5) Gill-Man – Doug Jones
The Character: Like Frankenstein’s Monster, Gill-Man is more often known by the name of his movie; 1954’s The Creature from the Black Lagoon.Â
In case you haven’t seen it, Gill-Man is essentially an amphibious version of King Kong. The last of an ancient race of fish-people, Gill-Man is discovered by a marine biology expedition in the Amazon rainforest. Though he picks off the scientists off one by one, he falls for the group’s only female member. Unlike his fellow monsters who appeared in numerous movies, Gill-Man only appeared in two follow-up films. Despite that, he’s been hoovered up by popular culture almost as much as the rest of the Universal monsters clan.
The Actor: For Gill-Man, there would be no need to cast a famous face like Cruise or Crowe for the part as the actor will be constantly hidden under either heavy prosthetics or possibly CGI. The best idea then would be to cast a bankable star as the movie’s leading lady (for instance, Scarlett Johansson, as was rumoured the other year) and recruit a performer who’s an expert at working with their face obscured.
The most obvious choice here, then, is Doug Jones. Hollywood’s go-to monster man, Jones has played creatures, aliens and ghouls of all kinds in the likes of Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy and Star Trek: Discovery. He’s even already playing another classic horror fiend in the upcoming reboot of Nosferatu.Â
