Absolutely Fantastic

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

When I first heard about this film, I thought it was going to be typical 1950's B-movie stuff with someone in a cheesy costume going around attacking people. I was quite disappointed to find that most of this film wasn't even about that at all! It was mostly about this hypnotist who tries to seduce a woman by having her look into her past lives or something. It was hard to follow and I wasn't even sure how the title She-Creature was a part of this. It amounted to very little. If there's anything good about it, I guess it was at least a little unique.This wasn't even quite standard for films of the time. It really is just a pointless movie. I couldn't even tell that that creature was female! I don't know if I've ever seen more spinning papers in a movie before. That's probably why this is a dead horse trope. It's clichéd even by the standards of this time period. *

Oh no, not another rubber monster coming out of the ocean! Yes, another rubber monster coming out of the ocean, and boy does she have female troubles! Complete with breasts, this scaly creature with crab claws appears to be some ancient ghost, reincarnated as the living human beauty Mara English who ends up under the thumb of the psychotic Chester Morris. "Beauty like yours must not be destroyed. It belongs to me", he tells her, utilizing her in a sort of traveling freak show that claims that she has led many lives and that the she-creature that escapes the ocean to kill was one of those lives. Veteran Hollywood actors from the 1930's make an embarrassing return to the screen in what ranks as one of the worst science fiction/horror movies of the late 1950's. "I can make you grovel in the dirt" is just an example of the truly hideous dialog that veteran actor Morris ("The Big House") must say which also includes, "No one can take you from me. I live only for you. You're the light that shines out of my darkness!" If your eyes haven't started rolling by the time he says this gem of dialog, you must have fallen asleep! Also involved in this poster child for Elvira/Mystery Science Theater favorite is the former Falcon, Tom Conway, once one of the most dashing "B" leading men and now an aging shell of himself desperately trying to keep his sophisticated wit but barely able to contain his disgust over what he's involved in. El Brendel, who annoyed me with his fake Swedish accent in movies of the early 1930's, is here again, given equally bad dialog to annoyingly spout. Freida Inescort, one of the underrated gems of the 1930's, gets a somewhat showy character part as a patron of the mystical, and escapes unscathed. As for English, all she is required to do is look lovely. She basically poses, not acts, and her retorts to the ridiculous dialog veteran actor Morris must say is delivered blandly. Dark, gloomy photography makes this look extremely cheap, and when the creature and its descendant finally meet each other, it is not a reunion to be remembered. Basically, the film can't even succeed on a camp level without someone spouting wisecracks at the screen because it really ranks as ultra-boring and something that could definitely induce sleep should insomnia hit.

Chester Morris plays Dr. Carlo Lombardi, a mysterious hypnotist who claims that he can revert a hypnotized girl(played by Marla English) into a past life, not only recent past, but ancient past, when she was an aquatic prehistoric "she-creature"! Though his colleagues are understandably skeptical, he is proved correct when she does indeed revert, becoming a hulking killer monster who emerges from the sea. Can the authorities stop this menace, before it is too late? Despite a memorable monster suit, and some atmosphere, this is an uncomfortably slow and tedious, not to mention preposterous thriller. Some potential here, but poorly handled.

I went into this film expecting nothing good of it whatsoever; my only interest in seeing it coming as a result of the fact that I'm a fan of the little known 2001 remake - but to my surprise, this actually is a fairly decent film...if you can forgive it's many shortcomings. The film is clearly what would be called "Z Grade Horror" - the production values are low, the acting is largely terrible and I wouldn't be surprised to find that the script took less than a day to write...but actually there's some original ideas in the film that help to save it. The plot revolves around a hypnotist named Dr. Carlo Lombardi. He claims that he can prove reincarnation exists by regressing his beautiful assistant back to a previous life. However, his experiments eventually take on a physical form and do so in the form of a mutant sea creature. The creature comes from the sea and begins killing people. Several people believe the doctor to be at the heart of the killings.The most ridiculous thing about the film is, of course, the monster itself...which looks pretty silly. Think The Creature from the Black Lagoon, with breasts. The film clearly didn't have much of a budget either and much of it is taken up by talking and/or scenes that don't require any special effects - director Edward L Cahn having the good sense to keep the monster's appearances down to a minimum. The plot does have some problems too and many of the good ideas are not addressed in such a way to make them effective, which is a shame as clearly much more could have been made of the film. That being said, the ideas we do get are fairly clever; the whole hypnosis plot is not the most obvious route to a film about a monster coming out of the sea. Chester Morris takes the lead role and is probably the pick of the cast; his is the only performance that actually seems to have any effort at all put into it. Overall, I can't say that this is great or a must see; but it's much better than I expected and fans of fifties monster movies might get a kick out of it.