Franchises: Creature from the Black Lagoon. The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)

When I read about it in that Monster Madness book, the basic plot for this third and final Creature movie, with the Creature becoming much more human-like and air-breathing, sounded particularly intriguing. It also sounded like it made for a sad ending to the series, as the book said the Creature ultimately tries to return to the sea and drowns. As I've said many times before for many other films, I didn't see The Creature Walks Among Us until some time after I first learned about it but, like I said in my review of Revenge of the Creature, it wasn't too long after I first saw the original movie. In fact, I think I may have seen this before Revenge, during that same Saturday morning block on AMC. And when I went into it, I also already knew what the more human-like version of the Gill-Man looked like, as it was part a series of small figures with large heads based on the Universal monsters that my mother got me for Christmas one year. As for the movie itself, I thought it was rather cool when I first saw it and, for what it's worth, I feel that, while certainly still not on the level of the original, it is an improvement on its immediate predecessor. Rather than going down the typical 50's monster movie route as Revenge did, Walks Among Us tries to do something new with the concept of the Gill-Man, and it has a number of interesting ideas about it. On the flip side, though, it doesn't execute those ideas as effectively as it could, and while the character dynamics are more interesting than in the previous movie, they're not as well-developed as those back in the first movie. Also, there is definitely a cheapness to this one, and Jack Arnold's absence is very apparent.

In Ft. Myers, Florida, Dr. William Barton and his wife, Marcia, board a large yacht, the Vagabondia III, as part of an expedition to the Everglades. The team includes geneticist Dr. Tom Morgan, guide Jed Grant, radiography expert Dr. Borg, and biochemist Dr. Johnson, and the yacht is complete with a laboratory, equipped with tools meant for tranquilizing, and a sophisticated fish-finder, designed by Borg. Their quarry is the Gill-Man, who's been lurking in the Everglades since his escape from Ocean Harbor and rampage in Jacksonville. Arriving in the Everglades, they visit Morteno, an alligator hunter who was recently attacked and badly injured by the Gill-Man. After examining a sample of the Creature's blood from Morteno's knife, Barton concludes that the blood's genetic structure means he can be altered into an air-breathing animal, an idea Morgan objects to. Regardless, he and the other scientists decide to stay with the expedition. Morgan and Grant go for a dive to test their equipment, and are joined by Marcia, despite Barton's strong objections. During the dive, they're spotted and stalked by the Gill-Man, when Marcia goes too deep and has to be helped back to the yacht. Using the fish-finder, the yacht follows the Gill-Man up an increasingly shallow stretch of water. They eventually drop anchor and wait for him to make his move, but he never appears. The scientists then opt to go after him themselves in the launch and are attacked deep within a narrow tributary. During the struggle, the Gill-Man is set aflame and collapses with third-degree burns. They bring him aboard the yacht and, in trying to save his life, discover he has a set of lungs, similar to a lungfish. They perform a tracheotomy to get them working, and when they later remove the bandages, they find that the fire also burned away the outer scales to reveal human-like tissue beneath them. The expedition heads to Barton's ranch in Sausalito, California, with plans to continue observing the Creature there. But even though his life is saved, the Creature is clearly confused and unhappy about having lost his ability to live in the water. Also, Barton's deranged mindset and controlling obsession over his wife deteriorates to the point where it may endanger everyone, including the Creature.

John Sherwood

Once again, the producer was William Alland, and the screenplay was the work of another familiar name: Arthur Ross, who'd contributed to the screenplay for the original film. However, there was a notable absence behind the scenes, as Jack Arnold opted not to direct this installment. As I said in my review of Revenge of the Creature, he felt that the concept had been wrung dry by this point and he would only be repeating himself. What's more, he'd now graduated to A-list movies. His replacement was John Sherwood, who'd been working in the film industry since the mid-30's, as part of the art department and predominantly as an assistant director. Having directed only a couple of short films beforehand, The Creature Walks Among Us would mark his feature debut, and 1956 also saw the release of another film of his, a western called Raw Edge. The following year, he directed a pretty good sci-fi flick called The Monolith Monsters but, sadly, it would prove to be his last movie as director. Afterward, Sherwood acted as Arnold's assistant director on the 1959 western, No Name on the Bullet, and he went to do second unit work on the film Pillow Talk, starring Rock Hudson and Doris Day. During shooting, he died of pneumonia; he was just 55 years old.

Unlike the first two films, The Creature Walks Among Us' cast is a bit more of an ensemble, at least when it comes to the small handful of leads. Top-billed is Jeff Morrow, another familiar face among 50's sci-fi, as he'd been in This Island Earth the previous year and, the following one, would star in the B-movie favorite, The Giant Claw. As Dr. William Barton, Morrow gets to play both one of the protagonists and the film's true antagonist, as well as the only true mad scientist in this series. Unlike Mark Williams in the first movie, who only cared about the wealth the Gill-Man could bring him, and Clete Ferguson in Revenge, who was well-meaning but used questionable methods, Barton is intent on turning the Creature into a completely new life-form. His rationale is because he feels man, as a species, is limited, and that if they can force the Gill-Man to adapt to living on land, man can be changed in the same manner in order to live on another planet. This puts him at odds with the more rational Dr. Morgan, who believes it's better to work with nature rather than warp it; Barton, in turn, accuses him of being afraid. But, through pure happenstance, they end up changing the Gill-Man into a land-dwelling creature when they open his lungs to save his life after he's burned. Even though Morgan reminds him that the Gill-Man's lungs were a natural part of him, Barton remarks, "You'll see, Dr. Morgan." And once he sees the "fruits of his labor" when they remove the bandages, revealing the Creature's new, more human-like appearance, he decides it's a cause for celebration. But when he gets drunk during said celebration, he and Morgan have a discussion about genetics and evolution where Morgan, again, suggests they err on the side of caution, trying to make Barton understand that they didn't turn the Gill-Man into something else just by opening his lungs and burning off his scales. Barton is clearly not happy about this, and when neither Johnson nor Borg answer him when he asks if they agree with Morgan, he drunkenly and mournfully sneers, "Jungle or the stars. The fools. Can't they see I want to catch a star?!"

