Dojo Classics - Swamp Thing The Movie!

I've owned Swamp Thing on video for years, but my copy is very dark and it made enjoying the movie rather difficult. I've noticed the same problem on television. I found the flick on DVD combined with some other horror flicks, none of which I own, so I took a flyer on it. This widescreen version is much brighter, and much easier to see. That alas doesn't necessarily make the movie better. I am now able to detect the weakness of the Swamp Thing suit through most of the flick and that really pulls you out of the movie a bit.

As a movie, I've always thought this one was just okay. It does a decent job of translating the comics story to the screen but alas it must do so with a meager budget. The monster suits were marginal in their own time, and look downright cheesy today. There is a smidge of that old-fashioned movie-making charm, but it's minimal unfortunately.

Adrienne Barbeau is fine in her role as Alice Cable, she bounces around the swamp sufficiently to keep my interest up when little else seems to be going on. The kid who plays Jude, a smarmy teen sidekick for Cable is pretty annoying throughout. Louis Jourdan as Arcane is pretty much stock Jourdan, a reliable villain. The other actors perform their functions adequately, and that says it for me.

This is merely an adequate flick, with a decidedly A-Team feel to the action sequences. There's nowhere near the level of mystery and weirdness needed to really give the movie a Swamp Thing feel. Part of that is the relentless daytime shooting which magnifies the flaws. Wes Craven really tries to stretch here and comes up quite short in my opinion. I'd have loved to see more of the classic Craven suspense. Swamp Thing is a diverting flick and a relic of the time, but little else. I do love the poster by Richard Hescox.

UPDATE: Seeing it again after so many years, I was struck for the first time by the atmosphere. Unfortunately much of the movie is shot in the daytime, not optimal for a horror flick, but despite that shortcoming, I noticed a resonance in the atmosphere of the film, a steady quiet to the storytelling, especially early on. The story makes more sense than I remembered though the theme that men hide what's truly themselves is somewhat distracted by less than convincing special effects. He still doesn't make much sense, but I liked the Jude character a little better this time. The cruelty of Arcane was evident this time, as Louis Jourdan does a pretty keen job of playing a man completely obsessed with his own needs at the cost of all others. (The fact my country is run by such a man now makes this detail more poignant perhaps.) Swamp Thing holds up better than expected.

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