View:
Connections, in both directions
The Shape of Water (2017)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
influenced by Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Revenge of the Creature (1955)
Themes Characters Visuals
Some of the best monster movies, such as King Kong and Creature from the Black Lagoon , allow rivulets of romantic longing to run through their narratives.
Del Toro's Baltimore is also governed by an aquatic color theme, which establishes a link between the city and the brackish water world inhabited by the Amphibian Man (Doug Jones), a humanoid sea creature who suggests a sensitive and elegant relative of the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
There are splashes of the creature from Pan’s Labyrinth mixed with the Creature from the Black Lagoon in this character.
Del Toro has said that the film was inspired by seeing Creature From the Black Lagoon as a 6-year-old boy in Mexico.
Part Abe Sapien from Hellboy, part Creature from the Black Lagoon, and entirely lovable despite his monstrous features and demeanor.
Yes, there's a quick aside here to "The Tingler," if you're observant; an even more fleeting one to the Lon Chaney "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." (And of course the central situation is from "The Creature From the Black Lagoon" - or, perhaps more accurately, the first sequel, "Revenge of the Creature."
Downsizing (2017)
Directed by Alexander Payne
influenced by The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
Themes
…good, though not as remarkable as in the 1957 little person classic, “The Incredible Shrinking Man.”
From Attack of the 50-Foot Woman to The Incredible Shrinking Man, we can’t get enough of this concept.
There is a tiny bit of Swift here – or The Incredible Shrinking Man, or Ant-Man, or Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
This is no The Incredible Shrinking Man or even Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, films which took this concept to a much more realized degree.
By way of such classics as “The Incredible Shrinking Man” (1957), the less well known 1940 mini-classic “Dr. Cyclops” and the Lilliputian episodes of Jonathan Swift’s 18th century masterpiece “Gulliver’s Travels,” “Downsizing” makes a serious attempt to be a “Gulliver’s Travels” for these times, a fantasy/science-fiction film with a Swiftian sense of purpose and political/social satire, and it works best on this level.
There’s something touching at the heart of this movie, just as there was in the thoughtful 50s sci-fi classic The Incredible Shrinking Man, which is that if we could stop thinking that we’re big in the universe, we might appreciate what has meaning within our cosmic insignificance.
Ant-Man (2015)
Directed by Peyton Reed
influenced by The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
Plot Visuals
I enjoyed the scenes in which Rudd first tries to function in a world of giant household objects, but only because they reminded me of The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957).
At the end of the day, frankly, any film that references The Incredible Shrinking Man so beautifully deserves its moment on the stage.
The rest of the movie, with simulated direction from a mixing-lab keyboard by somebody called Peyton Reed, is a series of stunts borrowed from such sci-fi classics as The Incredible Shrinking Man and The Fly.
It seems a pity, though, that the screenplay didn’t have the guts to emulate the wonderfully ethereal close of its real progenitor, Jack Arnold’s “The Incredible Shrinking Man” (1957).
We've seen some of these tricks before, most effectively in 1957's The Incredible Shrinking Man and 1989's Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
As for the effects, they're generally excellent, particularly in a bravura inner-space sequence that hearkens back to the 1957 classic The Incredible Shrinking Man.
Frankenstein (2025)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
influenced by Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Themes Characters Plot
Unlike his “Creature from the Black Lagoon” riff, “The Shape of Water,” there’s almost too little del Toro here.
Shape of Water ran into issues over having the Gill-Man from Creature from the Black Lagoon fuck when he tried to pitch it to Universal before turning it into original IP…
The Shape of Water (2017), drew freely on The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)…
…whose Oscar-winning The Shape of Water might as well have been a reimagining of The Creature From the Black Lagoon…
But as expected from the director who made an Oscar-winning picture out of affection for the titular character in Creature from The Black Lagoon, del Toro shows endless sympathy for the monster in his lavish, wildly indulgent new adaptation of Frankenstein.
It's a film packed to bursting with golden nuggets of surprise, humor, and pathos, though it bears noting that the film runs a track vaguely similar to Spielberg's E.T.. That's not to say in any way that Bird's film is a simulacrum; both films owe a great deal to the classic sci-fi films of the Fifties, notably William Cameron Menzies' Invaders From Mars and Jack Arnold's It Came From Outer Space (both 1953 and both referenced in Bird's film).