By this point, we've already seen that, although brilliant, Barton is a very deranged man, and in more ways than one. He's very controlling and emotionally abusive towards his wife, Marcia, always telling her what she can and can't do, and becomes paranoid and jealous whenever other men are around her, especially Morgan and the ever aggressively amorous Jed Grant. Though he makes Marcia feel like an unwanted hanger-on from the beginning, the true telling moment comes when she defies him when he tells her that she can't join

Morgan and Grant in their test dive. And after she nearly gets herself killed during the dive, Barton confronts her after she has a conversation with Morgan that goes on longer than he cares for. In a low-key but threatening manner, he tells her, "You're my wife, Marcia. Conduct yourself that way... Don't ever try to leave me. Don't ever try to make a fool of me." He becomes more and more unhinged as the movie goes on. When he's drunk following their celebration, he grabs Marcia and tries to make out with her, only to become angry

and toss her aside when she rejects his advances, growling, "Worthless! Useless!" And when they reach the ranch in Sausalito, Barton and Marcia have a fight where he insists on keeping her cooped up and away from the other men. Barton is also very staunch in his ideas about what the Creature remembers and his "evolution," insisting he's becoming more and more human every day. When Morgan insists that the Creature hasn't attacked anyone recently because he hasn't been

threatened, Barton scoffs at the idea of him returning kindness with more kindness. He obliquely compares it to his failing marriage, telling him, "Imagine how often love is returned with hate and... loyalty is returned with infidelity... The facts are that, when love is returned with hate, loyalty is returned with infidelity, how long does it take before something has to be done about it?" 

Barton's jealousy and madness come to a head when he sees Marcia with Grant, despite Marcia having repeatedly rebuffed Grant's advances, as she also did most recently. He stews over this until he finally goes into Grant's room, wakes him up, and demands he leave, threatening to have him removed with force if he doesn't go at that very moment. Grant does pack his stuff but, as he's leaving, he taunts Barton about Marcia, saying she hates him enough to get friendly with any other man. This pushes him over the edge and he beats

Grant on the back of the head with the butt of his revolver, unintentionally killing him in the process. Barton tries to blame it on the Creature, but when he attempts to put the body in his enclosure, the Creature, appearing to know what he's doing, tears his way out and chases after him. After smashing up much of the house, he finally catches and kills Barton before escaping the ranch. 

I don't know if this is due to Arthur Ross, who, as I mentioned back in my review of the original film, was quite misogynistic, being the sole screenwriter here but Marcia Barton (Leigh Snowden) is the least impressive female lead of this trilogy. And that's ironic, given the drama that should come from her being married to a disturbed and abusive man like Barton. Despite Barton telling the group early on that he had to persuade Marcia to come as, "She felt she might be in the way," it's more likely that she convinced him to bring her and that statement is how he feels about her. She comes across as a very gun-ho person, one who loves adventure, and often acts out because of how smothering her husband is. Not long after they head out, the men are drawn to the deck by gunshots and find that Marcia is shooting sharks with a shotgun! She claims to have hunted all over the world, but Barton promptly tells she'll have to be on the sidelines for this particular hunting trip. He also doesn't involve her at all in the scientific end of things, and after they've captured the Creature, doesn't allow her to see him. But, despite his stern insistence that she stay aboard the yacht while Dr. Morgan and Jed Grant go on a test dive, Marcia defies him completely. During the dive, she goes down too deep and the water pressure messes with her brain, causing her to foolishly take off much of her scuba equipment. She has to be rescued by Morgan and Grant, and when they're back onboard, Morgan admonishes her for what she did, and she, in turn, rebuffs him, saying men aren't the only ones who can take chances. Morgan then becomes more sympathetic, and Marcia begins to reveal that it all goes back to her marriage to Barton, whom she married ten years before, when she was just seventeen. The fact that Jeff Morrow was almost fifty at this point and, therefore, over twenty years older than Snowden, adds a more uncomfortable dimension to their relationship and Barton's attempts to control Marcia.

The problem with Marcia is that she's little more than a passive spectator in the story, likely what Kay might've been in the original film had they shot Ross' initial draft of that screenplay. She's not even a scientist like Kay or Helen Dobson, and Barton bars her from anything to do with the Creature, so she has no presence in the examination scenes in the laboratory. Also unlike them, the Creature pays very little attention to her, despite now being more human, and her only mention of him is when, at one point, she tells

Morgan that she enjoys swimming so much that she understands why the Creature wants to return to the water. She is, however, an object of desire, not just for Barton but also Jed Grant, who sees the cracks in their marriage and makes increasingly aggressive passes at Marcia every chance he gets. And as you may guess, she's not at all strong in dealing with them, as that initial pep and defiance she had about her goes away pretty quickly. The only sliver of it is when Barton accuses her of

being a, "Cheap little tramp," and she goes, "Only to you, Bill. Only to you." A bond does develop between her and Morgan, who sympathizes with her when he realizes just how disturbed Barton is, but it doesn't go too far. When Morgan tells her that Barton needs help, Marcia says he's too narcissistic to ask for any, and that she's long since given up trying. But, by the end of the movie, she's rid of both her psychotic husband and her unwanted admirer, and it's suggested there may be a future for her and Morgan. 

Rex Reason, who'd also appeared with Jeff Morrow in This Island Earth, plays Dr. Thomas Morgan as the only truly decent man among the four main characters. While he is interested in studying the Gill-Man, unlike Barton, he's not so eager to warp nature, and often questions Barton's own thoughts on evolution, leading to tension between the two, especially when he insists that activating the Creature's gills and burning away the outer scales hasn't changed him into something completely different. He's also concerned about how the Creature may react if he isn't treated well, adding, "We all stand between the jungle and the stars, at a crossroads. I think we better discover what brings out the best in humankind, and what brings out the worst, because it's the stars or the jungle." Most tellingly, when it appears to everyone else that the Creature is still a violent monster after he's killed Barton and escaped, Morgan feels he did so because he was threatened, rather than out of bloodlust. Speaking of which, over the course of the story, Morgan becomes acutely aware that Barton is very disturbed and sees the effect is has on Marcia, whom often confides in him. Naturally, he's very concerned but feels there's little he can do, given what Marcia tells him about Barton's reluctance to seek help. And in the end, the Creature is the one who ends up solving that problem for her. The movie also ends on a note that suggests he and Marcia may have a future together, as he promises to see her again.

