Mythical Movie Monsters: Just A Few Of My Old Friends

 

A scene from the film Creature From the Black Lagoon, with the monster “The Gill Man” (played by Ben Chapman) emerging from the murky waters onto a log.

When I was in elementary school, I got into trouble for drawing dinosaurs instead of doing my assignments. In case I haven’t made this clear, it happened more than once and over a number of years. Some years ago, I decided to begin feeding my inner ten-year-old and come out of denial. My love of monsters and monster movies never went away. It just needed more contemporary special effects to reawaken it.

I grew up on classics such as King Kong (1933)…

… Godzilla (1954)…

… The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)…

… and Them (also 1954: obviously a very good year).

It should come as no surprise that one of the features that attracted me to mythology at a young age was the inclusion of monsters and other fantastic beasts in the stories. That’s my somewhat weak line of justification for opening Mythical Movie Monsters as a new category on this site. These movie monsters are the stuff of modern, fabricated myths if you’re willing to stretch the definition a bit. Every now and then, I will indulge myself by posting about my childhood fantasies grown older. Stay tuned if you like spectacular visuals, stomping, roaring, and lots of teeth.