Swamp Thing (1982) Review *spoilers*

Wes Craven passed away recently and it is a shame to say goodbye to the Master of Nightmares. He was famous for many movies like Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, and the Scream franchise. Of course, his most well known work was Nightmare on Elm Street which birthed one of horror's most frightening characters, Freddy Kruger.  However, not every movie Craven did was specifically horror. He directed a movie known as Music of the Heart which got Meryl Streep an Oscar nomination for best actress. While Swamp Thing isn't as far out as Music of the Heart, It still stepped outside of Craven's comfort zone. This movie is more towards the scifi and action genres, but is it one of his stronger films?

For the last time! I'm not Toxic Avenger

The story is about a scientist by the name of Alec Holland (Ray Wise) who is working on a formula to splice plants with animal DNA. The idea is to help plants survive in harsh environments and, hopefully, make food more available. However, a man by the name of Anton Arcane (Louis Jourdan) wants to use the formula in order to give himself eternal life. While Holland is working, Arcane sends his men to get the formula and scientific journals. Unfortunately, while the lab is getting ransacked, Alec is set ablaze from his formula and runs into the swamp in order to stop the flames. When he jumps into the water; a transformation occurs. Holland's DNA is mixed with the plant life around him changing him into the plant behemoth known as Swamp Thing. Arcane has all he needs except for one last journal, which holds the key to the formula's creation. Luckily, Alice Cable (Adrienne Barbeau) was able to stow away the last journal. Arcane finds out and proceeds to have his men hunt her down. Cable is in for some trouble, but Swamp Thing will stop at nothing to protect her. Will Cable survive? Will Arcane get what he wants? Will Holland be able to turn himself back into a human? Well you'll need to watch the movie to find out.

This movie's biggest strength is the action. There are many times where Swamp Thing will take on a hoard of bad guys and come out unscathed. He is seen punching boats out of the water, stopping trucks with his body, and taking bullets while running head long into the enemy. The movie may lack excellent story telling, but it did what comic based movies were doing at the time; focusing on the action. This was before the time of Marvel Studios and Christopher Nolan's Batman. Superhero movies weren't what they are now and the only one that truly stood out were Donner's Superman movies. With that said, Swamp Thing had the advantage of being a rather obscure comic book character which probably helped him in the long run. It also didn't hurt that Swamp Thing's creator, Len Wein, helped co write the script with Craven to make it feel more comic based.

My spot bro!

Ray Wise was an excellent choice as Alec Holland and even though he isn't in the movie for more than 10 minutes; his character is easy to like. It's his charismatic nature that really makes you invested in the character. Louis Jourdan is a very good villain. His looks, his mannerisms, and accent scream villain. Adrienne Barbeau as Cable was a good choice, but unfortunately they made her too weak. Barbeau went from beating up bad guys to consistently stumbling while trying to run away. An argument can be made that the swamp is treacherous which is why she falls a lot. I can abide by that since it happens way too often to be accidental. Swamp Thing always manages to come to the rescue, which is good, but it undermined her feministic and strong character. Eventually, Arcane captures out hero.  First thing he does is put cable is put her in a dress with a lot of cleavage and over sexualize her. I get it, Adrienne Barbeau had big boobs and movies she was in focused on that, but it does take away from a otherwise decent movie.

Sir! My eyes are up here.

Even thought the action is great and the characters are well thought out, there are problems in the special effects department. Anton Arcane's character will eventually transform into a monster, but it looks like the Creature of the Black Lagoon with a wolf head. I don't understand the choice of costume. Holland makes a point to say that the potion amplifies the strongest parts of you. I still don't understand Arcane's transformation into monster mashup. It feels like they scanned a costume warehouse and found the two closest things they could and said. "That's the monster we've been looking for!" There is also a part where Swamp Thing's arm gets cut off and later it grows back, but it looks like someone was pushing a piece of paper mache out of a garbage bag. This movie was made in 1982, the same year John Carpenter came out with The Thing. That movie, by far, had some of the best special effects of the 80's and all scifi movies of the time should've looked like that. I do understand that this budget was a fifth of Carpenter's, but still Swamp Thing looks like a guy in a rubber suit with roots glued on. If someone wasn't paying attention, one could certainly mistake watching Swamp Thing for someone watching Toxic Avenger. The only effect I found exeptional was when Arcane's henchman, Bruno, transforms and his skin starts to bubble and explode. That was a quality effect.

Wes Craven did a lot of good things for the horror franchise, but Swamp Thing wasn't as a blessed. This is a guilty pleasure more than Oscar bait and should be watched as such. This was a time before Alan Moore took the reins of writing Swamp Thing and before the character became main stream. This movie actually relaunched interest in the character and a new comic strip was started after the movie. This also got a sequel seven years later called The Return of Swamp Thing. There were also two TV series: a cartoon and live action. Wes Craven may have had an alright movie, but he helped Swamp Thing become more well known and comic fans should be grateful.

Holy 90's Batman

Mr. Craven, we will miss you. Thank you for all your movies and you'll never be forgotten. As for Swamp Thing, not the worst and not the best. It gets away with falling into the category of so mediocre it's enjoyable.  I give Swamp Thing four punched fan boats out of ten. Have a good day and please check back for more reviews.

RIP 1939-2015