Swamp Thing (1982)

Touches You

The Worst Film Ever

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Swamp thing is campy and somewhat fun. The effects and monsters are cheesy, even for the times. I understand that Wes Cravens' budget was cut out from under him, so the movie that was made was not the same movie that Cravens imagined. Adrienne Barbeau was beautiful, and performed her role with total seriousness and professionalism, which probably wasn't easy. The Blu-Ray copy which I saw had an excellent picture, but was the edited version, so I wonder what I missed.

... with the unlikely Wes Craven as director. Brilliant scientist Dr. Alec Holland (Ray Wise) is conducting experiments for the US government deep in the heart of bayou swamp country. The isolation causes a lot of turnover in employees at the lab, so new recruit Alice Cable (Adrienne Barbeau) arrives as a replacement. She's just in time for the lab to be attacked by mercenary goons in the employ of the diabolical Arcane (Louis Jourdan). Holland is doused in an experimental substance and set on fire, left to die in the swamp. However, instead of dying, he is reborn as Swamp Thing, a tall, super strong humanoid made out of green plant material. He uses his new found strength to battle Arcane and his men.Barbeau makes a good, tough female hero, and Jourdan has fun with his villainous role. Veteran stuntman Dick Durock plays the title green guy, a role he would reprise in the film's sequel seven years later, as well as a TV show spin-off in 1990. Frequent B-movie bad guys David Hess and Nicholas Worth also have a lot of screen time as Arcane's chief thugs. The effects are a bit on the cheap side, but it adds to the film's charm. The whole enterprise has a comic-book vibe, and fits in with the late 70s superhero style; it's not as cheesy as the 60s BATMAN TV show, but keeps some comic touches, like the Christopher Reeves SUPERMAN films or the Tim Burton BATMAN films.It's also not quite clear who the audience for this was supposed to be. It has the aforementioned comic book style, and the story never gets more complicated than say a middle-school level. But it also features some gruesome violence and some nudity. It managed a PG rating (this was before PG-13), and you can tell there were some awkward edits to tone down the language. Based on the DC Comics characters.

After a violent incident with a special chemical, a research scientist is turned into a swamp plant monster. Swamp Thing was directed by Wes Craven and came out on 1982 now the film has issues let's start with the bad things the last 30 minutes is were it falls apart in that dinner one of the main bad guys or whatever turns into a monster as well and he turns into a midget and the main villain Arcane turns into this TMNT Rat or something and the film turns from a Superman to a Superman III Power Rangers kind of film it just makes zero sense, there isn't enough action he never kills anyone except the guy that he crashed his head and it's neither horror or even has some R-Rating action except a nudity scene that's all. Now the good things there is good emotion in this film especially in that scene where he finds his sister's necklace and he remembers her and he starts crying or when he destroys the lab and turns cars and boats upside down, the acting is good, the villains were OK for the most part the little supporting kid did a pretty nice job. Overall a good movie for what it was nothing more really!!

Sat somewhere between Wes Craven's disturbing yet interesting The Last House on the Left (1972), and his uber-popular, icon making A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), is this low budget adaptation of a semi-popular DC comics character, Swamp Thing. During this shift from gritty, cinema verite style of Last House, to the more fantastical, "polished" Nightmare, Craven seems to have been trapped within the confines of a television aesthetic. This films action sequences often feel like (and look like) an episode of The A-Team (1983 - 1987). Craven did work on a few TV shows during this period also, so I'm guessing that this film probably had technicians (and particularly), and a similar budget to a TV movie.Alice Cable (Adrienne Barbeau) arrives in the swamps where secret science experiments are taking place. Doctor Holland (Ray Wise) heads the team researching a chemical that has an effect on organic life. Unfortunately, a group of "villains" want the formula for evil purposes (one of the hoods, Ferret, is played by star of Last House, David Hess). After an explosion, Dr Holland disappears, only to turn up as human/plant hybrid monster of the films title.This is a pretty lacklustre film. As I mentioned, it has that oh-so distinctive TV aesthetic. It is not altogether bad. It has some fun, and funny moments, and the make-up/costume for the Swamp Thing is not too bad for the time. It makes good use of its source, in the sense that it uses it's comic-book devices such as dramatic editing, and sequences where the screen is masked with action shapes. However, this technique was used to greater effect in the same year in George A. Romero's and Stephen King's underrated Creepshow (1982 - a film that also starred Barbeau - who was married to John Carpenter at the time) that used EC horror comics as it's source.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com