Creature From The Black Lagoon

Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954)

The Plot: Scientists unearth a strange fossil and embark on a trip to the Amazon where they get more than they bargained for. 

  The Creature From The Black Lagoon is a Halloween classic, and for good reason. The Creature himself is an iconic design. Arguably the best design of all the Universal monsters. Although it's hard to pick the best amongst Karloff's Frankenstein's Monster, Lagosi's Dracula and Lon Chaney Jr.'s Wolf Man. 
C'mon in, the water's fine!

  The story follows a group of scientists investigating a strange fossil in the Amazon. They hire a boat to take them to investigate when they first run into the gill man. Naturally, the desk hands, the Black Lagoon equivalent of the red shirts in Star Trek,  are the first killed. They're just creature fodder afterall, just there to show how serious things really are. 
The Gill Man's preferred method of killing, web claws to the face!

  Our two heroes, David and Mark, bicker like an old married couple on how to deal with the gill man. David wants to capture and study it, but Mark prefers to kill it. The Creature quickly becomes enthralled with the beautiful Kay. His raison d'etre then becomes to take her for his own. The creature does take a beating from the scientists. He is shot twice with a spear gun, set ablaze, and drugged. But that is not enough to stop him. He takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'. But like any misunderstood being not known to man, the violence does work on him and the scientists do get Kay back, but not before poor Mark is mauled to death by the Creature. 

  The Creature From The Black Lagoon is what Halloween movies are made for. I give it 9 dead deck hands!

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