THE SHAPES IN THE WATER - The Chronicles of the Gill-man and Kindred Dwellers in Deep

On my little show this year, we have been exploring the history of the Gill-man and similar aquatic horrors. Starting with a look at assorted legends and folklore about aquatic monsters, we traced appearances of dwellers in the deep in weird fiction, and discovered how Universal came up with the iconic Gill-man. The series then explored the various sequels that followed, including Del Toro's The Shape of Water, a love letter to the Creature from the Black Lagoon. We then went on to uncover assorted cameo appearances by the Gill-man and finally we have looked at the assorted similar creatures, both reverent homages and outright knock-offs that followed in his wake. 

Find all the shows in the series linked below! 

HYPNOGORIA 85 - The Shapes in the Water

In celebration of Guillermo del Toro's new opus The Shape of Water, Mr Jim Moon sets sail on a new new podcast series and submerges the Great Library of Dreams Bathysphere into the deeps to discover all manner of aquatic horrors. In this first episode, we explore the Gill-man's ancestry in mythology, legend and folklore, encountering kappas, nixes, nymphs, tritons and of course various mermaids and merfolk.

DIRECT DOWNLOAD -  HYPNOGORIA 85 - The Shapes in the Water

FROM THE GREAT LIBRARY OF DREAMS 42 - The Harbor-Master by Robert W Chambers

In the second part of our Shapes in the Water podcast series, we look at the grandfather of all hybrid aquatic horrors, the weird tale of The Harbor-Master by Robert W Chambers!

DIRECT DOWNLOAD -  The Harbor-Master by Robert W Chambers

HYPNOGORIA 86 - The Chronicles of the Creature Part I

In this episode, Mr Jim Moon invites you all to take a leisurely boat trip down the Amazon river to the Black Lagoon. Here we'll learn of the origin and history of its famous resident monster the Gill-man, and all about the making of the classic movie The Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954).

DIRECT DOWNLOAD -  HYPNOGORIA 86 - The Chronicles of the Creature Part I

Tea-time at The Black Lagoon

A bonus mini-episode for you all recounting a childhood encounter with the Creature!

DIRECT DOWNLOAD -  Tea-time at The Black Lagoon

HYPNOGORIA 87 - The Chronicles of the Creature Part II

In this episode, we continue on your exploration of the Gill-man and take an in-depth look at the classic horror SF movie The Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954) directed by the great Jack Arnold. Plus we also take a peek at the Gill-man in print and unearth various plots for remakes.

DIRECT DOWNLOAD -  HYPNOGORIA 87 - The Chronicles of the Creature Part II

HYPNOGORIA 88 - The Chronicles of the Creature Part III

In this episode Mr Jim Moon takes a look at the further adventures of the Gill-man, exploring Revenge of the Creature (1955) and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)

DIRECT DOWNLOAD -  HYPNOGORIA 88 - The Chronicles of the Creature Part III

HYPNOGORIA 89 - The Shape of Water

In this episode, Mr Jim Moon takes an in-depth look at the Oscar winning monster movie from Guillermo del Toro. First we have a spoiler-free review of The Shape of Water, and then in the second half, we delve deeper, exploring its connections to The Creature From the Black Lagoon movies and other connections to folklore, fairy stories and classic films.

DIRECT DOWNLOAD -  HYPNOGORIA 89 - The Shape of Water

GREAT LIBRARY OF DREAMS 43 - Dagon by HP Lovecraft

In this episode, we round off the current leg of our series on aquatic terrors with a seminal tale of marine horror from the great HP Lovecraft.

DIRECT DOWNLOAD -  GREAT LIBRARY OF DREAMS 43 - Dagon by HP Lovecraft

HYPNOGORIA 92 - Spawn of the Gill-man Part I

Beginning a new mini-series, Mr Jim Moon returns to the world of aquatic horrors to discover assorted ameos and homages to the Gill-man, not to mention a few outright rip-offs too!  We have a look at Return of the Creature (1955),  Castle of the Monsters (1958), Monster Of Piedras Blancas (1959) , Mad Monster Party(1967), Chabelo and Pepito vs. The Monsters (1973), The Monster Squad (1987), plus some small screen appearances in McHale's Navy and Night Gallery.

DIRECT DOWNLOAD -  HYPNOGORIA 92 - Spawn of the Gill-man Part I

HYPNOGORIA 93 - Spawn of the Gill-man Part II

We continue our exploration of the Gill-man's kith and kin, this time rounding up assorted Black Lagoon knock-offs! We take a look at The She Creature (1956), Creature From The Haunted Sea (1961), Horror of Party Beach (1964), Beach Girls and the Monster (1965) and The City Under The Sea AKA War-gods of the Deep (1965).

DIRECT DOWNLOAD -  HYPNOGORIA 93 - Spawn of the Gill-man Part II

HYPNOGORIA 94 - Spawn of the Gill-man Part III

In this episode Mr Jim Moon brings this series of podcasts on gill-men and aquatic horrors full circle with a look at some curious cases from the annals of cryptozoology which seems to have echoes of the Black Lagoon...

DIRECT DOWNLOAD -  HYPNOGORIA 94 - Spawn of the Gill-man Part III

FROM THE GREAT LIBRARY OF DREAMS 46 - The Doom That Came To Sarnath by HP Lovecraft

We round off our current series on aquatic horrors with a tale of terror by the great HP Lovecraft.

