MovieChat Forums > Creature from the Haunted Sea Discussion > One of the Funniest Movies of All Time

One of the Funniest Movies of All Time

posted 11 years ago by jgrge3
9 replies | jump to latest

I don't understand the low rating. This has to be one of the funniest movies of all time. Every scene is packed with comedy, and while a couple of the jokes fall flat, some of the ideas are very original. It is a farce that makes fun of itself, with an intentionally ludicrous monster, hilarious dialogue, ridiculous henchmen, and a Humphrey Bogart look alike who stares directly into the camera, as the yacht is sinking, and says, "Don't worry everyone, there's no need to panic--the boats insured."

"When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk."

[–] Akzidenz_Grotesk 11 years ago

For me, it gets funnier with each viewing. The fact it was director Roger Corman's slap-dash, seat-of-his-pants effort to squeeze one more film out of the Puerto Rico location made the frenetic craziness of it even better than if it were planned with calm.

As for the low rating, there's a lot of people out there that hate anything shot in black-and-white and only like predictable, popular, glossy films (YUCK). They just see an old scratchy movie with a fake monster and miss the whole point of the humourous story satirizing everything from mobsters, spies, gun molls and generals to puke inducing "romantic" liasons. They confuse production quality with QUALITY overall.

Speaking of people giving low-buget movies low ratings, there's even one moron on the message board for "The Battle of Blood Island" (another Corman flick done on Puerto Rico around the same time) who actually complains that the lack of realistic-sounding rifle shooting made the film "horrible" for him! Talk about missing the point. Never mind that it was written by the great author Philip Roth and that the storyline, acting and suspense are excellent. Noooo... gotta have good sound effects! Duh. I guess people like him are why these new effects-laden but empty-headed superhero movies are "popular".

...Blah, give me a great, funny, oddball old movie like "Creature from the Haunted Sea" any day over that forgettable stuff!

[–] jgrge3 11 years ago

Agreed. This movie manages to pack so many gags into each scene it only gets better with multiple viewings, and it takes multiple viewings to catch them all, such as the intentional footage repeat "edit mistake" which occurs when the animal imitating henchman meets his female counterpart in the jungle. Coincidentally, her name in the movie sounds like Porcina Perez, which seems like a jab at her rotund figure, and fits much better with the other characters (her daughter Mango, General Tostada and Colonel Cabesa-Grande, and well as the name of the island itself, Isla de Boracho). IMDB lists her name as Rosina Perez but I think that is an error on their part.

"When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk."

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] greenbudgie 11 years ago

I think it has a low rating because it the plot is hard to follow on first viewing. I like Corman's surreal comedy budget films but I think I understand this film's poor following. My favorite of these type of movies is 'The Little Shop of Horrors' followed by 'A Bucket of Blood.' These rate 6.2 and 6.7 respectively. I find those two films far more funnier than 'Creature From the Haunted Sea.' 'Creature' must take quite a lot of viewings for most people to fully appreciate. So it's one for the keenest of Corman afficianados only I would say.

[–] jgrge3 11 years ago

I agree that Little Shop of Horrors and A Bucket of Blood are superb little comedies. While I enjoy both, I personally find Creature From the Haunted Sea to be funnier, although not by much. The reason I find it so unappreciated is that it seems to predate many of the popular parody movies like Airplane! The Naked Gun/Police Squad series and the more recently popular Scary movie series of parodies. Some of these are parody entire film genres, like Creature From the Haunted Sea does, while the Scary Movie series parodies particular films such as Scream. I'm not saying that these are good movies, only that with the recent popularity of these movies its surprising that Creature From the Haunted Sea has not been held in higher esteem. I too enjoy Corman comedies and find him to be very underrated as a director. As a producer I find him more of a mixed bag, with some really good movies to his credit, but also some real clunkers.

"When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk."

[–] greenbudgie 11 years ago

Re Corman very underrated as a director. That's true. But he does seem to receive praise for his Poe adaptations. Some other imdb users and myself have remarked what a good economist Roger Corman was. With the money he made from those budget movies he was able to put that money into making more lavish productions like the Poe series. They are generally considered in high regard. And quite rightly too.

[–] sanmentolabs 11 years ago

I agree, this flick should at least be a 7. Chuck Griffith screenplay which is hilarious, lead actors are awesome, monster is divine. Easily ranks with Little Shop and Bucket of Blood (although Bucket is more of a dark comedy/satire).

[–] CathodeRayTubesRock 10 years ago

Totally Agree as well. If the same movie would have been produced by Woody Allen it would have a 8 rating.

Anyway, funny movie. From the opening scene where he's getting his sneakers 'shined', to the end. I love the way they make fun of the secret agent.

Sig, you want a sig, here's a SIG-sauer!

[–] 10 years ago

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