Jed Grant (Gregg Palmer), the expedition's guide into the Everglades, takes an interest in Marcia from the moment he sees her, and he's the one who first senses how awful her husband is to her. After Barton tells Marcia that she'll have to be a spectator during this particular trip, Grant comments, "Your husband must be an awfully good surgeon. I mean, uh, awfully rich... to be able to afford... everything he owns," while looking right at her. And when Marcia insists on joining Morgan and Grant on their test dive, Grant himself is all for allowing her to join them. Eventually, he starts making increasingly aggressive passes at her. Following the scientists' celebration of capturing and altering the Creature, which goes sour when Barton becomes frustrated with Marcia's refusal, Grant, who's supposed to be standing guard at the door to the cabin housing the Creature, tries to force himself on her and doesn't take no for an answer. He's only stopped when the Creature breaks out. Later, at the ranch, Grant takes a swim with her, ignoring her, again, rebuffing him, and, once again, the Creature inadvertently puts a stop to it. When Marcia and Grant run back from the beach, dripping wet and wearing robes, the now totally paranoid and jealous Barton spots them and, that night, tries to force Grant to leave. Grant opts to do so but, on his way out, tells Barton that Marcia hates him and she would go to any other man as a result. That leads Barton to repeatedly hit Grant on the back of the head with a pistol, accidentally killing him.

The other two members of the expedition, Dr. Borg (Maurice Manson) and Dr. Johnson (James Rawley), are little more than spectators. Borg's main role is to mind his own personal fish-finder, tracking the Gill-Man during the film's first act. Being an expert in radiography, he also does some x-rays on the Gill-Man when he's brought aboard the yacht after being burned, revealing the hidden lungs that they open to save the Creature, and studies his brain patterns. As for Johnson, his most significant moment in the film is early on, when he

examines a sample of the Gill-Man's blood from Morteno's knife and confirms that the red corpuscle count matches the data from Ocean Harbor. He also reveals that the corpuscles have no nuclei, which prompts Barton to declare that the Gill-Man can be changed into a terrestrial animal. Like Borg, Johnson does aid in Barton and Morgan's operations on the Gill-Man, and later, when the drunken Barton asks them if they side with Morgan's opinion about what they've done, neither of them are willing to give a definitive answer. Johnson says, "It can still go either way," while Borg simply says, "I don't know yet." By the end of the movie, they're both convinced that the Creature is still a violent monster, although Morgan disagrees.

Though none of the characters from the original movie are here, Morteno (Paul Fierro), the man the team visits who was attacked by the Gill-Man, reminds me a bit of Lucas, not only because he's Spanish but, when he talks about his painful encounter, he, like Lucas in the previous movie, describes the Creature as being more than just an animal. He describes him as looking like a "devil," even refers to him as such, and says, "It is smart. Not like man; smart like devil." Unlike Lucas, though, he's more than happy that the team is going to go after the Gill-Man, as he wants some payback for the injuries he inflicted on him, which amount to leaving some scars on his face and leaving him barely able to walk. He also takes pride in cutting the Gill-Man with his knife, saying, "I cut him good... There was plenty blood." And that proves significant, as they examine the blood left on the knife and learn that Ocean Harbor's data was accurate, and it also emboldens Barton in his desire to change the Gill-Man.

Not to dump on John Sherwood's direction, as I believe he did fairly well with what he was given, and he would prove himself very capable with The Monolith Monsters the following year, but of the three Creature movies, The Creature Walks Among Us has the least amount of production value. For one, while well-shot, it just doesn't have the same kind of glossy, top-line look to it as the previous movies, and many of the nighttime exteriors, particularly at the ranch, aren't as well done, as

they often stand out as being day-for-night, despite the movie being black-and-white; the nighttime scenes aboard the yacht are better done. Also, it's obvious this one had an especially low budget. For one, there's even more stock footage than in Revenge of the Creature, particularly during the sequence where the Gill-Man stalks Morgan, Grant, and Marcia during their dive. Just about all of the footage of him swimming and watching them, including our very first look at him, is taken

from the first movie, which you can tell because of the suit. An even more poorly egregious instance of stock footage comes during the sequence where the scientists head out on the launch in order to capture the Gill-Man: at one point, Borg warns the others that he's swimming right at them and they cut to the shot from the original where the Gill-Man swims to the shallows near his lair, only they reversed it! It's only onscreen for maybe a second or so but, if you're as familiar with the original as I am, you will spot it and realize what you're looking

at. And as opposed to Revenge, which was shot almost entirely on location, this one was, for the most part, shot at Universal Studios. You can tell, as there's a lot of rear-screen projection during the movie's first two acts on the yacht, with the first shot of Barton and Marcia driving in Ft. Myers being done that way. And finally, unlike the first two, this one wasn't shot in 3-D, although that had less to do with budget and more with the fact that the gimmick had died out the year before.

Shot once again at Wakulla Springs, the underwater photography is, like before, one of the movie's most impressive aspects, although there are only a couple of such scenes this time. The most extensive one, where Morgan, Grant, and Marcia go scuba-diving to test the equipment, is quite lovely to watch and takes full advantage of the beautiful location they had at their disposal. The same also goes for the scene where the now air-breathing Creature jumps off the ship and 

Morgan has to dive down and give him air from a hose before he drowns. These scenes look so much more expansive than what was shot at Wakulla Springs in the previous movies that I, initially, wasn't sure if it really was the same place, but I can't find any information that says otherwise. The city of Fort Myers was also used for much of the location work we do get, mainly for the exteriors of the yacht during its trip and traveling through the Everglades, which do look very lovely, with scenes

set in some very picturesque lagoons and rivers. Otherwise, though, everything else was shot on the Universal backlot, and there's little to write home about when it comes to these sets. The most extensive setting is the yacht, the Vagabondia III, and even then, we don't see a lot of its interiors. We spend the most amount of time in the lab, where the Creature is housed after he's burned, but it's nothing too special, as it's really just a small operating and examination room. The same goes for the room housing Dr. Borg's fish-finder, and the

comfortable lounge area, which has a nice sofa and chairs, as well as a liquor cabinet and some books. Despite the yacht's large size, its inner corridors are rather cramped and claustrophobic, and that also seems to be the case for the cabins when we see them. Even the decks don't feel as big as you'd expect.

