You would have to work very hard to come up with a film in the same stratosphere as Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water (2017). While not a sequel to The Creature from the Black Lagoon, it can easily be read that way. It is a lyrical fantasy that defies disbelief. It is the happy ending that every kid that watched the original film wished for and that del Toro made happen. Every frame brings you closer to the realization that anything is possible, or at least you want to believe it is so. It is less of a horror film than a beautifully bizarre beauty and the beast story.
Doug Jones & Sally Hawkins 
Richard Jenkins and Doug Jones
Everything, from the production and casting to the fine points in the script are perfect. The cast performs flawlessly taking you deeper into the story’s depths, letting you float in the comfort of the lovers’ dream.
Julie Adams 
Julie Adams
The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
The original film was where del Toro’s influence began–a classic tale of unrequited love. The first film in the trilogy it is undoubtedly the film that most people remember. The next, The Revenge of the Creature is the closest to del Toro’s in that the creature is brought back from the jungle and kept in a holding tank where an effort is made to communicate with him, and of course a beautiful young scientist, Helen Dobson (Lori Nelson) is one of the specialists. The Creature’s heartache is revived.
Lori Nelson & Ricou Browning 
Lori Nelson & Tom Hennesy
The third entry in the series is my favorite after the first because of its bizarre film noir influenced narrative (no comment on the Creature’s prison attire). At first, I thought I’d just been watching too much noir, but it was not my imagination: from the opening shot of the convertible racing up to the dock, the film was pure hot house noir right down to the smoldering ice blonde doctor’s wife.
LEFT: Lobby Card. RIGHT: Leigh Snowden in The Creature Walks Among Us
The usual Film Noir conflict, jealousy, and double crossing ensues. There is the nice guy, the tough guy who won’t leave the girl alone, and the husband that pays her no attention except to berate her or accuse her of being unfaithful.
Leigh Snowden & Gregg Palmer 
Gregg Palmer & Jeff Morrow
The jealous husband kills the tough guy and plans to frame the innocent Creature, but the Creature catches on and breaks out of his holding cell and kills the doctor.
At the end of this noirish escapade, the Creature exits and goes back into the sea; presumably, to drown due to his newly evolved lungs. There is no way I can let a sleeping sea creature lie. Somehow, he doesn’t drown but swims to LA where he gets rid of the prison suit they put him in and finds a Brooks Brothers where they are happy to fit him in a nice cream colored suit and a power tie that shouts, “I’m a fish out of water! Ask me how?” He then locates an office for lease on the seedy side of Hollywood Boulevard, and the landlord tells him it’s 250 clams a month and insists on three months security deposit because the Creature’s references are all wet. The Creature has the payment delivered packed in dry ice. Next, he hires the dead doctor’s wife as his receptionist and opens a private investigator’s office to the stars. Fade to deep blue.
Next: Mr. Renfield, I presume?
