Michael O'Keefe
I may have been pretty liberal with my rating of this creature feature. Dr. John Basso (Les Tremayne) is a polished stage hypnotist that features his pretty assistant (Pat Delaney), doing experiments in hypnotic regression. When a hideous fish-like creature comes out of the depths of Lake Texhoma to kill Tanglewood Country Club guests; a retired business tycoon is ready to fleece a gullible public that believes in the self-proclaimed clairvoyant, Dr. Brasso.Very low budget, but fun. Rubber suit monster or not, an interesting flick. Beach party scenes featuring singer Scotty McKay lengthens this made-for-television film, which is actually a remake of the 1956 movie THE SHE CREATURE. Other stars: Aaron Kincaid, Neil Fletcher, Suzanne Roy, Roger Ready and Byron Lord.
Platypuschow
Within moments I was struck with how terrible the movie looked. With a monster that looks like it was made by the Blue Peter cast, random colour filters that looked appalling and a score that made me turn the volume down it was so bad.Telling the story of a psychic, his subject and a mysterious creature (The very same one used in multiple movies to save money)When you can't take the antagonist seriously and find yourself squinting to work out whats going on you have to question what the creators were playing at.Sure it's not the worst of its ilk, but this is one of those that is so bad.....it's bad and doesn't even have that goofy charm to elevate it above embarassment.The Good: The monster is unintentional comedyThe Bad:Light filters are bafflingly badMonster is laughableMusic cuts through you like a knifeThings I Learnt From This Movie:Science is jazzBatman is a traditional party song
JohnHowardReid
Although the writing credits are totally dissimilar, this movie is an unashamed re-make of The Sea Creature (1956). Although the names of all the characters have been changed, they – as well as the plot and most of the dialogue – are identical. But what is not identical are the fine performances in the original movie. Les Tremayne makes a game stab at the role of the hypnotist but comes nowhere near the power and panache of the Chester Morris portrayal. The rest of the cast – with but one exception – come nowhere near matching the original players. The one exception is Pat Delany. She is not only the equal of Marla English in looks, but is actually superior in acting ability. However, so far as the screenplay is concerned, all that Tony Huston (posing as Enrique Touceda) has done is to change the effectiveness of the original climax and to add a couple of rock numbers for Scotty McKay. As for the "creature" herself, she is largely and laughably inept, both in make-up and acting ability. Also of little appeal is Larry Buchanan's wearisomely, TV oriented direction with its plethora of isolated and arbitrarily inserted close-ups. Admittedly, a few of the scenes (e.g. the teaser Prologue) are inventively handled. Some of the photography is also imaginative (e.g. the silhouette of the black-caped, top-hated hypnotist on the cliff top). Production values are also not too bad, considering the film was obviously produced on a very, very tight budget.
Cristi_Ciopron
To all the Larry Buchanan fellow _completists, a salute! I think Larry Buchanan does a better job in CREATURE OF DESTRUCTION than in IN THE YEAR 2889, if these haughty terms of quality should be applied at all to his flicks. CREATURE OF DESTRUCTION proves being a supernatural thriller given as a monster flick; as your aunts probably already informed you, the monster is not scary at all—but, face it, kids, who needs some scares? In short now, CREATURE OF DESTRUCTION is about a parapsychologist who has a very interesting show, he goes on tour with a girl whom he hypnotizes and she predicts awful murders that do not delay taking place. In the end, the plot proves to be too tricky for Buchanan, who lefts unsolved the enigma. The women are moderately pretty; and, changing now the subject, if, while watching, you do not experience that feeling of falseness, of dreadful phoniness provoked by such outings, then you probably are already grievously disturbed.Are any movies worse than this? Yes, almost any soap opera I know.
AD