When the expedition visits Morteno at his home in the Everglades, the exterior is a surprisingly large building made out of wood, with a thatched roof, and in the one scene with Morteno, he's lying in bed in a small but comfortable room doubling as both a bedroom and a sitting room. However, while many scenes meant to be out on the sea or in the Everglades were done either through location work or rear projection, when the scientists go out after the Creature on the launch, I have a sneaking

suspicion that, when it's not rear-screen, it was still done on the backlot. And finally, there's Barton's ranch in Sausalito, which is behind a big, electric gate and consists of a large, lovely house and a small enclosure, surrounded by an electric fence, where the Creature is kept (along with some sheep, randomly). There's also a room near the door to the enclosure containing a two-way mirror, where Barton and Morgan observe the Creature without him knowing they're there, and a lake on the back side of the property, which he's able to see, enticing him to return to the water.

In revisiting the entire Creature trilogy for the first time in a while (usually, I just watch the original), I was reminded of how, aside from no explanation being given as to how the Gill-Man survived being shot up at the end of the first movie, this series keeps continuity so much better than Universal's other horror franchises. I liked how Dr. David Reed was mentioned as having revealed the Gill-Man's existence in the previous film, prompting those at Ocean Harbor to try to capture him, and I also like

how this film follows on from Revenge, with the Gill-Man having now made his way down to the Everglades. What's more, there are significant callbacks to the previous movies, with the rotenone drug from the original making a reappearance, as well as the notion of it being effective when released under pressure. During their face-to-face encounter with the Gill-Man, Grant makes use of a speargun like Mark Williams in the first, only these are filled with a tranquilizer meant to incapacitate him. And his being set aflame is a lot like when he

got lit up while attacking Dr. Thompson and quickly dove back into the water. (Speaking of which, they show him accidentally douse himself with gasoline as a way of explaining why he was so badly injured when set aflame this time around.) Finally, they do make use of the data gathered by Prof. Clete Ferguson at Ocean Harbor, specifically the Gill-Man's red corpuscle count.

In terms of action and scope, The Creature Walks Among Us is definitely the most low-key of the trilogy. Despite the typical hyperbolic declarations on the poster of a city being terrorized and there being all new underwater thrills, the Gill-Man doesn't get to do all that much rampaging. Since nearly all of the shots of him swimming are stock footage from the first movie, the only significant new action we get with him in his traditional form is when he attacks the scientists in their launch and

gets burned. After the operation is performed on him, he's incapacitated and docile for the most part, only posing a major threat when he attempts to escape to the ocean and when he breaks out of his enclosure and chases after Barton at the end. The last shot of him suggests he did run afoul of police, as there are bullet-holes in his clothes, but we never get to see those confrontations. As for the movie's scope, while we do spend some time in the Everglades, a good chunk of it is onboard the cramped interiors of the yacht, and the large

amount of rear-projection and backlot shooting makes this feel much smaller and constrained than either of the previous movies, especially given how the second one was shot almost entirely on location.

As much as I do prefer it to Revenge of the Creature, I can admit that Walks Among Us is probably the least fun of the trilogy, as its tone begins on the adventurous note of the previous ones but becomes more and more melancholic as it goes on. When we're not watching Marcia having to deal with her husband's abusive and controlling nature, and putting up with Grant's constant, unwanted advances, we're dealing with the tragedy of what's happened to the Gill-Man. Not only has

he once again been hunted and harassed after his escape from Ocean Harbor and the crap they put him through, but, on top of that, he's badly burned, his gills and scales are shed, and he becomes a more human-like and yet, ironically, less graceful being, one who longs for something he can no longer have, as it's now deadly to him. By the end of the movie, several people are dead, the Creature has been made out to be a bloodthirsty monster when he was only defending himself, Marcia, despite being free of both her deranged husband and her unwanted admirer, still comes off as sad about it all, and the movie ends with the Creature possibly going to his death as he heads towards the sea.

There's an additional bit of sadness in that is, in many ways, marks the end of the classic period of Universal Horror as a whole. Universal certainly continued producing sci-fi and monster flicks into the early 60's, following this film with The Monolith Monsters, The Mole People, The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Deadly Mantis, Monster on the Campus, and The Leech Woman, among others, but none of the monsters or characters in those movies are as iconic as the Gill-

Man. Some, like the Metaluna mutant in This Island Earth, the creatures from The Mole People, and the title character of The Incredible Shrinking Man, have come pretty close but they're still mostly known to hardcore fans of the genre, whereas the Gill-Man is known even to those who've never seen the movies, like Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, the Mummy, the Wolf Man, and such. Thus, since he really is the last classic Universal monster, this is his last onscreen appearance, outside of something like The Monster

Squad (it's regrettable that he hasn't managed to get a high-budget re-imagining like all the others), and the science fiction craze that dominated the 50's would come to an end by the end of the decade, Walks Among Us can truly be considered the end of a tradition that had lasted over forty years.

