''Creature of Destruction'' is a 1967 American made-for-television film produced and directed by

Larry Buchanan Larry Buchanan (January 31, 1923 − December 2, 2004), born Marcus Larry Seale Jr., was a film director, producer and writer, who proclaimed himself a "B movies (exploitation boom), schlockmeister". Many of his extremely low-budget films have lan ...

. It is an uncredited color

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the sa ...

of the 1956 movie ''

The She Creature ''The She-Creature'', or ''The She Creature'', is a 1956 American black-and-white science fiction horror film, released by American International Pictures from a script by Lou Rusoff (brother-in-law of AIP executive Samuel Z. Arkoff). It was pr ...

'' directed by

Edward L. Cahn Edward L. Cahn (February 12, 1899 – August 25, 1963) was an American film director. Early life and education Cahn was born in Brooklyn, New York. He went to work at Universal Pictures in 1917 while still a student at UCLA. Career He ...

Plot

Suave, silver-haired stage

hypnotist Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...

and self-proclaimed

clairvoyant Clairvoyance (; ) is the magical ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () ("one who sees cl ...

and expert on

reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is ...

Dr. Basso's experiments in hypnotic regression take his beloved beautiful blonde assistant/unwilling test subject Doreena back to a prehistoric past life as an amphibious humanoid ' Gill Monster'. Using the entranced Doreena to summon the physical manifestation of the hideous fish-faced creature out of the depths of a nearby lake, the

tuxedo Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal element ...

and

top hat A top hat (also called a high hat, a cylinder hat, or, informally, a topper) is a tall, flat-crowned hat for men traditionally associated with formal wear in Western dress codes, meaning white tie, morning dress, or frock coat. Traditionally m ...

-clad Basso commands the savage she-beast to commit brutal murders. Partially for revenge on a world which scoffed at his strange occult theories and unshakable belief that mindlessly destructive primeval monsters still lurk hidden deep within all of us; but mostly for the notoriety they bring his performances when he predicts the killings before they happen. While detective Blake suspects the

misanthropic Misanthropy is the general hatred, dislike, distrust or contempt of the human species, human behavior or human nature. A misanthrope or misanthropist is someone who holds such views or feelings. The word's origin is from the Greek words μ ...

mentalist Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precognitio ...

is behind these horrible crimes, the only real evidence the police have to go on is a webbed

footprint Footprints are the impressions or images left behind by a person walking or running. Hoofprints and pawprints are those left by animals with hooves or paws rather than feet, while "shoeprints" is the specific term for prints made by shoes. T ...

found at the first crime scene and a sketch of the creature based on a description from an eyewitness who caught a glimpse of it after one of the murders, and they seem powerless to stop Basso's reign of terror. Handsome young

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ar ...

psychologist Captain Ted Dell, a respected scientist in the field of psychic research, gets involved in the case when his fiancée Lynn drags him to a party her father, retired business tycoon Sam Crane, is putting on for the rich guests at his Tanglewood Country Club and Resort where Basso is providing the entertainment. The cheerfully cynical Crane sees Basso as only another opportunity to con money out of a gullible public, but Ted becomes fascinated with the unhappy Doreena, the true source of Basso's paranormal power, and vows to free her from the unhealthy mental domination that the romantically obsessed Basso has her under. With Ted's help, Doreena starts to gain the willpower to resist Basso, but not before the police confront the murderous million year old monstrosity down at a closed off beach, although their bullets have no effect on the indestructible creature. Angered at Ted's interference, Basso tries to kill him, but Doreena leaps in front of the gun and is shot instead, and her death causes the Gill Monster to fall to the ground and vanish back into the distant past. Heartbroken at losing the only person he has ever loved, Basso turns the gun on himself and commits suicide.

Cast

Les Tremayne Lester Tremayne (16 April 1913 – 19 December 2003) was an English actor. Early life Born in Balham, London, he moved with his family at the age of four to Chicago, Illinois, where he began in community theater. His mother was Dolly Trema ...

as Dr. John Basso *Pat Delaney as Doreena *

Aron Kincaid Aron Kincaid (born Norman Neale Williams II; June 15, 1940 – January 6, 2011) was an American actor, known for voicing Killer Croc on '' Batman: The Animated Series'' and Sky Lynx on '' The Transformers''. He also voiced characters for ''T ...

as Capt. Theodore Dell * Neil Fletcher as Sam Crane *

Annabelle Weenick Annabel or Annabelle may refer to: Arts and media * ''Annabel'' (Baum novel), a 1906 novel by L. Frank Baum * ''Annabel'' (Winter novel), a 2010 novel by Kathleen Winter * "Annabel", a song by Maria Dimitriadi from the film '' Girls in the Su ...

as Mrs. Crane * Roger Ready as Lt. Blake * Ron Scott *

Suzanne Roy Suzanne Roy is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in the 2022 Quebec general election. She represents the riding of Verchères as a member of the Coalition Avenir Québec The Coalition Avenir Québec ...

as Lynn Crane * Byron Lord as Investigating psychiatrist / The Creature * Barnett Shaw as Investigating psychiatrist * Scotty McKay as Singer

Production

The film was one of a series of extremely low-budget

16 mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, edu ...

color remakes

produced and directed for AIP (

American International Pictures American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fil ...

