Swamp Thing (1982)

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Overview

Swamp Thing is a film directed by Wes Craven. Swamp Thing is primarily an action film as opposed to traditional horror, despite the film's subject of a monster.

Creation

Swamp Thing was created by Len Wein & Bernie Wrightson for DC Comics. The character first appeared in House of Secrets #92 in 1971.

Plot Summary

Swamp Thing

In a swamp in Louisiana a small group of scientists are working on a formula that would make a kind of super-plant which would prove resilient and also help to solve world hunger. Alice Cable arrives at the station to maintain some of their surveying technology and she meets Doctor Alec Holland who immediately begins hitting on her. Reluctantly she agrees to go for a walk in the swamp with him to examine a failed piece of technology, however when they get there she discovers that it has been sabotaged.

Shortly after they arrive back at the station Doctor Holland discovers the correct formula that he has been working on for so long and in the excitement Cable gives in to the doctors charms and kisses him. Later that night their station is suddenly invaded by a group of mercenaries hired by Dr. Anton Arcane who wants the special formula so that he can control and profit from it. In the act he shoots Dr. Holland's sister who was also a scientist working on the project. Enraged Holland goes to attack the man who shot her but in the process gets doused in the plant formula. He is immediately set on fire and continuously explodes all the while running out of the building and jumping off the pier into the swamp. During the confusion Cable is able to escape and hide the remaining research log.

The wrath of Swamp Thing

The next day while the mercenaries are cleaning up all evidence of their intrusion and of the scientists, they spot Cable and try to capture her, however they are attacked by a giant plant like monster which is actually Dr. Holland who has been transformed into the powerful Swamp Thing. When Anton Arcane discovers this he sets his men to try and capture him so that he can be studied and perhaps replicated. Capturing the monster is going to prove an extremely difficult task and Arcane soon realizes that if they can't hurt him directly then perhaps they can set their sites upon Cable who is still trapped in the swamps, using her as bait.

Reception

Final confrontation

The film bears little to no resemblance to the 'Swamp Thing' comics and even reportedly led to a decline in popularity of the comics at the same time of the release of the movie, this is not to say that one caused the other however. The film received very negative comments from critics and was slammed for its lack of storyline which mostly involves Cable being captured by the mercenaries then rescued by the Swamp Thing, then getting captured again and then again getting rescued. The film also was mocked for its largely underwhelming special effects and rubbery looking Swamp Thing suite. Some have praised the films setting which was mostly filmed on site in an actual swamp.

Nudity in a PG Movie

This picture is the hotness

There were purposely two different versions of Swamp Thing created when the film was getting made. Whilst the film would get a PG rating in the states, the producers knew that overseas it would get branded with an R18 . Since they were going to get it anyway they told Craven to include a rather lengthy nude scene in the film involving Adrienne Barbeau. Craven agreed and so the International version of Swamp Thing includes a scene in the movie that shows Cable washing her breasts in a hot spring for about twenty straight seconds. Also added was a rather confusing scene where it appears that Strippers/prostitutes are stripping and serving men at a family gathering in front of underage children.

When MGM would later release Swamp Thing on DVD they accidentally grabbed the International negatives of the film and used them as a release for the PG rated DVD. While they eventually re-called this print of the DVD due to complaints from people and re-released it under a higher rating, the nude PG versions are still readily available from various stores on the internet.