Given how bland the characters were in Revenge of the Creature, I like that there's a little more conflict here, especially in how our ostensible protagonist is a man with deep-seated, psychological issues that make him quite unlikable. But, because of these movies' inherent nature, it doesn't live up to its full potential. Dr. Barton's derangement and paranoia is certainly felt and noted by the other characters, especially Dr. Morgan and Grant, with the former telling Marcia that he feels her husband

needs help, but nothing more is made of it, like their confronting him about it, and Barton's irrational way of thinking is what gets him killed. The other characters are similarly underdeveloped, especially Marcia, as she becomes little more than set dressing, when she's not being abused by Barton or assaulted by Grant. Like with his initial draft of the original movie, screenwriter Arthur Ross proves he has no interest in the story's Beauty and the Beast angle, as the Gill-Man pays little

attention to Marcia, and that's especially unfortunate here, as that could've made for some very interesting dynamics. With her being the object of desire for two horribly abusive men, the now more human-like Creature could've been the one "male" who's actually gentle towards her. In fact, given how he comes to the aid of the sheep when the mountain lion attacks them, you could have him actively trying to protect Marcia from Barton and Grant, seeing how they treat her and becoming enraged at the sight of it. Wouldn't it

have been especially interesting if the very thing Barton was after to prove his theories became something he was jealous of due to its interest in his wife, despite it not even being truly human? And I also think it would've been more dramatic if the Creature himself killed Grant while protecting Marcia, Barton then tried to make the argument that he did so simply out of bloodlust to prove his own warped ideas about love always being returned with hate, and Marcia stuck up for the Creature. But, unfortunately, that was likely the farthest things from Ross and the filmmakers' minds.

As I've already described, this last chapter of the Gill-Man's story ends on a very tragic note. Now most definitely having a disdain for humans after what he went through at Ocean Harbor, he's been lurking in the Everglades since his escape. He had the misfortune of running into Morteno, who shot at him, provoking him into an attack, but he was able to evade the villagers who went after him. And when he sees Morgan, Grant, and Marcia during their dive, he stalks and hides from them.

Knowing he's being hunted again, he later leads the yacht into a narrow and increasingly shallow stretch of river, intending to box them in and attack. However, as they wait for him to make his move, he remains idle, forcing them to go out to him in the launch boat. There, he finally attacks, only to accidentally douse himself in gasoline during the struggle and get set on fire, ultimately passing out with third-degree burns to his body. He's brought aboard the yacht, where the scientists attempt to save his life by performing a tracheotomy to open up the set of lungs he has along with his gills. Combined with his scales being burned off to reveal human-like flesh beneath them, the Creature is now more man-like and initially placid due to the tranquilizers they've pumped him with. Eventually, he awakens and makes his way to the deck, where jumps over the side. It's only when he swims down very deep that he realizes he can no longer survive in the water and, while he initially resists, he does accept the air from the line Morgan brings with him when he dives down after him.

When he's brought to Dr. Barton's ranch in Sausalito, the Creature remains docile, as well as confused and unsure about the new surroundings he's forced into. And despite what Barton believes, he's not only being gentle because he doesn't feel threatened but he also does miss the freedom of being in the water. When a mountain lion wanders onto the property and threatens the sheep he shares his enclosure with, the Creature becomes angry and attacks the lion, easily killing it, but making the

others believe he's reverted to his violent ways unprovoked. He later becomes enraged when he sees Barton murder Grant, and when Barton eyes him after realizing what he's done, the Creature understands he's going to try to pin it on him and he becomes angrier. Unwilling to let this stand, he waits until Barton deactivates the enclosure's electrified gate and tears it apart. He chases Barton in the house and stalks him throughout it, coming up but ignoring the frightened Marcia and Morgan attempting to protect her. After killing Barton, the Creature breaks his way out of the ranch and heads off into the countryside, eventually coming to the seashore and heading back to the water and certain death.

In his last appearance as the swimming Creature, Ricou Browning doesn't get to do much new in terms of underwater action, due to the extensive use of stock footage from the original Creature from the Black Lagoon, but there are some instances of new swimming footage here and there, specifically when Morgan and Grant spot and chase after him before having to help Marcia. However, Browning did get to do a little bit of topside action for once, when the Creature attacks

the launch boat and jumps aboard it (though, obviously, the fire stunt was performed by a double). You don't get a good look at the regular Creature costume in this scene, as it's darkly lit and the editing is very quick, probably because, by this point, the suit was beginning to fall apart. But, when you do get a good look at him, I have a feeling that they used the same head from Revenge of the Creature.

After he's made into an air-breathing, more human-like animal, the Creature is played by Don Megowan. Megowan was an enormous man, both in height (6'7'') and girth, and so, the Gill-Man suddenly goes from being very slim and athletic to downright hulking. While the classic design will never be topped, I think this new take on the Creature is a decent and interesting one. The structure of his face is still fish-like, but smooth, without scales, and he appears to now have ears,

which I don't know if he had before. They also often keep his skin moist and glistening, as if he's secreting a type of mucus. Unlike all the other people who portrayed the Creature, Megowan's actual eyes can be seen within the makeup. His hands also develop more pronounced fingers, with much less webbing between them. But his head, neck, hands, and feet are all we see of him, as his skin becomes so sensitive that they have to make him an outfit out of sail-cloth, which was really a manner of keeping costs down by not having to

create a whole new body-suit. And yet, the outfit, combined with his much bulkier physique and the fact that it's the result of a scientific experiment, makes him something of a throwback to Frankenstein's monster (not to mention that he looks like the Mummy when he's wrapped in the bandages). He retains the distinctive roars and croaking from the original movie, eschewing the bellowing sound from Revenge altogether, but his land form has a distinctive heavy, deep type of breathing that does sound like it could've been something of an inspiration for Darth Vader.

I've already mentioned it but I want to really make it clear that, because of how much I love the Gill-Man, I hate how we've never gotten a new Creature from the Black Lagoon. It's not for a lack of trying, as there have been attempts at a remake since the early 80's, with John Landis then planning to produce one that would've seen Jack Arnold himself return to the director's chair (and if that didn't work out, Joe Dante was on stand by to do it). Then, in the early 90's, John Carpenter was

going to do it, with Rick Baker designing the Gill-Man (photos of what that might've looked like have been released in recent years and it looks pretty cool), but when Memoirs of an Invisible Man bombed, Universal scrapped it. Peter Jackson was offered it in the mid-90's but he, of course, decided to do King Kong, instead; Ivan Reitman was attached at one point but nothing came of that; Guillermo del Toro was going to do it in the early 2000's but Universal didn't like his concept of the Gill-Man actually getting with the girl, so del Toro later took the concept and made it into The Shape of Water; and then, they attempted to revive the Gill-Man as part of the Dark Universe and we all know how well that went (and yes, you will see the aborted attempt at that later this month). Those are only a handful of the many people who've tried to crack the remake over the years and have never been able to. Maybe one day, someone will come along with what it takes, and will also, hopefully, have the talent to make it good.

