Remake the Creature From the Black Lagoon with the same thoughtful quirk of "Amelie" and you are sure to win over the critics and win every award. Guillermo del Toro has made it no secret that he pulled inspiration from the Creature, but it is almost impossible to make a movie about a "mer-man" and not. While the Creature in this movie is as stunning visually as any of the things that go bump in the night, this is about as much of a horror movie as "Twilight", This time the forbidden love is not necrophilia, but bestiality. I am sure it will be implied that this is making a deeper social commentary, about racism, what it really asks is ..."is it ok to have sex with animals?" The movie insists he is more human than his looks might suggest. Is he really more sentient than a chimpanzee? By he we are referring to the monster and not the director. While I am not opposed to human on monster sex the context here is a little more awkward as it's not just getting raped by tentacles.
The acting is great with Michael Shannon pretty much stealing the show with his fingers rotting black. The story is endearing, though the movie gambles with your suspension of disbelief. Would the bathroom really fill up with water like that ?Who would have thought the cold war was really a race to send a mer-man into space? The movie is well paced. It keeps things tense when needed as the clock begins to tick. This is not the first time we have seen the role reversed and the audience was asked who is the monster and the answer has been the human. The most horrific thing the monster did was eat a cat and someone got scratched by mistake. I think he defended himself as needed in fact like the Hunchback he probably took too much shit and I do not think it was a coincidence he was chained on the dais like he was in the one scene. There are plenty of winks to the old classic monster movies . Like this movie most of which are not considered horror movies by today's standards.
The only mis-step was the musical fantasy. I am not sure if that was a wink to the Creature from the Black Lagoon musical that tanked or Jackson's King Kong. It was silly and I was the only person laughing out loud in the theater at it. I went to an art theater so every one else was watching it like they were in an art gallery and trying to ponder the deeper racial issues before going homse to wank off into a PBR. So was it a good movie? Was it worth the wait? I can say unlike most movies I am glad I paid the $ 11.00 ticket, I think this is my new movie rating system how much was it worth. it's an endearing and cute $11.00, $15.00 might have given me buyers remorse. I have a friend who said it was one of the 20 twenty movies now , that is an exaggeration as I can think of at least 50 that are better.
