Swamp Thing (1982)

Very well executed

Let's be realistic.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

This film is a bit different from director Wes Craven. "The Swamp Thing" is a bit more comic strip in style and tone, compared with his films like "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "The Hills Have Eyes." In addition, the above movie tends to keep its tongue firmly in its cheek. Adrienne Barbeau gives a good performance as the tough and determined Government agent who has been sent into a more wild and less inhibited part of the country to see how certain secret experiments are progressing. Ray Wise - whilst he's in the film - is cast against type as a more decent character for a change. He plays the rather luckless research scientist whose life is about to be transformed in ways he couldn't possibly imagine. Louis Jourdan is another creepy and evil villain as the man who will stop at nothing in order to gain full control and possession of the scientific research and to use it for his own evil ends. Dick Durdock is well cast as the title character and manages to imbue the role with a bit of depth and sympathy. David Hess is someone who was rather underused. He was the one to watch in Wes Craven's "Last House on the Left" and he doesn't disappoint in "The Swamp Thing" either. He is evil personified as the leader of the rebel band of guerrillas. Action scenes are pretty good on the whole and helps to keep the film ticking along agreeably enough. The whole thing gets a bit cheesy toward the end but it is only what I would expect from a film of this kind. The climax is an effective one and I know who I was rooting for! A worthwhile movie which provides plenty of undemanding entertainment.

Adrienne Barbeau was a pretty hot commodity in the Eighties when this flick came out, parlaying her obvious physical assets into a successful screen career. I recently caught her in 1981's "Escape From New York" as another reminder of her presence on the Hollywood scene of the era. The thing is, she never really disappeared; her credits continue to the present day, so she has some staying power as they say.Well I always get a kick out of the underlying pseudo-science that goes into these kinds of films. This one had that bit about recombinant DNA structures involving vegetable cells with an animal nucleus. A pretty good way to turn Dr. Alec Holland (Ray Wise) from a pioneering scientist into a walking tree. I read a few 'Swamp Thing' comics back in the day and thought they did a good job here with the creature make-up, but when you get right down to it, Swampy didn't look all that scary, especially when making nice with Alice Cable (Barbeau).You know what that madman Arcane (Louis Jourdan) should have done? Instead of going for some magical fountain of youth formula, how about licensing that chemical concoction that shrunk his henchman Bruno (Nicholas Worth) into a munchkin style midget - the formula shrunk his clothes too! Now that's got significant commercial potential.Now I'm not saying the picture was all bad, but when Arcane turned into that wolf-man looking hairy creature I didn't know whether to laugh or spit. I wonder how many creative writing sessions it took to come up with that thing. The idea behind the green elixir was that it 'made one more of what you already were' so in that sense I guess it worked, but man, he sure looked goofy. By comparison, it almost made Swamp Thing look noble in character, even if everything else about him seemed rather, shall we say, wooden.

Alice Cable (Adrienne Barbeau) comes to a research lab in the deep swamp. Dr. Alec Holland (Ray Wise) is developing new species combining plants and animals. He creates a new formula that regrows old cells. Alec's sister Linda drops some on the wooden floor and new branches start to grow. Obsessed with immortality, Dr. Anton Arcane (Louis Jourdan) tries to steal the formula by attacking the camp. Linda is killed. Alec is set on fire by the new concoction and jumps into the swamp. They try to drown Alice but the Swamp Thing comes to the rescue.Swamp Thing remains a B-movie despite being dressed up by Wes Craven. It's well made but it doesn't reach higher than that. It couldn't escape the fact that this is a monster movie with a guy in a rubber suit. The action is slightly better than most 80s B-movie. This is fun with some explosions and some gunplay. Barbeau is definitely memorable as Alice although she's probably a little old to play the damsel in distress. Louis Jourdan is terrific as a creepy villain. His creepiness really sells this movie. This is a solid fun effort.

Swamp Thing (1982) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Wes Craven's adaptation of the DC Comic isn't the greatest thing out there but I think there are enough campy moments to make it worth sitting through. Dr. Anton Arcane (Louis Jourdan) is in the swamp trying to come up with a new chemical that would help vegetation grow when his new assistant (Adrienne Barbeau) arrives. The doctor comes under attack from a group wanting the formula and he's turned into the title character who must fight for the assistant he has fallen in love with. SWAMP THING was released with a thud but overtime I think people have somewhat warmed up to it. There's no question that the film falls short of being a "good movie" but considering what Craven had to work with I think it turned out okay. Craven has stated in interviews that he took the picture because he wanted to work with stars, the studio and with a budget. I can understand this but I think one of the problems with the picture is that there's really no look or style to it. I think Craven was so worried about creating a Hollywood picture that he really made a film that doesn't look like his and even worse is that the picture has a poor look to it. I think the action scenes are all poorly shot, executed and they've just got a cheap, fake look to them. I thought they were all poorly staged and there's just not any excitement or energy to them. Another problem is the music score by Harry Manfredini. Each time I hear a score from him after Friday THE 13TH it's a copy of that film's score. The borrowed cues from that just don't work well with this picture and it just sounds like it should be for a different movie. The performances are pretty good with Jourdan and Barbeau both doing fine work and their chemistry together works well. It was fun seeing David Hess with Craven and Nicholas Worth makes for a good villain. I did think the locations were good, the costume was cheap but effective and there's no question that the film has its own charm that comes from some of the campy moments. I think SWAMP THING could benefit from a remake but this film here holds up fairly well as a piece of 80s silly action.