16. A new classic monster appeared in 1954
With Frankenstein and the Wolf Man becoming comedy stars, Universal looked for a new monster which could be used to return the idea of horror to their horror genre. They found one in 1954 when they released Creature from the Black Lagoon. Movies shown in 3D had been popular in the early 1950s, and Creature from the Black Lagoon was filmed in that format, but it was only distributed to large theaters and cities in 3D. The rest of the country saw it in standard 2D format. The film also drew on recent discoveries by marine biologists of up to then unknown species of undersea life, many of them extinct.
The creature was known to its discoverers as the Gill Man, a humanoid which could breathe both in and out of water. Two actors portrayed the creature in a costume which gave it a fearsome appearance and completely masked the man wearing the costume. The film featured several underwater scenes, beautiful endangered women in swimming attire, and heroic rescues. Several people were killed by the creature before it was shot multiple times and sank into the Black Lagoon, leaving the audience with the impression it was dead. It would return, and quickly joined its predecessors as a classic monster.