The Gill-man; A Gay Allegory
One of the many aspects that allow classic stories to stand the test of time are the metaphors, allegories, and deep seeded meanings toward life. The Grimms' Fairy Tales are this way with their prime example, "Little Red Riding Hood." What is a classic fairy tale to children can be interpreted as the simple life lesson of not talking to strangers, or once you grow older come to see a darker side of sexual abduction. Like the classic tales of literature I too believe these same principles can be applied to movies, and in this case the classic Universal monsters. On the surface The Creature from the Black Lagoon is a tragic tale of how humans treat their environment and the animals that inhabit them, but in this post I will dive into what I believe makes this franchise one big allegory for being gay in the 1950s.
Made with the Beauty and the Beast and King Kong formula, Creature from the Black Lagoon was heavily marketed with Julia Adams forcibly embraced by a monster. This first outing perfectly sets up the mindset of the franchise by portraying an unattainable woman, surrounded by a love triangle with two scantily clad men, whom go through the film shooting their guns underwater and unleashing white liquid to attack the beast. This film already sounds sexually frustrated and I haven't even gotten to the part where Julie's legs were insured because they were thought to draw in audiences.
Among these visual sexual references Creature from the Black Lagoon showcases someone, in this case the creature, whom is a part of this world, but hidden from society. Once he is discovered, and man can not handle the thought of him, he is hunted down and put on display so that the whole world knows that he exists in the sequel Revenge of the Creature. Now that the creature's existence is "outed" society quickly boxed him away from them, in this case an aquarium, where they are allowed to enter his world and literally electroshock him to society's standards, and thus he is not able to be a part of their world anymore.
Revenge of the Creature furthers this by also talking about love. The two men in this film try, mostly, to no avail when wooing the lead female protagonist. For most of the film they are turned away, and even one scene had the man interrupted by a dog when about to kiss her. Constantly throughout this film the unattainable woman was just that. A goal that was never reached, and when one of the men did get her the creature was there to split them up again, but not before a very poignant speech the man gives to the woman about love. This speech really interested me upon my umpteenth viewing, because it wasn't what I expected for a movie this old. It was sweet, but also very sympathetic and ambiguous.
With that in mind, I started looking at this franchise in a different light. What if the creature represents the men's inner struggle to fit into society? Their repressed nature literally taking form to confront them and show them that no matter how much love a woman would give them they would never be able to love them the same way. The unattainable women portrayed in these three films are just mile markers that society had put in place for these characters. The more they tried to betray themselves, and pursue the expected life, the more aggressive the creature became. Even to the point where the men would wind up maimed or killed which could be interpreted as self harm.
The man-woman dynamic then shifts to a more toxic relationship as seen in The Creature Walks Among Us. The film opens up with a rather independent woman. More so than the previous two movies this woman is taking action into her own hands, in this case a shotgun, by showing the audience a scene where she kills two sharks. How is this important you may ask? Because it represents another type of unattainable woman, one whom is married and is also, in a way, fishing. Fishing for a new man because her relationship with her husband is nonexistent.
And so the search continues for the creature. The world now unable to leave the creature alone after discovering him and hunting him down they end up severely burning him. Back on the ship they save his life by restoring his lungs, and as his body tries to heal they notice that since his scales burned off he's becoming more human and a shell of what he used to be. Once he's subdued the love triangle starts again on the ship.
The woman's husband had many doubts and fears of her commitment throughout this film, and after catching the creature he proceeds to kiss her, but then immediately throws her to the side while shouting "Worthless, useless." This scene is particularly interesting to me, because you could clearly see the man's inner conflict on what he believed, but then after the kiss you can see rage and anger as he tosses her to the side like an object. What is worthless? Their marriage? What is useless? His love?
That particular scene was what spawned my next theory: that The Creature Walks Among Us is a tale of a closeted gay man who did marry and is now paying the toll by making her life miserable while also living in an internal hell. Looking at their relationship this way, and noting the forcible change in the creature, it creates an interesting viewpoint for the film as the husband is the only man who is attacked, and killed, by the creature. There is even a scene at the end of the film where the creature is rampaging throughout the house and sees the woman in the arms of her lover. The creature does not attack, but instead leaves them to find the abusive husband. In that scene the creature recognized where her happiness lied, and in turn got rid of the bane of her pain before he slowly walked into the ocean to presumably kill himself.
Every film is up to each one's interpretation. Sometimes its right, other times wrong, but it all comes from the viewer's subjective point of view. For me, the Gill-man's tragic three part story is a cautionary tale about the life of gay men in the 1950s. Starting with the first Creature from the Black Lagoon representing a difference in nature that is part of our world, and harmless, but is nevertheless attacked for being different. Revenge of the Creature furthers this thread by adding society actively pushing the creature into the spotlight and forcibly placing him in a bubble for all to see while literally electrocuting him as part of behavior therapy. Finally, The Creature Walks Among Us shows a failed marriage where their love is fake. No matter how much you try to make something happen, if you're not being honest and trying to hide your life starts to fall apart. This starts to make sense once you introduce the creature as the manifestation of the men's inner turmoil and repression come to life for society to see. The franchise even ends with one of the characters saying, "The whole world was his enemy," after the Gill-man commits suicide, similar to how gay men were treated in that era. I may have spent a long time with this franchise, and may have jumped through hoops to get here in the end, but I do believe I presented my case in an understandable way and stand by my interpretation of Universal's iconic water loving monster, the Gill-man.
Do you agree with me? Do you think I'm overthinking these classics? What allegory/metaphor would you give to the other classic monsters from Universal? Please leave a comment down below.