Due to the large amount of rear-screen projection, visual effects photographer Clifford Stine had a fair amount to do here, and while the technique is very obvious, it's pulled off well enough to where it's not terribly distracting. In fact, the shot at the end of the Creature looking out at the ocean before going towards it is quite an affecting image. The establishing shot of Barton's ranch involves a pretty good matte painting depicting the mountains in the background, as well as compositing the lake behind the house. And while it's not a visual effect, I have to mention this random instance of slow-motion when the mountain lion climbs up the tree before jumping down at the sheep. I suppose they did it to make it come off as more dramatic but it just looks off.

Something else that The Creature Walks Among Us has in common with the first film is that it makes you wait a little bit before you first see the Gill-Man, though not as long. Around fourteen minutes in, Dr. Morgan, Grant, and Marcia embark on their dive to test their equipment, while Barton, Borg, and Johnson keep tabs on them using Borg's fish-finder. A minute or so in, Morgan is able to confirm their underwater microphones work, as he speaks to Borg. They head down past fifty feet, taking in the lovely scenery and the fish swimming

by them. On the fish finder, another target appears below them and Borg tells them to look to their right to confirm if the signal is a large tarpon. Morgan confirms it was a tarpon (I don't see anything when it switches to his POV), and says they're going deeper. When they pass by a large rocky ledge, the Gill-Man swims out from under it behind them. He begins following them, using thick patches of seaweed as cover. Spotting another signal on the scope, Borg tells them to look directly below them, saying there's either a large grouper or

manta ray. They stop and look below, spotting a manta ray. Morgan confirms what Borg thought, but when Borg tells him the fish is still there, according to his scope, Morgan insists it isn't. Borg notes that this strange image is much denser than what they've seen before and he can't identify it. The Gill-Man is shown watching them, as they continue floating and looking around them for the source of the signal. Morgan says they can't see anything, so they're going deeper; the Gill-Man

swims on ahead as well, hiding behind a thick patch of seaweed that the divers pass by without seeing him. Borg warns them that the unidentified image is moving along with them, and then that it's moving downward. The Gill-Man continues heading down, until the large rocky ledge blocks the scope's view of him; Borg tells them the signal disappeared at 210 feet down.

While Morgan and Grant continue searching for the signal, Marcia begins acting strangely, listing upwards, doing acrobatic moves, and seeming to be enjoying herself much more than is normal. Morgan and Grant spot the Gill-Man as he swims up and floats beside the rocky ledge and head towards him, sending him into retreat. He swims and disappears within another large, thick patch of seaweed. Grant attempts to draw him out by spraying rotenone at the spot, while Marcia is definitely succumbing to the deep water sickness

called "raptures of the deep," as she not only continues acting strangely but actively removes her fins and then goes to remove her scuba-tank. Morgan and Grant see what she's doing and, realizing what's going on, Morgan swims to her aid. He reaches her, drops his speargun, and tries to put the tank's holsters back on her shoulders. At one point, she loses the hookah and he has to grab it and put it back in her mouth. He heads to surface with her, followed by Grant, who lagged behind,

still trying to find the Gill-Man. The two of them get Marcia back onboard the yacht, and Morgan carries her into the lounge area, laying her on the sofa and removing her swimming cap. Though Barton is displeased with this, his spirits are lifted when Morgan and Grant confirm the other target was the Gill-Man.

As afternoon heads into evening and then dusk, the yacht heads up a river, following the Gill-Man who, according to Johnson, is thirty feet ahead of them. Much later, after night has fallen, they follow him up a narrowing and increasingly shallow tributary, when they're told he's now dropped behind them. Barton tells Captain Stanley to decrease speed, then checks with Johnson, who tells him the Gill-Man is thirty feet astern, but holding his position. Morgan, realizing they're the ones being hunted, tells Stanley to increase the

speed, and they're told the Gill-Man is dropping further behind them, only to then suddenly move forward. Sure enough, he's shown swimming after them, with Johnson telling the others he's doing so at the same distance as before. Morgan figures he's leading them into a trap and waiting for the right moment to attack. Despite Barton's insistence that he wants the Gill-Man alive, Grant loads his pistol and tells him that he will kill the Creature if he has to. Morgan, meanwhile, believes he'll attack when

they can't go any further. Eventually, the yacht does run out of room and they drop anchor, waiting for him to make his move. But, as time passes and he does nothing, Barton decides they'll have to go after him themselves. They head out on the launch, Borg bringing his fish-finder with him.

As they head farther up the tributary in the small boat, Borg has Johnson lower the scope's range-finder into the water, while Grant confirms his speargun contains a sufficient amount of tranquilizers to knock out the Gill-Man. And in the back of the boat, Morgan confirms the rotenone will release into the water as they need it to, then goes over their procedure for how best to handle the Gill-Man. Borg activates the fish-finder and confirms that the Gill-Man is moving ahead of them. They head further in, and are momentarily

startled when they hear a loud animal sound (it's the same exotic sound occasionally heard in the original, even though they're in the Everglades, not the Amazon). A little farther in, and they hear a roar, followed by a loud splash. Grant readies his speargun but a dissolve shows they've continued on for a long time without incident. Borg tells Grant to turn the spotlight up front to the left, then says the Gill-Man is making a turn. They slow the boat to a stop, when he erupts from the water and smashes the spotlight, knocking Grant off-balance. He dives

back under, as Grant dishes out some torches. However, Morgan has to fill them with gasoline, and as they rush to do so and get them lit, the Gill-Man appears on the scope again. They wait for him to attack, as Borg tells them he's just twenty feet ahead and coming straight at them. Johnson panics and starts firing his pistol, but Barton stops him, yelling, "What are you shooting at, you fool?! I want him alive!" The Gill-Man swims to the right of them, then jumps up on the rear of the boat,

where Morgan is. Grant fires his speargun, hitting the Gill-Man in the chest, and then in the side, as he breaks the first spear in half. He picks up the uncovered gasoline tank to throw it, only to accidentally douse himself. Grant dodges when he throws the canister, then throws the torch, setting the Gill-Man aflame. He stands in the middle of the boat, burning and roaring in agony, then collapses back into the water.

