Day 12: Demon Of Paradise

 

  I have an unusual opinion when it comes to Universal Monster Films. My absolute favorite Universal monster is The Creature From The Black Lagoon by a mile. It's not even close. For a long time I've watched as all the other Universal Monsters have seen updates and remakes while The Creature watched from the sidelines. He gets an updated look in The Monster Squad (and looks incredible!) but has never been the focus of a film since his initial run in the 50's. Demon Of Paradise's cover seems to promise a sort of Creature From The Black Lagoon rip off. It sort of is.

       When Islander's begin an illegal dynamite trade the explosions awaken an ancient Lizard Man Creature. Angered by the disturbance, the creature begins to attack Islanders and seemingly causes explosions literally everywhere he goes. A reptile expert and the local sheriff team up to investigate while a desperate resort owner uses the attention to draw tourists.

      There are two things to take away from this film. An absolutely awful creature suit and explosions. Lots of explosions. Practically every scene ends with an explosion. There is literally a scene where the creature leaps from the water, grabs a helicopter, PULLS IT INTO THE WATER, and then of course it explodes. There are other kills, but they aren't memorable at all. The explosions steal the show and are the only entertainment value the film has.

      It's claimed that you can easily see the zipper on the Creature From The Black Lagoon's suit. I've never seen it, and to me that is one of the best creature suits ever. Even still, seeing how it was brought to the next level in Monster Squad, I've always wanted to see what an update creature suit would be like. The creature on the cover of this tape looks awesome. The creature seen in the film? Well to say it looks crappy would be an understatement. It only has redeeming value for it's comedic appearance.

      There isn't much reason to go out of your way to watch Demon Of Paradise. There's pretty much no gore, the creature appearances are mostly short and spread out, and there's a lot of bad dialogue. There's a goofy monster egg hunt, one nude scene, and explosions. Did I mention that there are explosions? If you need to see a ton of explosions, look away from your action films and check out Demon Of Paradise.

Body Count: 13
Side note: Guess how the creature dies. You guessed it! Explosion!