Swamp Thing

Swamp Thing

1982

Director- Wes Craven

Cast- Louis Jordan, Adrienne Barbeau, Ray Wise, Dick Durrock, David Hess, Nicholas Worth

            

    For those of you not familiar with the Swamp Thing comic or movie, here is a brief synopsis. Alec Holland is a brilliant scientist working on a secret chemical in a laboratory in the swamp. An accident covers him in chemicals and, on fire, he jumps into the swamp water. The combination of all of these elements transforms Holland into a humanoid plant. His nemesis is Arcane, a villain who wants to capture and destroy the Swamp Thing. In later years, the nature of the Swamp Thing would be expounded upon, turning him, it really, into a much more supernatural being, but in the beginning as created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson, that was his origin.

            

     As far as that goes the movie does a pretty good job of staying faithful. It has a good cast. Louis Jordan, as Arcane, is always a great villain. Adrienne Barbeau, as Alice Cable (Abby in the comics) is about as far from the comics as you can get. On the other hand, getting to see Adrienne in various skin tight outfits has its own rewards, I guess.  The Swamp Thing doesn’t look bad, especially for when the movie was made, but it is also obviously just a rubber suit.  The movie has the look of a better B movie. Probably the biggest problem is that Wes Craven, who was a master of horror, was just out of his element. It is essentially a monster movie, sort of a cross between the Hulk and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, complete with brightly lit spaces for big action sequences. Those familiar with the comic know that the comic has always relied on creepy mood, ambiance, and dare I say, philosophical pondering more than outrageous action.

           

    I also need to say that, though I’ve been a fan of the Swamp Thing for most of my life, I was introduced to the character via Alan Moore’s version in the 80s, which is a more complex character, thematically and visually, than he was in the 70s.

            

     There are 2 versions of the movie out there. The international version which is about 2 minutes longer and has a rather revealing scene of Adrienne Barbeau and the more  tame U.S version. The US version is out on Blu-ray. The international version is out of print, so far as I know, but can still be found. There was a sequel with an infinitely better Swamp Thing costume. That costume still looks good today. The sequel, however, didn’t amount to much. Its greatest success was spawning a TV series that ran 72 episodes (which is pretty amazing). Dick Durrock wore the rubber suit in both movies and the TV series. DC just tried another launch of the character on its on demand service, but that was cancelled after 10 episodes. Alas, the Swamp Thing, one of the more consistently popular and venerable characters of the DC universe, still hasn’t been able to find its definitive adaptation yet.