When making a horror movie, there's no real way to tell whether your project is actually scary. Sure, something might seem spooky in concept, or even while shooting on a big movie set, but there's no telling whether it will truly resonate with an audience. Everybody is afraid of something, and sometimes you have no idea what it is until you're shrieking at it in the middle of a movie theater.

Luckily, the crew of Creature from the Black Lagoon was given quite a moral boost when they received some undisputable proof that their film was scary before it even made it to the cutting room floor.

Hollywood Horror: From Gothic to Cosmi, provides an intricate look at the making of some of your favorite horror films. Written by Mark A. Vieria, this book features various interviews from cast and crew alike, offering a behind-the-scenes view of what would become some of the most iconic monsters in cinema.

Apparently, while filming the 1954 film, one of the underwater doubles for the monster in the film, better known as The Gill-man, gave a mother and child quite the fright when they were in Florida.

"We were shooting in the middle of the spring, and I had to go to the bathroom," said Ricou Browning, the aquatic double. "They were going to take me ashore in a boat, but I said, no I was gonna swim over. I swam underwater...to the ladder that was on the dock next to shore. I came up the ladder and there was a lady with a little girl standing there."

Of course, coming face-to-face with a fish man can be quite jarring, to put it lightly. "I came out, and this little girl started screaming," said Browning. "She started screaming and running and the mother went after her, and I went after both of 'em, trying to say, 'Hey, hey, it's okay, it's okay!' But me saying 'It's okay!' didn't do a thing. They took off, and that's the last I saw of 'em!"

 1 Comments