One such encounter takes place in a tent. Meanwhile, the Creature’s actual attacks are carried out against the many shirtless, muscular men who populate the film. It’s diva worship, something we queers are all too familiar with. When he kidnaps Kay, he places her on a literal pedestal in the center of his grotto, happy to be able to admire her from afar without those pesky men interrupting him.
As Benshoff notes, advertising for the film said the creature was “raging with pent-up passions ” sure enough, this phallic Creature spends the movie erupting to the surface and disrupting the heterosexual coupling. The Creature represents a clear threat to the heterosexual love triangle formed by Kay and the two rival scientists who compete for her affections, Mark and David.
Wait… the Creature from the Black Lagoon, queer? According to Benshoff, yes, as the original movie is full of misdirected and interrupted sexuality. Harry Benshoff devotes space in Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality in the Horror Film to discussing Gill-Man, mapping his arc onto a familiar horror project of “curing” the monstrous queer.
Revenge of the Creature and The Creature Walks Among Us are the other installments in what is ultimately a tight trilogy with a clear arc, rehabilitating the creature from pre-historic threat to semi-capable, ever-more-human-looking member of society. Unlike his contemporaries, who arguably wore out their welcome in an endlessly repetitive string of sequels, Gill only appeared in three Creature from the Black Lagoon movies. Gill-Man is my favorite of Universal’s horror monsters. Though reviews at the time reportedly called it an “abomination,” here’s my counter-argument: it’s a blast. This is also the plot of Universal Studios’ ill-fated, wildly horny Creature from the Black Lagoon: The Musical, which ran for approximately two months in 2009 before closing. No, I’m not (just) describing 2017 Best Picture winner The Shape of Water.
Even though everyone around her says the relationship is unnatural, she decides to go for it, submitting fully to the creature’s love. She is struck by the fish-man’s otherworldly beauty, finding herself drawn to his scales, his curious personality, and his impressively buff musculature. Stop me if you’ve seen this one: a nice woman who works for a bunch of asshole scientist men comes face to face with a large, humanoid amphibian.