mentioned however, I still can appreciate the great gill-man costume which is both functional and practical in swimming scenes and still worlds above most B-Movie monster costumes. The underwater photography still looks good, but isolating the creature to an aquarium takes away from the cooler looking lagoon. Ricou Browning and Tom Hennesy bring the creature to life with Ricou in the swimming scenes and Hennesy in the walking scenes.
Kid…you don’t have much of a future as an actor
Revenge of the Creature’s most memorable moment doesn’t really involve the creature. It involves a scientist named “Jennings” who plays with a lab rat in the scene. It is a dismissible filler scene, but Jennings ended up having some success in later films as Clint Eastwood who is uncredited here in his first role.
The movie is just Creature from the Black Lagoon played out in a new location for the most part and the once great special effects are now just good special effects. Despite all of this, Revenge of the Creature is a fun movie in B-Movie status and a creature feature with the first film wouldn’t be a bad thing if you haven’t seen either. The success of the film led to a second sequel with The Creature Walks Among Us released in 1956.
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