DIRECT DOWNLOAD -  The Doom That Came To Sarnath by HP Lovecraft

And you can find all the podcasts in the HYPNOGORIA family here -

HYPNOGORIA HOME DOMAIN - Full archive, RSS feed and other useful links

HYPNOGORIA on iTunes

HYPNOGORIA on STITCHER

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

HYPNOGORIA 88 - The Chronicles of the Creature Part III

In this episode Mr Jim Moon takes a look at the further adventures of the Gill-man, exploring Revenge of the Creature (1955) and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)

DIRECT DOWNLOAD -  HYPNOGORIA 88 - The Chronicles of the Creature Part III

Find all the podcasts in the HYPNOGORIA family here -

HYPNOGORIA HOME DOMAIN - Full archive, RSS feed and other useful links

HYPNOGORIA on iTunes

HYPNOGORIA on STITCHER

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

Tea-time at The Black Lagoon

A bonus mini-episode for you all recounting a childhood encounter with the Creature!

DIRECT DOWNLOAD -  Tea-time at The Black Lagoon

Find all the podcasts in the HYPNOGORIA family here -

HYPNOGORIA HOME DOMAIN - Full archive, RSS feed and other useful links

HYPNOGORIA on iTunes

HYPNOGORIA on STITCHER

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

HYPNOGORIA 87 - The Chronicles of the Creature Part II

In this episode, we continue on your exploration of the Gill-man and take an in-depth look at the classic horror SF movie The Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954) directed by the great Jack Arnold. Plus we also take a peek at the Gill-man in print and unearth various plots for remakes.

DIRECT DOWNLOAD -  HYPNOGORIA 87 - The Chronicles of the Creature Part II

Find all the podcasts in the HYPNOGORIA family here -

HYPNOGORIA HOME DOMAIN - Full archive, RSS feed and other useful links

HYPNOGORIA on iTunes

HYPNOGORIA on STITCHER

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

HYPNOGORIA 86 - The Chronicles of the Creature Part I

In this episode, Mr Jim Moon invites you all to take a leisurely boat trip down the Amazon river to the Black Lagoon. Here we'll learn of the origin and history of its famous resident monster the Gill-man, and all about the making of the classic movie The Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954).

DIRECT DOWNLOAD -  HYPNOGORIA 86 - The Chronicles of the Creature Part I

Find all the podcasts in the HYPNOGORIA family here -

HYPNOGORIA HOME DOMAIN - Full archive, RSS feed and other useful links

HYPNOGORIA on iTunes

HYPNOGORIA on STITCHER

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

TOMB OF THE TRUMPS #03 - Devil Priest Pack Part III

Once again we are back exploring the secret origins of the fabled Horror Top Trumps from the 1980s! And this time we will see how some cards, incredibly, actually managed to match an appropriate image with the right name...

So then, absolutely no prizes for identifying this one! For it is one of the all-time great movie monsters - the Gill Man! He was the last addition to the panoply of Universal monsters, coming when the original house of horrors was moving away from the gothic chills of Drac and Frank and into the terrors of atomic age SF. Surfacing in 1954, The Creature From the Black Lagoon is now recognized as a classic monster movie, and was directed by Jack Arnold in an extremely fertile period that saw him directing other classics such as Tarantula! (1955) and The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957). In true Universal fashion, it was followed up with two sequels - Revenge of the Creature (1955) and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956), but of course also in true Universal fashion, the sequels did lessen in quality with each subsequent movie. 

A redesigned Gill Man would later appear many years later in Fred Dekker's homage to the Universal horrors, The Monster Squad (1987), and our amphibious friend would also make a guest appearance in The Munsters as Uncle Gilbert, where it was revealed he had a fortune in old Spanish dubloons and used to be a politician! Speaking of comedy capers, many folks think that as a late addition to the Universal canon, the Creature was spared a run-in with Abbot and Costello - however this was not the case. For while our fishy friend was avoided an appearance in one of the horror-comedy feature films that finished off the rest of the Universal horror crew, the Creature did appear in a sketch with the comic duo in the Colgate Comedy Hour TV show. 

While on the Creature trivia tip - the first movie was released in 3D, and indeed is still regarded as one of the best movies ever to utilize this cinematic sorcery. However contrary to popular belief, the movie didn't use the red/green anaglyph 3-D method - apparently like nearly all of the 3D flicks of the '50s, it used an earlier version of the polarised 3D system that modern-day 3D movies use! The idea that the movies in the 3D craze of the 1950s used the two colour system derives partly from movies like Creature From the Black Lagoon being reissued to the theatres in the 1970s with the anaglyph systems doing the 3D shenanigans. 

A remake of The Creature From the Black Lagoon has long been promised, but despite various projects being mooted since the 1980s, and assorted big names being attacked to the project, so far the Creature has not resurfaced. He was intended to have a guest appearance in the mega-turkey Van Helsing (2004) but our wily amphibious friend dodged that bullet... 

Our next card is slightly trickier, although the name is (sort of) right and the image has been faithfully copied from movie stills. Indeed despite being a huge fan of the classic fantasy flick from which this particular one-eyed horror hails from, it was a good while before the penny dropped. And that's largely because the card isn't showing the beast in all its glory. For this is no ordinary cyclops, this is actually the Centaur that appears in the finale of Ray Harryhausen's Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) - ah, you see it now, don't you! 

Look - the same swept-back hair-do, accessorized with an ethnic necklace and spiky heavy metal bracelet! Originally our mono-visioned My Monstrous Pony was apparently scripted to fight a Neanderthal giant, but in the end this was changed to the Griffin that now flaps in. Incidentally, the primitive brute would resurface as the friendly monster Trog in a later Harryhausen movie, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977).