) via his

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

-based Azalea PicturesGoodsell, Greg, "The Weird and Wacky World of Larry Buchanan", ''Filmfax'', No. 38 April/May 1993 p 64 and was shot entirely in and around the Tanglewood Lodge at

Lake Texoma Lake Texoma is one of the largest reservoirs in the United States, the 12th largest US Army Corps of Engineers' (USACE) lake, and the largest in USACE Tulsa District. Lake Texoma is formed by Denison Dam on the Red River in Bryan County, Oklahom ...

on the

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

- Oklahoma border. Because of the movie's bargain basement budget, Buchanan could not afford anything as ornately bizarre and iconic as

Paul Blaisdell Paul Blaisdell (July 21, 1927 – July 10, 1983) was an American painter, sculptor and visual effects creator, best remembered for his work in science fiction and horror B movies of the 1950s. Life and career Blaisdell was born in Newport, Rhod ...

's design for the original

She Creature ''She Creature'' (originally billed as ''Mermaid Chronicles Part 1: She Creature'') is a 2001 horror made-for-television film, directed by Sebastian Gutierrez and starring Rufus Sewell, Carla Gugino and Rya Kihlstedt in leading roles. It is ...

, so his Gill Monster costume, created by Dallas advertising executive turned makeup effects artist Jack Bennett, consisted of an ill-fitting and only slightly modified green rubber

wetsuit A wetsuit is a garment worn to provide thermal protection while wet. It is usually made of foamed neoprene, and is worn by surfers, divers, windsurfers, canoeists, and others engaged in water sports and other activities in or on water. Its ...

and a cheap-looking fanged and finned,

ping pong ball Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

-eyed fish mask which Buchanan later reused as a briefly seen cave-dwelling dinosaur in his 1969 film ''

'It's Alive!' ''It's Alive!'' is a 1969 American monster movie directed by Larry Buchanan and distributed by American International Pictures. The story concerns a mad farmer who tries to feed a stranded couple to a dinosaur he keeps in a cave. Plot Norman Ste ...

''.

made the film as part of an out-of-court settlement with AIP. He filmed for two weeks to meet his contractual obligations then left to return home. Buchanan was upset as he still had three days of scenes for Kincaid to do. He accompanied him in the cab to the airport, taping the rest of his dialog in the back seat.Mark McGee, ''Faster and Furiouser: The Revised and Fattened Fable of American International Pictures'', McFarland, 1996 p238-239 In addition to playing one of the She Creature's victims, Texas

Rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...

singer Scotty McKay (a.k.a. Max K. Lipscomb, 1939-1991) performed three songs in the movie including ''Here Comes Batman'', his tribute to the popular

TV series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed b ...

. The quote that begins and ends most prints of the movie, "''There is no monster in the world...so treacherous as man''", is attributed to the 16th century French Renaissance writer Michel de Montaigne.

Critical reception

Critic David Cornelius wrote in

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

that the film was "an utterly bizarre and amusingly chintzy remake of the 1956 "The She-Creature" that would almost be interesting if not for Buchanan's directorial incompetence," described the creature as "a two dollar fish man costume with ping pong ball eyes," but noted that "Tremayne is the film's saving grace, in that he makes a handful of scenes tolerable with his restrained, classy presence." Writing in AllMovie, Cavett Binion described the film as an "enjoyably silly outing," adding that it was one of "Buchanan's many remakes of cheesy American International monster films, all of which made the originals seem positively brilliant by comparison."

Merchandise

In 2014, the Japanese company ''Target Earth'' announced a Creature of Destruction

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from viny ...

action figure An action figure is a poseable character model figure made most commonly of plastic, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, military, video game or television program; fictional or historical. These figures are usually marketed ...

as part of their Hangyonin/Merman series along with figures for '' Horror of Party Beach'' and '' The Beach Girls and the Monster''.

References

External links

* * {{Larry Buchanan 1967 films American independent films American International Pictures films 1967 horror films Films directed by Larry Buchanan 1960s English-language films 1960s American films