Cultural impact of Creature from the Black Lagoon

The extensive and persistent impact on media and popular culture of Creature from the Black Lagoon began even before it was seen in theaters. To publicize the release of the film in 1954, Ben Chapman, in costume, introduced the Gill-Man to the public on live television in The Colgate Comedy Hour with Abbott and Costello.

Film influence
  • Many films featuring monsters put the Gill-Man's likeness in the background as an homage. Its likeness was also used for the film The Monster Squad.[1] However, due to licensing issues with Universal, the Creature is referred to as the Gill-Man.
  • In the 1955 comedy The Seven Year Itch, Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell come out of a theater showing Creature from the Black Lagoon. Monroe expresses some sympathy for the Gill-Man, saying that it was not really bad and that it "just wanted to be loved".[2]
  • Director William Winckler was inspired by the film when producing his 2005 black-and-white horror film Frankenstein vs. the Creature from Blood Cove. In the 90-minute retro monster movie, a bio-genetically engineered half-man, half-fish creature battles Frankenstein's monster on a beach and beneath the waves, with underwater photography reminiscent of the underwater shots in Creature from the Black Lagoon. A stuntman/diver wearing a full-body latex rubber costume was used to portray the Blood Cove creature on camera, not unlike Ben Chapman and Ricou Browning in costume in Creature from the Black Lagoon.
  • The 2017 film The Shape of Water is a romantic fantasy between a mute woman and an amphibious creature from South America. Director Guillermo del Toro was inspired to make the film from childhood memories of seeing the Julia Adams swimming scene in Creature from the Black Lagoon and hoping the creature would get with the girl.[3]

Television influence
  • In an episode of the classic TV series The Munsters, the Munster family receives a visit from "Uncle Gilbert", who proudly refers to himself as the "Creature from the Black Lagoon".[4]
  • The TV series I'll Be Gone in the Dark repeatedly references the swimming scene from the film.[5]
  • Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: The Animated Series parodied the film in "The Tomato from the Black Lagoon". In this episode, the gang looks for a missing-tomato-link in the San Zucchini Botanical Gardens, whilst they are stalked by an amphibious tomato that goes after Tara (who is also part tomato).
  • The Gill-Man appeared in the Robot Chicken episode "Shoe", voiced by Seth Green. He tells a man that he prefers the lagoon to be called the "African-American Lagoon". It also appears in the Robot Chicken sketch "We Are a Humble Factory", now voiced by Breckin Meyer. Learning of the success of Count Chocula, FrankenBerry, and BooBerry, as well as Fruity Yummy Mummy and Fruit Brute, the Gill-Man decides to make his own cereal called "Creature with the Black Macaroons" because "macaroon" sounds like "lagoon"; however, the cereal was not successful and when all the cereal were dumped into his lagoon, he says "I should've gone with legumes", as "legume" also sounds like "lagoon".
  • In The Comic Strip, he has a son named Lagoon.

Musical references

Other cultural influences
1962 magazine cover depicting the Gill-Man
  • Creature from the Black Lagoon was made into a pinball game, designed by John Trudreau (a.k.a. "Dr. Flash") and released in 1992 by Midway under the Bally brand name. It has a retro 1950s drive-in theme. Completing side missions causes the screen to display "Universal Presents...Creature from the Black Lagoon", and then requires the player to chase after the monster, just like in the film. The game sold 7,841 units. The Gill-Man is also featured in the 1998 pinball game Monster Bash.
  • In the Stephen King novel It, the shape-shifting Pennywise the Clown pursues and kills a victim whilst in the form of the Gill-Man.[6]
  • The Creature - referred to as the "Gill Man"[7] - appears as a 1/4th part of the composite creature Monsterex in two of Archie Comics' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comic specials, The Night of Monsterex.[8][9] and #7: "The Return of... Monsterex!" (1993).[10]
  • The Monster High character Lagoona Blue is the daughter of the Gill-Man.
  • In October 2010, Funko released a seven-inch, button-eyed, cuddly version of the Gill-Man.[11]
  • The Mexican artist José Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros created a gallery of images which mixed together various Disney characters and classic Hollywood creatures and villains from horror films. One of those images includes the Gill-man and Disney's Ariel.[12]
  • When paleontologist Jenny Clack of the University of Cambridge discovered a fossilized amphibian in what was once a fetid swamp, she named it Eucritta melanolimnetes, which is Greek for "the true creature from the black lagoon".[13][14]
  • In the 2008 video game Fallout 3, the Mirelurk Kings bear a striking resemblance to the Gill-Man.[15]
  • In the spin-off comic of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen featuring Captain Nemo II, the heroes face off against a clone army of Hitler and Ayesha look-alikes while also contending with Gill-men/Creatures from the Black Lagoon.
  • In Tensou Sentai Goseiger, the Yuumajuu Jogon of the Ningyo was named after the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

References

Notes

  1. Navarro, Meagan (5 March 2019). "The Enduring Terror of the Gill Man: 'Creature from the Black Lagoon' Turns 65". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  2. Lambie, Ryan (16 January 2020). "Whatever Happened to John Carpenter's Creature From The Black Lagoon?". Den of Geek. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  3. http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3457493/iconic-horror-movie-scene-inspired-shape-water/
  4. Hutchinson, Sam (28 April 2020). "Horror Icons: 10 Things You Need To Know About The Creature From The Black Lagoon". Screen Rant. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  5. Gajanan, Mahita (28 June 2020). "I'll Be Gone In the Dark: Inside HBO Michelle McNamara Doc". Time. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  6. Hutchinson, Sam (28 April 2020). "Horror Icons: 10 Things You Need To Know About The Creature From The Black Lagoon". Screen Rant. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  7. "Monsterex", in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Universe Sourcebook (vol. 1) pg. 56.
  8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures Special #3: "The Night of Monsterex" (1992)
  9. Mark Pellegrini (Winter 1992). "The Night of Monsterex". TMNT Entity. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  10. Mark Pellegrini (Winter 1993). "The Return of Monsterex". TMNT Entity. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  11. "Universal monsters get cuddly." DreadCentral.
  12. Disney Characters Meet Freddy, Michael, and Even the Creature From the Black Lagoon!
  13. Clack, Jennifer A. "A new Early Carboniferous tetrapod with a mélange of crown-group characters." Nature, Volume 394, Issue 6688, July 1998, pp. 66–69.
  14. Clack, Jennifer A. " 'Eucritta melanolimnetes' from the Early Carboniferous of Scotland, a stem tetrapod showing a mosaic of characteristics." Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences, Volume 92, Issue 1, March 2001, pp. 75–95.
  15. Barkan, Jonathan. "Universal's Classic Monsters and Video Games That Featured Them". Dread Central. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
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