The others help Johnson, who smacked the back of his head in the chaos, and then work to put out the fire, when the Gill-Man rises up beneath the front of their boat. He tips it up and sends them falling into the water, then ducks back under. Everybody swims back towards the boat, waiting for him to attack again, when he appears next to a fallen tree and lifts it up, intending to crush them. But, he quickly loses his strength, lowers the tree, and collapses on top of it. Barton and Morgan cautiously approach and examine him. Barton

comments, "The drug knocked him out alright," while Morgan, studying his flesh, adds, "If it hadn't, the fire would've. These are third-degree burns." They tell the others to bring the boat to them and they float the unconscious Gill-Man towards it.

In the next scene, they have him in the yacht's laboratory, his head and hands completely bandaged. Upon examination, Morgan and Barton find he's slowly suffocating to death, the former suggesting he's still getting oxygen from some source. Borg comes in with some x-rays of the Creature's chest area, revealing he does have lungs, as well as a light patch near one of them, which Morgan theorizes is a flap of skin that pulls back to allow air in, akin to African lungfish. Barton decides to perform a tracheotomy to get the lungs

working, increasing the oxygen they're giving the Creature and then pushing the tube into his neck. He instantly begins breathing the air, as Barton notes that they're changing him into a terrestrial animal, just as he'd planned all along. They then give the Creature a sedative and move him into another room. There, they examine his brain activity and the data shows his thought process has become erratic. Later, they take another reading, showing his metabolic rate has changed considerably, now that his lungs are working. But,

as they discuss it, the still bandaged Creature begins to regain consciousness and rips his arms free of the straps holding him to the table. However, he instantly relaxes and lowers his arms back down. Morgan walks over to examine him and, under Barton's direction, removes some of the bandages on the head to reveal the Creature's eyes, which are now very human-like. But when Morgan examines them more closely, he tells Barton that the Creature isn't responding at all. Following the

scene where Barton sends a message to his ranch, requesting that everything be ready for their impending arrival, they remove the bandages, discovering the Creature's new, more human-like flesh, and his less webbed hands. Morgan touches the Creature's head and, noticing him wince, suggests he needs clothing. Suddenly, the Creature turns and looks at him, then to Barton on his right, before resting his head back down. They all leave the room, Barton confident that he'll be fine by himself, as he's sedated. But, as he leaves, locking the door on the inside, the Creature notes how he turned the handle.

That night, after excusing himself from the "celebration," Morgan checks in on the Creature in his cabin. Seeing he's still lying on the table, sedated, he heads off to bed. Later in the night, Grant, seeing Marcia alone in the lounge, decides to make his move, as she tries to make him stop. Unbeknownst to them, the Creature manages to escape his cabin by using his immense strength to turn the doorknob around until it breaks off. Breathing heavily, he heads towards the lounge, apparently hearing Marcia struggling with Grant.

He walks into the doorway, as the two of them bump up against him. Marcia screams at the sight of him and Grant wheels around and pulls his gun, only for the Creature to smash him against one of the lounge's double doors with a powerful backhand. Grant collapses to the floor, while the Creature, after glancing down at Marcia, who's in a crying heap on the floor, heads to the deck. Morgan comes running, stopping to tell Johnson to call the bridge and tell them to reverse the engines. He helps Grant to his feet, as the others come running

and see the Creature out on the deck. Knowing he's going to go for the water, and will drown as a result, they rush after him. They're unable to stop him from jumping and swimming down, so Morgan grabs an air hose and a mask and jumps in after him. Using the hose to breathe, he follows the Creature, who manages to swim down very deeply before he realizes he can't breathe. Morgan reaches him as he begins struggling, gasping for oxygen, but the Creature goes on the offensive and attacks

him. The two of them drift past an underwater ledge and across the seabed, struggling with each other, but eventually, the Creature's strength runs out and, this time, he accepts the air from the hose. The two of them slowly swim back to the surface, taking turns receiving air from the line. Once they're back onboard, the Creature's brain patterns are examined again and they find his memory is returning. Barton insists he only remembered he once lived in the water but Morgan counters that he also remembers being attacked, adding, "He remembers fear. And when he's afraid, he tries to kill anything near him, animal or human."

In the next scene, a large truck from San Francisco arrives at Barton's ranch. The driver opens up the double-doors in the back and the Creature slowly emerges and steps down onto the ground, looking about his surroundings. He's led over to the gate to the enclosure he's to share with some sheep, who recoil in fear at the sight of him. As he continues looking around, the gate to the enclosure is closed and its electric current is activated. Come nightfall, he's looking out at the water, pining to return it. Unbeknownst to him, Morgan and Barton watch

him through the two-way mirror built into one side of the enclosure's wall and debate about just how human he's become and what he remembers, which is also when Morgan learns just how deranged Barton really is. Even after Morgan leaves Barton, the Creature is still drawn to the water but unable to go to it... and then, his attention is attracted to some guitar playing Marcia does out on the veranda. Following her talk with Morgan about how unhinged Barton is, she decides to go down to

the lake and take a little swim (before she does, we see a suggestive shot of her silhouette behind a drape as she puts on her bathing suit). The Creature watches her as she arrives at the shore and heads into the water, and also sees when she gets some unwanted company, as Grant shows up and dives into the water with her.

