Classic Horror Monsters

I think the success of The Creature From the Black Lagoon lies in the formal experimentation that spices up the sturdy genre framework which holds the film together. The underwater sequences in the film are borderline avant-garde, foregoing the dialogue and exposition that dominates the on-land (or rather on-boat) sequences in favor of pure affect. Enough praising its aesthetic decisions, though. Another success of The Creature from the Black Lagoon is the design of its creature, and I don’t only mean visually. I also think that The Creature is such an iconic image because of his overdetermined representative power. I already mentioned in my moodle response the ways in which the creature represents those oppressed by imperialist forces and the “ethnic” other, but he also represents the dangers of science gone awry (a common theme in horror films of the time), primal sexuality, and even a kind of hermaphroditic androgyny. Many other monsters of universal’s classic horror films were similarly overdetermined—though the ethnic angle is one especially unique to the creature (and, well, the mummy). Though perhaps the creature’s most essential feature is his primal sexuality. Harry Benshoff writes that the creature seems to “pop up like clockwork whenever the hero and heroine move into a romantic clinch” (8). This is because the Creature functions as a physical manifestation of the male characters’ lust. A Classic Horror Movie Monster.