Is The Fish Sexy? I Don't Know.... But He's Not NOT Sexy Is All I'm Saying....
I had a ton of fun watching Creature from the Black Lagoon, especially having already watched The Shape of Water in FIST100. Honestly, this post might end up being more about The Shape of Water than Creature because I rewatched it after watching Creature and fell even more deeply in love with it than I had before, but I’ll do my best.
Carol Clover spoke about women’s bodies/ presence “opening up” the (in this case) black lagoon to the creature (ahaha or Gill-Man as the credits put it). Her presence is more of a ‘portal’ for the men to access the creature (and subsequently struggle with their masculinity) than useful in and of herself. I actually quite enjoyed this film, but I also found myself rolling my eyes more than not when some dude tasked himself with babysitting her. I wasn’t ever really scared during it, probably because of these dated ideas and special effects, but I definitely think if I saw it at the time it came out I would be terrified. I was reading another blog and they mentioned that it came out in 3D (this movie came out a year after the first 3D film was ever released)-- I think if I had never seen a 3D film before and I watched this I would lose my heckin mind. I think the aesthetic quality of this film really lends itself to 3D and it would look really cool. Everything is dreamy and soft, and the underwater shots are incredibly ethereal.
Re: The Shape of Water though…. Oh my gosh. It’s so beautiful. For one, throughout the entire movie, the green and blue colors are genius give the illusion that you are underwater, and the camera is always fluidly moving like that as well. The story empathizes with the creature and goes full in on the sensitive lover- fish idea that the original only hints at. And the fish is sexy! Or something. I don't know, at least more than the one from Creature. I think they want you to be attracted to the fish guy? Anyways, the music is sensual, the storyline is gut wrenching, the meis en scene is beautiful and the movement of the camera is breathtaking. If you haven’t watched it before, it’s really fun to watch after seeing Creature. Do it!
Omg yes, Karin!!!! I wrote about The Shape of Water too and it was so long ago at this point that I hardly remember what I said, but I think the idea was basically the same thing you are getting at here, how the monster sort of represents like the same thing in both movies, but it's about how the other characters deal with the monster? idek.
ReplyDeleteLove you,
Camille
DUDE Rita and I talked a lot about people finding the fishman sexy LOL But! I really get what you're saying about how this film did not really scare you. I didn't really feel scared either, but I think the point you made about people who saw the movie when it originally came out would be freakin it. I also really love The Shape of Water! It was such a beautiful film, and I could not stop thinking about it when watching Creature from the Black Lagoon.
ReplyDeleteHi Karin love the post, I think the shape of water fish is def sexy lol not the creature though I loved your connection between the two movies!
ReplyDeleteI think its interesting how Guillermo del Toro plays up the attractiveness of the monster and gives him an actual romance for TSOW. He is not only a filmmaker but a longtime horror film fan and that movie is so much a tribute to the genre and also to classic Hollywood. I agree that the film feels really formulaic and dated rather than scary but it feels like this at least partly because it established many of the conventions for all these types of movies that came after it. That is part of the beauty of TSOW, it expands on this film and films like it without feeling dated.
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