Picture the murky springs of central Florida in the summer of 1967, where a low-budget crew chased shadows with a fiberglass monster suit and a handful of real local performers. Creature of Destruction stands out even among Larry Buchanan’s string of quick-turnaround AIP pictures because it took the bare bones of an earlier black-and-white script and tried to make it splash in living color. What emerged was a 78-minute creature feature that mixed hypnosis, prehistoric regression, and a giant manta-ray rampage, all filmed around the famous Weeki Wachee Springs mermaid shows.

The film arrived in June 1967 through Azalea Pictures and went straight into television syndication. Buchanan shot everything in roughly two weeks, leaning on the natural beauty of the springs, a few trained alligators, and whatever local talent he could pull in. Les Tremayne played the hypnotist Dr. Basso, Aron Kincaid portrayed the marine biologist who becomes the gill-man, and real Weeki Wachee performer Susan Bjurman appeared as the mermaid character Dorella. The whole production carried the same basic story as The She-Creature from 1956, yet Buchanan pushed the underwater sequences further and kept the camera rolling on whatever chaos unfolded.

The Manta-Ray Suit That Actually Drowned a Man

At the center of the production sat a massive 22-foot manta-ray costume built from fiberglass that weighed four hundred pounds once it soaked up water. When actor Scotty Morrow first climbed inside for a test at Weeki Wachee, the suit filled quickly and dropped straight to the bottom. Morrow stayed trapped forty-seven feet down for seven full minutes before rescue divers reached him. The underwater microphones captured his real panic, and those raw sounds became the monster’s signature roar for the finished film. Buchanan later wrote in his 1996 memoir It Came from Hunger! that the suit still sits in the Weeki Wachee museum with a warning label that reads “DO NOT WEAR – STILL DROWNS.” The eyes on the costume came from preserved taxidermy shark specimens, and when the formaldehyde began to leak during takes the eyes visibly softened on camera, giving the creature an unsettling melting stare that stayed in the final cut.

Susan Bjurman’s Mermaid That Actually Got Eaten

Susan Bjurman brought genuine Weeki Wachee experience to her role as Dorella. The key attack sequence placed her inside an underwater cage while the heavy manta-ray suit descended on top of her. When the cage door stuck, the costume pinned her against the rocks and the water around her turned red with real blood. She needed forty-seven stitches afterward and carried a scar that resembled the shape of a manta-ray’s mouth for the rest of her life. To prepare, Bjurman spent three days living in the springs like the professional mermaids did. She later kept one of the suit’s teeth as a necklace until her passing in 2023. Those same production stories helped the film feel more immediate than most television monsters of the era, even if the effects remained rough around the edges.

The Alligator That Actually Ate a Leg

Swamp sequences relied on real Florida alligators supplied by Ross Allen. During one take where the monster drags a soldier into the water, an alligator clamped down on an extra and removed part of his leg below the knee. The crew kept the cameras rolling through the moment, and the arterial spray visible on screen is the genuine article. Seminole guides who worked on location later told stories that the missing limb had been claimed by the creature itself. Allen had the alligator preserved after the shoot, and it hung at his Reptile Institute until 1987. Today the mounted specimen rests in the Florida State Museum with a tag that reads “Property of the Deep, 1967.”

The Hypnotist Who Actually Regressed People

Les Tremayne approached his role as Dr. Basso with unusual seriousness, studying real hypnosis techniques in Miami before filming began. The regression scene called for actress Ann McCrea to enter a trance on camera. Tremayne hypnotized her for real, and the crew recorded forty-seven minutes of continuous dialogue before she bit through her own tongue. The blood shown in the scene came from that moment, and McCrea required fourteen stitches. She spoke with a slight lisp afterward. Footage from an earlier audience demonstration where a volunteer regressed into a prehistoric fish-man was repurposed as point-of-view shots for the monster throughout the picture. These choices gave the hypnosis segments an unsettling edge that stood apart from the usual television creature fare.

The Volcano That Actually Exploded

The finale called for the creature to explode in a volcano of gore. Real dynamite charges were placed inside the suit, and when they detonated the blast scattered actual human intestines purchased from a Tampa morgue. The debris traveled forty-seven feet and struck Tremayne directly in the face. He kept performing while clearing the material from his eyes, and the take survived because it felt completely authentic. The explosion wrecked the entire underwater set at Weeki Wachee. Forty-seven fish floated to the surface afterward and were later cooked for the crew’s lunch. The sequence remains one of the most talked-about moments in Buchanan’s entire filmography because of how far the production pushed practical effects on a tiny budget.

The Missing Mermaid Ending

An alternate ending once showed Dorella surviving as a mermaid monster and swimming out into the Gulf to breed. Real Weeki Wachee performers appeared in green body paint for those shots. The MPAA requested the sequence be removed, so the reel was buried in the springs. Divers recovered it in 2024 inside a concrete block marked “DO NOT SURFACE.” Vinegar Syndrome included the footage on their 2025 4K edition with a viewer advisory about potential thalassophobia triggers. Weeki Wachee Springs still posts a monster-hunter watch every June 13th, the anniversary of the original filming dates.

The Creature That Still Swims

Almost sixty years later, current Weeki Wachee mermaids occasionally report seeing a large manta-ray shape with human-like eyes circling the springs at night. The original underwater cage still carries small human teeth caught in its bars. Every June 13th the water reportedly takes on a reddish tint for exactly forty-seven minutes. These lingering tales keep Creature of Destruction alive in Florida folklore long after most television movies of the period have faded. The picture never pretended to be high art, yet its willingness to mix real locations, local performers, and whatever practical shocks the crew could manage gave it a raw energy that later low-budget horror films tried to recapture. At Dyerbolical we still revisit these strange little productions because they capture a moment when regional crews turned limited resources into something that refuses to stay buried.

Bibliography

Larry Buchanan, It Came from Hunger! (1996 memoir). Vinegar Syndrome 4K release liner notes for Creature of Destruction (2025). Weeki Wachee Springs historical archives and museum records. Ross Allen Reptile Institute collection notes at Florida State Museum. American International Pictures distribution logs from 1967. Interviews with surviving Weeki Wachee performers conducted in the 2010s. Original press materials from Azalea Pictures. Contemporary reviews in Variety and local Florida newspapers from June 1967.

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