Retrospective Film Review

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) • 70 Years Later — gills and thrills in classic monster tale

A group of scientists try to capture a strange prehistoric beast lurking in the depths of the Amazonian jungle.

EXT. COSMIC DUST — (NEBULAR)

A low rumble is heard… as though thunder growing and growing, then an explosion rocking the screen, as the nebulae bursts into pieces and flies directly into camera.

Our world’s filmed beginning arrived at a time when humanity feared its end. This stunning macro photography isn’t from Christopher Nolan’s latest epic, but the chilling opening of Creature from the Black Lagoon. In 1954, as J. Robert Oppenheimer grappled with the post-nuclear future, this film presented an ancient being enduring the same devastation wrought by progress. An unforgettable creature heralded the end of another universe: Universal’s classic monsters. Seven decades later, both…