Jeepers Creepers (2001)
Directed by Victor Salva
influenced by Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Visuals
The chase scenes are reminiscent of Duel; the bloody scene set in backwoods police station may remind you of Assault On Precinct 13; and the killer himself is a Frankenstein of everything from Leatherface to the creatures in Gargoyles (with a little Creature from the Black Lagoon thrown in).
Someone must have grabbed the costume out of wardrobe storage for the “Creature from the Black Lagoon” and given it a face-lift along with a set of wings to think that it would scare the audience.
Minions & Monsters (2026)
Directed by Pierre Coffin
influenced by Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Themes Visuals
“The Wolf Man” (1941) and “Creature from the Black Lagoon.”
Homages to Safety Last!, Steamboat Bill, Jr., Jaws, A Trip to the Moon, The Mummy, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Metropolis are among the many callbacks movie fans can enjoy.
…donde se ven estatuas de la Maschinenmensch de “Metrópolis”, de Fritz Lang, la Criatura del Lago Negro y hasta Neo, de “Matrix”…
Reinserted as fake students at Sagan High School to investigate the teen drug trade (shades of 1958's "High School Confidential!")…
The Master (2012)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
influenced by The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
Visuals
He must be larger than the young woman, yet he appears shrunken, very much like Grant Williams on his date with the carnival woman in that 1950s exposé of vanishing humanity, "The Incredible Shrinking Man.")
Cast Away (2000)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
influenced by The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
Themes
Nor is it a tale of spiritual transcendance and acceptance, like "The Incredible Shrinking Man." Rather, it is a relatively straightforward and heartfelt adventure tale of what it takes to be a survivor.
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Directed by Mel Brooks
influenced by Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Themes
James Whale's "Frankenstein" (1931) and "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935), and the follow-up, "Son of Frankenstein" (1939), were the primary targets, but "Dracula" (1931), "The Wolf Man" (1941) and "Creature from the Black Lagoon" (1954) also provide ample fodder.
After all, Spielberg’s genre outings were themselves 20-years-later homages to “It Came from Outer Space,” among other 1950s B classics.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)
Directed by Michael Bay
influenced by The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
Visuals
And they are so many times larger than the humans that I was reminded of the scale used in "The Incredible Shrinking Man."
Under the Silver Lake (2018)
Directed by David Robert Mitchell
influenced by Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Themes
Where Mitchell soared with It Follows — pulling influence from David Cronenberg’s works and John Carpenter’s films, slasher flicks from the 1980s that taught everyone sex is the quickest way to guarantee death in a horror situation and creature features like George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and the Creature from the Black Lagoon trilogy — he sputters with Under the Silver Lake.
Sam’s posters include Creature from the Black Lagoon, Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and The Wolf Man.
In the tradition of “The Legend of Nigger Charley,” and “Boss Nigger,” director Quentin Tarantino tips his hat to the exploitation cinema of the seventies with his own epic tale of slavery, freedom, and avenging those that have been unjustly murdered.
He’s not just calling up one kind of film; look closely and you’ll see the footprints of everything from Mandingo to Boss Nigger to Blazing Saddles.
The Invisible Man (2020)
Directed by Leigh Whannell
influenced by Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Themes
They came up with a plan for a shared "Dark Universe" that would include a Bride of Frankenstein remake starring Angelina Jolie, an updated Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde featuring Russell Crowe, Javier Bardem as Frankenstein's monster, and remakes of The Wolf Man, Creature From the Black Lagoon and more.
Later that year we got Guillermo Del Toro’s love letter to Creature from the Black Lagoon in his Oscar-winning film, The Shape of Water .
Sanctum (2011)
Directed by Alister Grierson
influenced by Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Visuals
Full disclosure: I’m an advanced Scuba diver and am drawn to anything photographed underwater, from the recent “Descent” to the Amazon-set “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” which pioneered underwater 3-D in Silver Springs, Florida.
Groucho Marx once played Rufus T. Firefly, the dictator of Fredonia, and "The Mouse That Roared" was about the Duchy of Grand Fenwick.
House of 1000 Corpses (2003)
Directed by Rob Zombie
influenced by Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Zombie seems to know his horror films -- particularly "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and the Universal classics of the 1940s and 1950s, such as "The Wolf Man" and "Creature From the Black Lagoon" -- but he certainly didn't have a clue how to make one.
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
Directed by Tommy Wirkola
influenced by It Came from Outer Space (1953)
Visuals
Wirkola makes the most of the 3D technology; there haven’t been as many deadly weapons flying at the audience since the era of It Came From Outer Space.