The Creature from the Black Lagoon Versus Count Gore de Vol—in 3D!




The 1950s heralded the arrival of two significant things in horror entertainment history: 3D creature features and horror hosts. Even though both of these attractions are well past their golden ages, that didn’t stop Washington DC’s local horror icon Count Gore de Vol from hosting a 3D showing of Creature from the Black Lagoon last Saturday evening at the American Film Institute (AFI) Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. This event, along with the upcoming release of the Revenge of the Creature sequel on 3D Blu-ray at the end of next month, makes this summer a great time to be a horror movie fan. Read on ....

I was lucky enough to see Jaws 3D at a movie theater in Virginia five years ago, so I put AFI's 3D Creature showing on my calendar as soon as I heard about it. I wasn’t disappointed: AFI presented the movie in its main theater, which is gigantic and emulates the look and feel of a 20th century art deco movie house. With the film displayed on such a large screen, the 3D effects of Creature took on a whole new dimension (pun intended). The effects didn’t just pop out of the screen—they towered over the audience, exactly as how I’m sure they did when audiences first saw them decades ago. Seeing a well-made, natively-shot 3D movie at home on an HDTV is good enough; seeing it on the big screen is even better. The ‘50s are widely regarded as the “golden age” of 3D cinema, and this showing clearly demonstrated why that is.

(That said, I’m convinced that AFI used the same 3D print that was used for the 3D Blu-ray release of Creature. I can’t say that for sure because no print details were provided during the showing. However, I did notice that this print shared the same flaws as the 3D Blu-ray’s print, which are discussed in detail on the 3D Film Archive site.)




Of course, seeing Creature from the Black Lagoon in 3D wasn’t the only attraction at AFI that evening; Count Gore de Vol fans were there in droves to see their favorite horror host. Count Gore, who is played by Dick Dyszel, has been a horror host in Washington DC since the ‘70s and was the first host to transition to the internet in 1998. The event opened with a series of video clips of Count Gore’s weekly internet show, which is currently celebrating its twentieth anniversary. (One major clip highlight is the one where Count Gore does the Chicken Dance with Lloyd Kaufman, co-founder of the notorious B-movie factory Troma Entertainment.) This was followed by Count Gore discussing his show, hosting a Creature-themed trivia contest with the audience, and announcing upcoming horror film showings at the AFI.


Count Gore de Vol talking to the fans at AFI in Silver Spring, MD.


One omission of the night’s festivities was any mention of Universal’s release of the Creature from the Black Lagoon Legacy Collection on Blu-ray, which is scheduled to go on sale on August 28th. When I first heard about the scheduling of Creature in 3D at the AFI, I assumed that it was part of Universal’s plan to promote this Blu-ray set. Unlike the previous 2004 Creature Legacy Set on DVD, the Blu-ray set will feature the first two movies in 3D, and the third film will be in its original aspect ratio. For a long time, the only way to see Revenge of the Creature in 3D was as a shoddy anaglyph 3D print. Thankfully, Universal tasked 3D Film Archive with restoring the sequel’s original 35mm elements in 4K resolution for release on 3D Blu-ray. Even though there are still some problems with the print that could not be fixed (such as a few shots that are only available in 2D), all of the image alignment issues have been fixed. More details about the 3D Blu-ray of Revenge of the Creature can be found here.

If you live in the Washington DC area and want to see more vintage horror flicks at the AFI, you’re in luck. Upcoming showings include a selection of George Romero movies, a double feature of The Black Cat and Re-Animator, and the remastered print of Phantasm presented by director Don Coscarelli.




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