The fear of nuclear war with the Soviet Union, along with less expressible qualms about radioactive fallout from America's own atomic tests, energized many of the era's genre films. Science fiction, horror, and various hybrids of the two were now of central economic importance to the low-budget end of the business. Most down-market films of the type—like many of those produced by William Alland at Universal (such as "Creature from the Black Lagoon" (1954)) and Sam Katzman at Columbia (including "It Came from Beneath the Sea" (1955))—provided little more than thrills, though their special effects could be impressive.