For this year’s 31 Nights of Horror Challenge, the Day 29 prompt was My First Horror. The first horror movie I can remember watching was The Exorcist when I was about four or five, but I already profiled that one in the challenge, so I will go with the first monster movie I can remember. In 1979 we took a family trip to Florida and one of the stops was a theme park called Silver Springs. On the glass bottom boat tour, the guide told us that the movie was filmed here. I became obsessed, and as soon as I got home, I found a way to watch the Creature and fell in love with the Classic Monsters from Universal and was hooked!
#31nightsofhorrorchallenge First Horror Movie: The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
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Storyline
A scientific expedition searching for fossils along the Amazon River discovers a prehistoric Gill-Man in the legendary Black Lagoon. The explorers capture the mysterious creature, but it breaks free. The Gill-Man returns to kidnap the lovely Kay, fiancée of one in the expedition, with whom he has fallen in love.
Our Thoughts on The Creature from the Black Lagoon
“Creature” is rightly considered not just a classic horror film, but also a part American pop culture. The filmmakers take a basically pedestrian “scientific expedition encounters monster” storyline and creates a memorable piece of entertainment. The pacing is perfect, the acting is dead on for the genre and the monster himself elicits both shocks and pathos as the ultimate non-human anti-hero. Made long before the beginning of the modern environmental movement, the movie serves as a cautionary warning as to the encroachment of man into the natural world. This film is the perfect example of the ability of Hollywood to provide viewers with much-needed escapism, even (or maybe especially) 50 years after its release.
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8 out of 10
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Trivia
Viewers will note that when the two men put on their scuba tanks, David always wears two tanks on his back while Mark always wears one. This is a visual device used by the filmmakers to help the audience distinguish between the two characters when they are swimming under water