Creature Feature: 50 Years of the Gill-Man (2004)

Great Film overall

Don't listen to the negative reviews

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I vaguely remember Ben from my Sci-Fi fandom days of the '60s, I was doing several interviews & bios of obscure actors/actresses, most notably Ben, actress Fay Spain, and Jody Fair, who played Angela in 1961's The Young Savages. Ben was one of the people at a low-key Sci-Fi con in Chicago, about 1970, when I had a nice chat with him and his "career" and life. All these were published in some now-long-forgotten fanzine of the day. Wish I still had copies of those interviews, but time marches on, and any of those people surely wouldn't' remember me at all so many years later. Ben was a really nice fellow, ekeing out a living (The cons of those days didn't even pay their guest, unless, of course they were big-name stars, and even then the pay was a couple hundred dollars, at most! Good to know Ben's still alive & kicking! How 'bout a remake of Creature, but 50 years older! Ugly then, uglier now!

This is a great documentary. Like most documentaries I see, I knew little-to-nothing about the subject matter, but I was fascinated and captivated by the Gill-Man's story from beginning to end.The classic film footage cut with the old NBC "Abbott & Costello" commercials and publicity stills are all priceless. The interviews with today's collectors and super-fans are beyond interesting...to call them 'Trekkie-like' would almost be fair if it wasn't also almost insulting.I would have liked to have seen more footage with the surviving actors, writers and producers (a la "Rico almost drowned on the first day")- and maybe even more of the latter day reunion in Florida- but what was there was obviously carefully crafted and very well put together.I'd see it again and I'd definitely add it to my collection. I hope to see this documentary as part of any DVD anniversary and/or remake add-on, at the very least.

Recently saw this film at a screening, and was even lucky enough to have a Q&A w/ filmmakers afterward. Any fan of the horror genre - especially those of the Universal Monster classics would enjoy this film, in my opinion.There were very nice performances by Oscar-winner Benicio Del Toro, and by narrator Keith David, as well as Daniel Roebuck. The whole thing was scripted particularly well, and David's splendid voice really capped it off for me.I enjoyed this film even more than Back to the Black Lagoon, and I only hope that the new Creature remake will be done as well as this. Either way, I will be keeping my eye on filmmakers Sam Borowski and Matt Crick and see what they do next.Keep your eyes peeled for a screening if you get a chance. I only hope you enjoy the experience as much as I did.Doc Ron Hollywood

Saw this recently and was very impressed, especially with the written narrative that seemed to move the story along nicely. Not to mention the fact that the narrative was delivered by none other than Keith "THEY LIVE" David, who is just as impressive a narrator as he is an actor.As a fan of horror/sci-fi, I certainly knew some of the backstory of the Creature From the Black Lagoon, but I learned a whole lot more in this very informative documentary that had a really fast pace, and interesting subject material.There were also nice turns by Academy-Award winner Benicio Del Toro and Arthur Ross, the original writer of the first and third films in the Creature trilogy. Don't want to give too much away, but I will say that this film will capture your interest, even if only a casual movie buff, while also serving as informative for the movie fanatics. And, that's well worth the price of admission!