hrkepler This Roger Corman directed spoof of spy, gangster and monster movies is much better than one can expect, especially if you can pay attention. Intentionally silly and it has some genius moments (that phone booth on the reef), the film has never meant to be taken seriously as other monster movies before that. In that sense Roger Corman parodied everything he had done before.The script was put together in three days by fast writing expert Charles B. Griffith and was shot on location of Puerto Rico together with two other Corman's productions 'Last Woman on Earth' (which he directed himself) and 'Battle of Blood Island'. That is the reason why three main stars are same as in 'Last Woman'. It seems that Corman went deliberately cheesy monster costume with tennis balls for eyes, as the intention was to make a comedy. As actor Anthony Carbone later said, they had to concentrate hard not to laugh at it.Opening theme music is exactly same as it was in 'The Little Shop of Horrors' and was originally written for 'A Bucket of Blood' by Fred Katz. That score was used in total of seven Roger Corman's productions. That's how cheap the great legend of cheapies was.'Creature from the Haunted Sea' is mostly misunderstood because the film is too silly even for Corman, but I guess lot of that misunderstanding comes from people that doesn't realize it was meant to be comedy. Not the greatest of them all, but still quite an enjoyable mess.

TM_Rezzek Sure, it's a Roger Corman quickie clocking in at 63 minutes, but it's 63 minutes of spy, gangster, and monster movie spoofing that's anchored by hilarious, deadpan narration written by Chuck Griffith. Add to it a dose of surrealism here and there (a phone booth on a deserted beach with someone who looks like Corman himself waiting to use the phone) and you have an idiosyncratic, low-budget winner. Corman was producing and directing films at such a furious pace during this time, he would take chances on trying something different as long as there was a script and a story. By the way, the animated opening credits sum up the tone perfectly!

michaelnj This is pre-Airplane humor. Anyone who thinks this is a "monster movie" will be sadly disappointed. My first clue? The very first scene has a guy getting his shoes shined. And what is he wearing? White canvas sneakers. There are lots of quirky dialog that doesn't even need MST3000K to make jokes about. "Did you get that?" "Right. Where do I turn for the decoder pin?" "Left." "Left?" "Right." "Right". And the classic, "It was dusk. I could tell because the sun was going down."Nothing in this movie was intended to be "horror". But if you listen closely and watch, you'll find plenty to laugh about. Kind of clever, actually.

Bloodwank They say you can't go home again, and so it is. I remember first watching Creature From The Haunted Sea one Christmas Eve afternoon. Came on the TV and I liked the name, settled down to watch at least until the titular creature appeared. What I didn't expect was oddball characters and nifty gonzo dialogue and neither did either of my brothers, both of whom became rooted to the screen as much as I by the truly baffling shenanigans we were witnessing. We boggled, we laughed, the whole thing spun out and we had a great time. A rare moment of out the blue sibling synchronicity and a festive memory as good as any post luncheon fade out to champagne and Casablanca it remained strong in my memory for some years. I even credit to it some measure of my love for insane cinema, such was my comparative inexperience and subsequent consumption of same. Watching it again I thought perhaps to revisit some of that magic, but sadly little magic remains. Its still bonkers, but knowing what is to come take away most off the sting. Its a tale of intrigue, with gangsters attempting to pull a fast one on rich Cubans fleeing with revolution with a quarter of their treasury and ending up meeting a monster. Unfortunately the pace is deadly slow and nominally exciting moments fall flat, even worse the choice nuggets of dialogue that made so much impression on me first time round are in fact spread few and far between and there's actually more in the way of standard tedium. There's some interest in the manner in which the film gets comic mileage both from gangsters and the then topical theme of the Cuban revolution but the film does so little with either idea that their presence does little, and so things overall feel rather pointless. There are a few good points to keep things together though, Anthony Carbone offers up a game turn as the lead hood, Betsy Jones-Moreland is effectively haughty as his moll (and pretty good looking too), while the titular creature is still an absolute hoot, ball eyed and tarpaulin skinned, good stuff. There's also just enough legit craziness to stop the film from being a total bore too, the fellow who imitates animals is good value, some lines are pretty funny and there's a splash of nice commentary on strangers abroad, so though things are often dull they never quite entirely pull to a stop. Not really enough for me to recommend this though, much as I once liked it. But with any luck you'll see it as I did, and this review will just remind you to think twice before heading back.