Format: DVD from Fossil Ridge Public Library through interlibrary loan on rockin’ flatscreen.
The opening credits of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms claims that the film is based on, or suggested by a story by Ray Bradbury. Bradbury happens to be one of my favorite authors, and before the actual name of the story came up, my assumption was that the story in question would be “The Fog Horn,” a story I’ve been familiar with since I was a kid (and which was originally published under the name “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms”). I was right, incidentally; that is the story that was used for the film. It’s a lovely, melancholic story about a lighthouse that is visited yearly by a giant sea creature whose call sounds exactly like the lighthouse’s fog horn. On the third year of the creature’s visit, the lighthouse keepers turn off the fog horn and, distraught, the creature attacks and destroys it.
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is inspired by this story in the sense that there is a giant, prehistoric creature that attacks and destroys a lighthouse. Maybe 90 seconds of the film come from Bradbury’s story while the rest is pure 1950s B-movie science fiction creature feature. For someone who calls the original author “Saint Ray,” this is quite disappointing.
