The Literary Legacy of The Creature from the Black Lagoon

Inspired by South American myths about human-fish hybrids in the Amazon River, the film is simple and tragic tale: an expedition to the Amazon in search of evidence of a “missing link” between humanity and sea animals finds a living specimen of same. The creature is curious at first, but when threatened, it kills several members of the expedition—and falls in love with a woman, eventually kidnapping her. Throughout the story the creature is shot at, imprisoned, and otherwise tortured, never regarded as anything less than evil, even though it’s only defending itself or reacting to human violence.
The film was a surprise hit, and the story (which admittedly cribs liberally from “Beauty and the Beast”) has an eternal quality that continues to influence writers and pop culture—as evidenced by the 2018 Best Picture win for Guillermo del Toro’s film The Shape of Water, and in the works of writers like Stephen King and Mike Mignola. While the Creature isn’t as recognizable as Frankenstein or the Werewolf, his literary legacy is pretty solid.

The Shadow Over Innsmouth, by H.P. Lovecraft
This book predates the 1954 film, though there’s no reason to think the filmmakers were even aware of it, considering Lovecraft wasn’t then nearly the cult figure he has become today. But it’s worth mentioning because Lovecraft’s Deep Ones are remarkably similar to the Creature, from their appearance to their willingness (even eagerness) to breed with human beings to produce hybrid offspring. While this appears to be a strange coincidence, it’s worth rereading the Lovecraft classic before reading or watching the books and films that followed. Judge for yourself whether this is a case of independent invention, or more direct inspiration at work.

The Shape of Water, by Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus
Having seen and loved The Creature… as a kid, del Toro sought first to produce a straight-up remake, but Universal was already planning its ambitious Dark Universe film series (which has since come and gone with a thud—the Tom Cruise version of The Mummy would’ve been better left under wraps) and he couldn’t get the rights. And thankfully so: instead, he took his idea to give the original story a “happier ending” and crafted The Shape of Water, a film whose visual beauty was to be expected, given the director’s pedigree, but whose heart proved powerful enough to transcend genre (and species) barriers, winning over even the reluctant Academy voters. Del Toro also worked with novelist Daniel Kraus to craft a novelization that works well as a standalone experience, deepening the themes of the film and developing the characters even more. If you’ve seen the film, you know del Toro took everything great about the original and updated it with a modern, transgressive edge (and a more explicit, touching cross-species love story). The results are wholly original—and yet it’s a story that wouldn’t exist without the lingering influence of that 1954 B-movie.

Creature from the Black Lagoon: Time’s Black Lagoon, by Paul Di Filippo
Di Filippo wrote this one in 2006 as part of Dark Horse’s “Universal Monsters” series, again tying into the classic horror films (other titles naturally included Dracula, The Werewolf, and Frankenstein). It’s a Paul Di Filippo jam, no doubt, combining time travel with the original setting and monster, and offers a pretty explanation for why there was just one creature lingering in the Black Lagoon in 1954. This version of the Creature is explicitly extraterrestrial as opposed to a missing link in our own evolution; the sad, lonely creature tortured and killed in the original film is revealed to be the end result of disease and decline, upping the tragedy card and finding greater depths of sadness in the story.
 

It, by Stephen King
While It isn’t really about The Creature from the Black Lagoon in any meaningful way, the Creature does show up as one of the guises of Pennywise, used to terrify Eddie Corcoran just before it kills him. This is significant in light of Danse Macabre, King’s 1987 book studying horror tropes and discussing films, novels, and stories that influenced him, in which he spends a lot of time discussing the effect the 1954 film had on him. In fact, after reading that section, you can’t help but see the Creature’s shadow over much of King’s work, especially some of his earlier novels and stories, which had rich veins of old-school horror running through them.

Hellboy, by Mike Mignola
There’s little doubt that Abe Sapien, the “amphibious man” in Mignola’s Hellboy, was modeled somewhat on the Creature. In fact, given that Guillermo del Toro directed the film adaptations of the Hellboy comics, there was a persistent (and utterly believable) rumor The Shape of Water was going to be a literal prequel to those films. Del Toro denied this, yet you can see the connection so strongly between all three characters that the influence of the original film can’t be denied. (It also helps that the same actor, Doug Jones, brought both Abe Sapien and The Shape of Water‘s fish-man to life.)

Marvel Comics’ The Inhumans
Triton, a character in the long-running Marvel comic series Inhumans has never been explicitly stated to be based on the Creature, but the similarities are pretty obvious, from his general look (fins, green skin) to his inability to live outside of water. The series’ recent transition to television provides yet one more example of the beast’s enduring pop culture legacy.
Can you think of any examples we missed?