alexanderdavies-99382 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.

classicsoncall 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.

breakdownthatfilm-blogspot-com There's something about lesser-known comic book characters when it comes to being adapted to film. For odd reasons they don't receive as much critical or financial success. Yet it has been proved that these characters can become popular if done right. An example of this is James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). Heck nobody even knew they were a Marvel property until the studio announced they were being put to the big screen. This only shows that the right people have to be involved with how the production is conceived and executed. The antithesis of that example is Man-Thing (2005), also produced by Marvel but in no way taken care of in the same manner. Like the character of Man-Thing, DC also had their version called Swamp Thing, which received its rendition way before Man-Thing's film was even thought of. But being that it was the second DC character to be portrayed on the big screen, one would think it would have done as well as Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980) for being new and different.Instead, the film went underground and gained a cult following. It's not that it was bad but it certainly was not written anywhere near the same depth as Superman (1978) and its sequel. The story follows Alice Cable (Adrienne Barbeau) who meets Dr. Alec Holland (Ray Wise) in a new discovery where plant cells can be fused with animal cells in a solution. To Holland's dismay greedy man Dr. Arcane (Louis Jourdan) wants his findings for himself and destroys his lab. Attempting to escape, Dr. Holland accidentally collides with his experimental solution and mixes in with his swampy surroundings. This leads to him becoming Swamp Thing, a creature with super strength, regeneration and healing powers. Written and directed by indie horror fanatic Wes Craven, thankfully this feature does entertain on some level. It is surprising though that Wes Craven works with such a toned down picture. The violence is nothing compared to his works before like the dreaded The Last House on the Left (1972) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977).The cast of characters isn't extremely unique but they do portray the proper emotion and do have their own personality. Ray Wise makes Dr. Holland sound very intelligent yet not bookworm-ish enough to be a total geek. Adrienne Barbeau as Cable is charismatic and even demonstrates some tough behavior, which is always encouraged for most female lead characters. Cable also meets a funny kid named Jude (Reggie Batts – which is his only film credit). It's weird how this actor didn't continue because he had some comical lines throughout the film. Playing the Swamp Thing character was Dick Durock and for the 1980s, his look is close to that of the comic. The only actor who isn't the most interesting is Louis Jourdan as Dr. Arcane. Besides being a jerk for his selfish reasons there really isn't much of a personality behind the character. I'll admit his voice is a bit captivating though.Aside from acting, the writing does miss in one particular area. This belongs to Swamp Thing's powers. The strength boost is explained, but how he knew what makes him regenerate and healing others is left unchecked. All Craven needed to do was add in one scene that shows how Swamp Thing discovered these abilities and that would at least cover half the problem. Sadly, the powers are just thrown in for the scenes that needed it. The ability is different but there's no development to how it came about. Also the middle section to the movie does drag because of a long-winded chase scene. Unfortunately adding to that are some standard action sequences. Most of the events that happen are very 80s era type tropes. That's not to say all of it is, but most and because of the rather underwhelming action, the pace of it slows. No reason to be too concerned though, that's it for the big issues. The visual style of the film is something to behold though.One of the most interesting visual techniques used is the transition editing by Richard Bracken. Not every change between scenes is different or the greatest looking but a number of scene changes involve comic book like transitions, which really help solidify the feeling like the viewer is watching a comic book movie. As stated for Dick Durock's Swamp Thing portrayal, the practical and special effects are dated in some areas but are also something to admire for at least having the ambition. One note being that the solution Dr. Holland develops has the same color and glow to that of the serum Dr. West would use in Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator (1985). Robbie Greenberg's cinematography looks great too with wide shots of the swamp with plenty of sunlight and color. Lastly is composer Harry Manfredini's score. Unfortunately, due to him working consistently on the Friday the 13th (1980) franchise years prior, much of his music sounds reminiscent to that of those scores. That means tinkering keys and blaring horns for the tense moments. However, there is one musical cue that makes it worth while and that is the love theme for Cable and Alec. The theme uses a clarinet and harp and the tune is completely memorable. If it weren't for that, Manfredini's score would be considered unoriginal.DC's second original comic book movie isn't as smartly written and doesn't have the massive action spectacle to that of Richard Donner's Superman (1978) but it is still highly watchable. The leads can act, the music works, the effects are decent and Swamp Thing as a character is unique all by itself.

tomgillespie2002 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