Review – The Creature Walks Among Us

Jeez, what a bummer of a movie. The first half or so of this picture is a so-so follow-up to The Creature from the Black Lagoon. As in the original, this part features some impressive (well, impressive for black and white) underwater cinematography, not to mention a really fun monster. Some of the pacing is off, though that was true of the first one as well. But then around 40 minutes or so in, the whole movie falls apart in almost every imaginable way. The captured creature requires a tracheotomy, which somehow manages to activate his latent human traits (inside every monster must be an American trying to get out). The change transforms him into a lumpy, Frankenstein’s-monster-esque hulk, which the “scientists” take ashore and pen up in a corral full of goats. In the meantime, the fully-human characters have gotten caught up in a ridiculous soap opera surrounding a … oh, who cares? If the point here is that the long-suffering monster emerges as the best example of the flattery we treat ourselves to when we use the word “human,” then at least that’s a valid argument. But it swiftly gets swamped in dull melodrama. Mildly amusing