Gill-Man: B+ Movie Edition, The

What a wonderful edit!

At its best, The Creature From The Black Lagoon is a moody monster movie that definitely deserves its 'classic' status. At its worst, it is a plodding slow burn of a film that is stuffed full of content simply there to pad the run time. This edit does away with all that filler and leaves us with a tight, suspenseful drama that brings forth the best qualities of the film. I went into this edit blind and then watched the original release for the first time afterwards. The difference is day and night. The cuts make sense, the pacing is vastly improved and all the minor changes add up to give a very fluid experience. The editing was seamless, the audio work was very nice and I love the black and white fanedit card. My only quibble was the video quality but with a little luck we'll see a HD rebuild of this edit in the not to distant future.

Fantastic work Scrib.

A great edit. This is an example of the potential of fanedits.

While I am a fan of the classic Universal monsters, and most of the associated movies, the gill-man saga was always pretty near the bottom of my list. Despite amazing creature design and a decent backstory, the gill-man fell victim in his first movie to a waffling script, some bad shots and a lot of filler. The film had impressive underwater camera work, but this got showcased to such an extent that the core -- an antediluvian creature in a black lagoon, dishing out doom, and how people try survive the relentless attacks -- got a bit lost. Tension was followed by blah. And blah was followed by more blah.

There were sequels, none as good as the first one, but the first one was just barely good.

This edit cuts almost a third of "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" but you won't miss any of it.
It delivers the movie that should always have been: a fast-moving, interesting movie with stakes and some debates on the parameters and goals of scientific research. And the focus is where it should be: a creature in a black lagoon, dishing out doom to trapped survivors, and their efforts to fight back.

Watch it. You will not be disappointed.

This was a great edit. I don't usually like many older movies due to pacing, and this one one of the cult classics I could never get into as much as I felt I should. But this was great, even almost half a century later, completely due to the pacing. Solid edit that keeps the best of the original and improves pacing so that I was glued to my seat the whole time, even for an old movie.

Thanks to the editor for this one. I know an HD update was discussed, but I watched the 720 on a big screen, and I thought it looks perfect - time period appropriate and probably keep a better suspension of belief. No need to update from this viewers POV. This was awesome.

A highly enjoyable edit that's absolutely worth watching, whether you're a fan of Creature from the Black Lagoon or not.

Effective trim of an already shortish horror film. The editor's aim was to carve out the slack bits, and thereby boost the pacing. Nicely done.

Video - 1280 X 720p. Black n white, with good contrast. The underwater photography in this is outstanding, and the final interior cave shots are fine. Cuts went by unnoticed.

Audio - 224 Kbps 2-Channel, AAC. No subs. Dialogue is clear and understandable throughout. One might argue the finest element of this film is the soundtrack, which is dramatic and effective.

Narrative - Tell the truth, I did not notice any change in the narrative. And yes, quit a bit was excised. The story flows fine, I did not notice missing passages. This is a light edit and, because of the brevity, easy to digest. Boy meets girl - boy chases girl - conflict.

Enjoyment - Of all the "classic" Universal monsters, the Creature has always been one of my least favorites. Possibly because there is next to no history or backstory for the guy. He's existed for thousands of years in his isolated bachelor pad? Is the Creature even a he? If the Creature is actually a "she" then the sequence where it kidnaps Kay has a whole new dimension! Otherwise, the Creature comes across as this lovesick sap. Where were the village maidens? Countless manfish mutant fishpop offspring?

Yeah, kicking a rock, sorry. Nevertheless, compared with the original feature, Scribbling Man's edit is much preferred. Enjoy with your favorite fish sticks!