Suddenly, a loud growl catches the Creature's attention, and he turns to see a mountain lion enter the grounds and approach the enclosure. The lion circles around the enclosure, making its way around to the spot where the sheep are, and the Creature watches as it climbs up a tree next to the pen and makes its way across a branch hanging above it. It jumps down and starts threatening the sheep, snarling and swiping its paws at them. The Creature approaches the lion and it jumps at him.

The film cuts back to Marcia and Grant at the lake, who hear the lion let out a horrific scream. They quickly rush out of the water, while everyone else comes running out of the house and towards the enclosure, right after the Creature has killed the lion by smashing its body against the ground. Seeing what he's done, Borg believes the Creature is still a violent beast who attacked unprovoked, but Morgan thinks it was more an act of self-defense. At that moment, Marcia and Grant arrive,

and Barton spots them together, igniting his jealousy and later prompting him to demand Grant get out. Then, as he's following him out, Grant's mocking him over Marcia's disdain for him prompts Barton to attack him, smashing him in the back of the head with the butt of his pistol and brutally beating him, as the Creature watches. Barton then checks Grant as he lies near the bottom of the steps and realizes he's killed him. Within seconds, his eyes are drawn to the Creature and he decides to try to pin it on him. The Creature clearly

realizes his intent and becomes enraged about it. He waits as Barton carries Grant's body over to the enclosure and, just as Barton dumps the body in there and tries to get out, the Creature lunges at the gate and starts tearing it apart. Up in the house, Morgan is awakened by the sound of the Creature snarling and gunshots. Barton fires his pistol on the Creature, falling backwards over a hedge behind him, as the Creature completely destroys the gate and chases after him.

Barton gets chased up the stairs and runs through a pair of French windows, closing them behind him, and creates a makeshift barricade out of furniture. The Creature pushes over the guardrail in his rage and, knocking his head on a light hanging from the awning above the veranda, grabs and pulls it down. This creates a power surge that plunges the inside of the house into darkness. Barton runs into another part of the house, as the Creature's roaring wakes up Marcia. He smashes through the French

window and easily knocks aside the barricade. Seeing the open door across from him, he walks towards it, but when he runs into a table, he flips it over, along with the couch sitting next to it; elsewhere, Barton hides behind a door, holding the knob. Morgan runs upstairs and to Marcia's room, passing by the room where the Creature is. Thinking it's Barton, the Creature chases him into the next room, angrily throwing aside a dresser with a vanity mirror, and sees a silhouette behind

some drapes. He approaches the drapes and rips them down, only to find a frightened Marcia, who's being protected by Morgan. In the hallway, Barton sneaks towards the door, but bumps into a small table and knocks over a flowerpot. The Creature hears the crash and runs out into the hallway. He sees Barton run past a French window and smashes through another right in front of him. Barton tries to go for the stairs but the Creature grabs him and throws him aside, then picks him up, lifts him above his head (you can see the wires holding up

the stuntman), and throws him to his death over the railing. Having vanquished his enemy, the Creature walks down the stairs and through the yard, as Morgan, Marcia, Johnson, and Borg watch (where were those two when this was going on?). He stomps towards the main gate to the property, when the guard fires on him. He immediately lunges at the man, tossing him through his station's window, and escapes by pushing over one of the brick pillars on either side of the electrified gate, ripping it off its hinges. As the others watch, he stomps off into the night.

The ending has the group parting ways at the ranch, while a state trooper with them gets a phone call and tells Morgan, Borg, and Johnson that the Creature has been sighted, heading for the coast. The final scene has the unforgettable image of him coming over a hill and seeing the shoreline ahead of him. After staring at it, he stumbles towards it. While Monster Madness made it out as though the movie ends with him drowning, it actually ends ambiguously; but you do realize there's a very good

chance he went to his doom. And when you reflect back on it, you realize just how truly tragic the Gill-Man's story has been over the course of these three films. First, humans invaded his home and attacked him, causing him to grow a deadly hatred for them. Then, they took him away from his home, chained him to the bottom of a tank, and poked and prodded him until he was forced to, once again, resort to violence and escape to the sea. And now, finally, they've stripped him of the freedom he had from being in the water, turning him into an ungraceful being and likely causing him to unwillingly kill himself.

Unlike Revenge of the Creature's score, this one is less of a patchwork of previously used themes and contains a lot of music that's original, at least as far as this series goes. The Creature's main theme is back, of course, but it's used very sparingly here, only cropping up when really necessary. It's also used in some new ways, most notably in a big, grand manner when the Creature makes it to the coast at the very end. Speaking of which, the main title starts out as the one we've come to expect, then transitions into the middle section introduced in Revenge, and ends on a new, very tragic-sounding bit that foreshadows what's going to happen to the Gill-Man in this last story. Similarly, a new, somber piece plays over the ending credits, alluding to the likelihood that he drowned. As far as new music goes, the most memorable is this soft, sad leitmotif for Marcia, which hints at her femininity and the tragedy of her life. An extremely sad, downbeat one is played when the now air-breathing Creature is shown to the enclosure at the ranch, and it's followed by a mesmerizing bit for when he looks at the water, alluding to the pull he feels towards it. And finally, like the previous movies, the music for the scuba diving scene is very lovely, and the scenes where the Creature attacks are made all the more exciting thanks to the score.

While not an unsung classic, The Creature Walks Among Us, to me, is an enjoyable and interesting, if downbeat, conclusion to a fine trilogy of films. The biggest positive is that they try to do something different, coming up with some interesting concepts and a memorable new design for the already iconic Creature. In addition, the Creature is, arguably, more sympathetic than ever, some of the characters are more interesting than the bland ones in the previous film, the underwater scenes, as scarce as they are, are well-done again, and the music score is very nice. However, the movie does suffer from its fair share of problems, such as the characters still not living up to their full potential, it feeling far more low budget than the two before it, as well as more constrained, with the large amount of rear-screen projection and backlot work, and there's not a lot of action this time around. So, if you want to see the Gill-Man unleashed, you'd best stick with the first two movies; however, if you felt Revenge of the Creature was run-of-the-mill and want a different take on it, this is the movie for you.