THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.
by Jarrod Jones. Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing is a special, rare object: a comic book movie that can play with other genres and thrive in the doing. It’s also a monster movie, a love story, a tragedy in three parts. Watching Dick Durock wander the verdant wetlands of his character’s namesake, I can’t help but think of the offbeat peculiarity of Lloyd Kaufman’s The Toxic Avenger, a film that feels like it was influenced by Swamp Thing in one way or another, a B-movie superhero whose green, mean looks belie a gentle heart.
Swamp Thing is also a curious detour for director Wes Craven. Call it an early-career awakening. He’d made The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes, both low-budget exploitation films that amassed almost instant cult status, and was looking to boost his resume with a big-budget studio project. Swamp Thing seemed like a sturdy lily pad to hop onto, a monster feature based on the bizarre DC Comics character created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson that could bear Craven’s horror impulses.
In a lot of ways, Swamp Thing feels like Craven is grappling with the exploitation shocks of his earlier work. Due to its larger scale and soggy location shooting, its explosive action requires more delicate planning. South Carolina’s swamps aren’t the Mojave desert seen in Hills. Airboats filled with renegade paramilitary types are hurled through the marshes, flipping into sunbursts of flame only to fall into mossy final resting places. The climactic beast battle between Anton Arcane (a pig-beast that once resembled Louis Jourdan) and Swamp Thing (Durock in bark and leaf, where once was Ray Wise) is a squishy, clumsy monster mash, a far cry from the unnervingly tangible, revenge-fueled mayhem of his earlier work.
He can only fend off his proclivities for so long. There’s a beat where Swamp Thing finally gets his hands on one of Arcane’s more zealous soldiers and puts the squeeze on his head, leaving behind a gooey, twitching red mess. Another soldier becomes an unwitting test subject in Arcane’s experiments, and his subsequent transformation into a simpering weasel, set during a debauched dinner party, has a baffling cruelty and belligerence to it — shades of Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Once the tempered carnage settles, Swamp Thing reveals soft, human features. Ray Wise plays Dr. Alec Holland with the fierceness of a mad scientist in a way that transcends ambition and single-mindedness. He wants to solve world hunger and might if his neon-green elixir isn’t used for napalm instead (such are the dilemmas of Washington-mandated science projects). When Adrienne Barbeau’s Alice Cable enters the picture, Alec has her smelling orchids as he waxes a bit of nature-minded poeticism. She doesn’t say so, but you can tell Cable thinks he’s putting her on.
Cable and Holland’s closeness doesn’t strengthen until much later in the film, long after the doctor’s viridescent change. Alec Holland was brilliant, difficult, and indirectly considerate as a man. Only when his transformation is complete does Cable begin to appreciate the gentle, soulful side once obscured by his scientific drive.
Cable functions as the focus character for a long stretch of the film; once Arcane makes his move against Holland’s research compound, her actions and decisions dictate its trajectory. That leaves the be-bogged Holland to wander the swamps, pondering what he’s become and lamenting the loss of life that led to his change. When he discovers a locket worn by his departed sister, a casualty of Arcane’s attack, you feel gravity settle into the frame. After an extended battle sequence, Cable and a wounded Holland reconnect. He chuckles at his agony. “It only hurts when I laugh,” he tells her, so they both do.
MVD Entertainment’s 4K remaster of Swamp Thing is an optimum viewing experience. Its clean digital upgrade altered my previous VHS memories of Craven’s film, where analog fuzz barely obscured the rubberiness of Durock’s swamp suit and the absurdity of Arcane’s final form. Here, the suits bend, crease, and crack with startling clarity, making the B-movie DNA of Swamp Thing more obvious. Holland’s lab is a plant-festooned assembly of unconvincing switches and screens. The film’s beasts flail (possibly to the stunt actors’ peril) in murky shallow depths. When Barbeau gazes into Durock’s eyes, covered in dry green makeup, their earnest performances become endearing. By the time Holland hoists Cable into his arms, Craven’s superhero movie has taken on the shape of a gnarlier, more blissed-out Creature From the Black Lagoon.
The next time we see a cinematic Swamp Thing, his visage will likely be enhanced by digital trickery and modern over-design. He’ll also probably more closely resemble the mythological philosopher of Alan Moore’s celebrated DC run. These aren’t necessarily negatives, but I hope that when people finally see this new film, they save some space for Wes Craven’s 1982 original. (Logan director James Mangold is writing the screenplay and may direct.) There’s a simplicity to this comic book movie that is often overlooked in superhero spectacles. It also features a sense of kindness that isn’t often associated with Craven’s work. Even when the armies of man swarm the perimeter and conflict is inevitable, any decent creature-hero will still take a moment to smell the orchids.
8 out of 10
Swamp Thing is available on Blu-ray via the MVD Rewind Collection and MVD Rewind 4K LaserVision Collection.
Written and directed by Wes Craven.
Cinematography by Robbie Greenberg.
Starring Louis Jourdan, Adrienne Barbeau, and Ray Wise.
Produced by Benjamin Melniker and Michael E. Uslan.
Swamp Thing is available in both its PG-rated theatrical release and Unrated version. Contains gooey monster transformations and way more nudity than you’d expect.
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