The Creature From The Black Lagoon: a good example of how it should still be.
Sometimes, the most interesting thing can happen when you least expect it, like, say, when you venture in to someone’s bathroom and discover that your friend has a secret fascination that you were never aware of…
The bathroom in question belonged to a good friend of mine and had recently been re-done. I was expecting the usual nice new things, maybe photos of the family skiing in italy, that sort of thing. What I was not expecting was a full on homage to the legendary film The Creature From The Black Lagoon. I had no idea my friend was such a fan of this excellent (if ageing) cult movie.
Mark’s bathroom was indeed a masterpiece. Four posters adorned the walls – original posters in mint condition, framed to protect them from moisture and heat. Each poster is a work of art and features the creature in all his/its (?) terrifying glory as he fights the divers to keep a hold of his victim. Looking closely at the posters, its clear that more time was spent painting the creature than actually making the creature itself. But this doesn’t matter. There is a magic quality about these posters, and about the rubber suit that scared so many, as with many films from this forgotten era, that can not be matched by any modern photoshop work.
It’s saddening that there are, in 2010, only three or four proper full-time movie poster artists left in the world at the most; sadder still is the fact that virtually all posters today are put together in a marketing department in just a few days, from idea conception to completion.
But who knows? Perhaps this dying art will make a comeback? I’m sure there are many people out there who remember the creature who would like to think so to.
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