Swamp Thing

In the comic book universe, horror characters had their own niche.  Although sometimes shoehorned into the overarching superhero storylines, these narrative misfits mostly kept to themselves, portrayed as misunderstood monsters struggling to maintain some semblance of humanity.  Marvel had Werewolf by Night, Ghost Rider and, yes, Morbius.  While DC stuck mostly to anthologies like House of Mystery and Weird War Tales that pulled material from the E.C. Comics formula.  But there was one exception to the rule:  Swamp Thing.

Gorgeously illustrated by Bernie Wrightson, the books had a distinctly gothic look born from the story’s setting and Wrightson’s own distinctive style.  The origin story? Alec Holland is transformed into a half-man / half-plant mutation after a villainous rival, Arcane, sabotages his lab, dousing the scientist with chemicals and tossing him into the swamp.  Retaining his intellect and now nearly indestructible, Holland sets out for revenge against Arcane and his army of un-men.   Marvel countered with Man Thing but the results weren’t nearly as memorable.

 

Wes Craven’s 1982 film version was a hoot for kids (myself included), retaining the general outline of Len Wein’s original creation, but turning it an episodic TV superhero adventure story.  Like The Incredible Hulk, which was just wrapping up its run on ABC, Swamp Thing dispatches most villains by simply tossing them through the air, a bloodless solution used on every action show from The A-Team to MacGyver.  Only featured villain David Hess (Last House on the Left) meets his maker a little worse for wear.  And almost all the action is shot in filtered daylight, losing the entire shadowy vibe used to such great effect on the inked page.

 

Yet Craven’s film is inexplicably endearing.  Despite sanitizing the story for mass consumption, it retains that tragic Frankenstein mythos, turning Holland into a monster of his own accidental creation.  Plus, there’s just a whole lot of horror royalty hanging around.  Besides Craven and Hess, Adrienne Barbeau plays the surprisingly competent damsel-in-distress and composer Harry Manfredini (Friday the 13th) provides the score.  Craven saves the best moments for the finale, turning Arcane (played with oily panache by Louis Jourdan) into an armor-plated pig monster for a soggy winner-take-all deathmatch.  It’s the moment where the film finally digs in its spurs and becomes what it should have been in the first place.

 

The old MGM DVD became quite a collector’s item after including the international cut of the film, featuring an extended topless scene from Barbeau and a couple of other random breasts in a party scene.  Well, those are worthless now that MVD’s Rewind Collection has brought Swamp Thing into the realm of 4K Ultra HD with both cuts included, restored and remastered in Dolby Vision / HDR.  Craven’s film has always looked pretty good on home video thanks to the daylight cinematography, but there’s a drastic improvement here.  Extras include two audio commentaries (one featuring the late director, another with make-up effects artist William Munns), interviews with Barbeau, comic relief Reggie Batts and creator Len Wein, a pair of featurettes and a spiffy fold-out poster.  Swamp Thing has finally arrived!

 

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