Post by rberman on Feb 7, 2019 6:30:32 GMT -5
Creative Team:
Wes Craven – Writer, director
Louis Jourdan – Arcane
Adrienne Barbeau – Alice Cable
Ray Wise – Dr. Alec Holland
David Hess – Ferret
Nicholas Worth – Bruno
Don Knight – Ritter
Dick Durock – Swamp Thing
Nannette Brown – Dr. Linda Holland
Mimi Craven – Arcane’s Secretary
00:00 Security expert Alice Cable arrives at a remote swamp laboratory just as the project is about to get shifted back to Washington D.C. Seems that the evil Arcane has gotten wind of the project’s existence. Siblings Alec and Linda Holland are the heart of the project, but Alec begins leering at Alice as soon as she arrives, inviting her to accompany him out into the swamp to check a faulty sensor; once there, he begins philosophizing about how the human body (but especially hers) is “one of God’s most magnificent creations” and inviting her to think about “the most creative thing a man and woman can do together” and trying to kiss her. Alice demurs but takes his advances in stride, rationalizing that Alec is just “following his natural way.” Anyway, they find the malfunctioning sensor, confirm that it is broken inside, and drop it in the bog rather than bringing it back for repairs. Mission accomplished!
15:00 Linda discovers that their experiments cross-breeding E. coli bacteria with plant cells have inadvertently produced a highly explosive compound which also causes super-rapid growth in their plant/animal hybrid cell culture.
21:00 Arcane’s commandos attack the lab, which does have a security team in this version of the story. Arcane himself has been in the lab already, disguised as security chief Ritter. Alice shows surprising combat skills but is overcome by numbers. Linda is shot, and a lab explosion catches Alec afire; he runs into the swamp. Alice hides Alec’s journal but is chased by Ferret the commando. Swamp Thing appears, saves her from drowning, escapes into the mire, then circles back around to pick off commandos one by one.
34:00 Arcane returns to his mansion and realizes that Alec’s most recent notebook is missing. When Alice walks to local gas station and calls Washington to report the attack on the lab, she’s patched through to her superior “Ritter,” whom she doesn’t realize is Arcane. His commandos find her at the convenience store and chase her back into the swamp, where once again Swamp Thing intervenes.
46:00 The next day, Alice returns to the burned lab, finds Swamp Thing there, and flees with the missing notebook. Arcane’s commandos are in the area in full force, and Swamp Thing engages them once again in an extended boat fight sequence.
57:00 Alice gives Alec’s notebook to a local kid from the gas station. Ferret finally captures Alice for a moment; then she’s on the run, right into Swamp Things’s path. Ferret amputates Swampy’s left arm; Swampy crushes Ferret’s skull. Swampy becomes more talkative, and Alice realizes he is Alec. Alice chooses this moment for a topless swamp bath, for no good reason – in a PG movie, no less.
66:00 Swampy allows himself, his notebook, and Alice to be caught by Arcane, hoping to be cured. Arcane throws a fancy banquet at his mansion for dozens of people (wives and kids included!) who politely don’t comment that Alice is tied to her chair at the table in an evening gown whose cut ensures that the rest of her time in this movie is all about her décolletage. Arcane tries Alec’s formula out on one Bruno, one of his commando; it turns him into an elf-midget instead of a mighty colossus, because the formula amplifies your personality, and Bruno was timid and kindly, for a commando.
76:00 Arcane imbibes the potion, believing that it will amplify his genius. He mutates into a hilarious sword-swinging, troll-haired man-in-suit just as Swamp Thing regrows his left arm and busts himself and Alice out of the dungeon. Bruno shows them a secret exit to the swamp, where Arcane and Swampy are soon slugging it out. Alice gets stabbed in the heart when she does the old “jumps in front of Swamp Thing for a moment, as if she were more resilient than he,” but he uses his regenerative power to heal her during a break in the combat, then impales Arcane decisively. Alec trudges off with a promise to “see you soon.”
My Two Cents: The acting isn’t great, but Wes Craven’s script was surprisingly good. Adrienne Barbeau was miscast as a tough-as-nails security consultant. Her moment of combat awesomeness early in the film does not repeat in the rest of the film, which puts her in damsel mode constantly. Ray Wise looked the part of the handsome scientist but wasn’t as good an actor here as later in Twin Peaks. Louis Jordan made a suitable sinister/elegant Arcane, in the mode of an urbane Bond villain. Wes Craven cast his wife Mimi, a former dancer, as Arcane’s lovely assistant.
Swamp Thing itself is as silly a man-in-suit as you’d expect for 1982, but at least they tried to give his face the weird vaginal shape from the comic book. The cinematography benefited from ample location footage from the bayou in which all the principal actors were required to swim repeatedly. Watch out for gators!
The story combines elements of the first two Len Wein issues. There’s even a scene with Swampy chained in Arcane’s dungeon to a giant “X” like in issue #2, but his arms aren’t actually chained along the upper arms of the X. All in all, a solid B movie, and more importantly the impetus for DC to try a new Swamp Thing comic book series.
Wes Craven – Writer, director
Louis Jourdan – Arcane
Adrienne Barbeau – Alice Cable
Ray Wise – Dr. Alec Holland
David Hess – Ferret
Nicholas Worth – Bruno
Don Knight – Ritter
Dick Durock – Swamp Thing
Nannette Brown – Dr. Linda Holland
Mimi Craven – Arcane’s Secretary
00:00 Security expert Alice Cable arrives at a remote swamp laboratory just as the project is about to get shifted back to Washington D.C. Seems that the evil Arcane has gotten wind of the project’s existence. Siblings Alec and Linda Holland are the heart of the project, but Alec begins leering at Alice as soon as she arrives, inviting her to accompany him out into the swamp to check a faulty sensor; once there, he begins philosophizing about how the human body (but especially hers) is “one of God’s most magnificent creations” and inviting her to think about “the most creative thing a man and woman can do together” and trying to kiss her. Alice demurs but takes his advances in stride, rationalizing that Alec is just “following his natural way.” Anyway, they find the malfunctioning sensor, confirm that it is broken inside, and drop it in the bog rather than bringing it back for repairs. Mission accomplished!
15:00 Linda discovers that their experiments cross-breeding E. coli bacteria with plant cells have inadvertently produced a highly explosive compound which also causes super-rapid growth in their plant/animal hybrid cell culture.
21:00 Arcane’s commandos attack the lab, which does have a security team in this version of the story. Arcane himself has been in the lab already, disguised as security chief Ritter. Alice shows surprising combat skills but is overcome by numbers. Linda is shot, and a lab explosion catches Alec afire; he runs into the swamp. Alice hides Alec’s journal but is chased by Ferret the commando. Swamp Thing appears, saves her from drowning, escapes into the mire, then circles back around to pick off commandos one by one.
34:00 Arcane returns to his mansion and realizes that Alec’s most recent notebook is missing. When Alice walks to local gas station and calls Washington to report the attack on the lab, she’s patched through to her superior “Ritter,” whom she doesn’t realize is Arcane. His commandos find her at the convenience store and chase her back into the swamp, where once again Swamp Thing intervenes.
46:00 The next day, Alice returns to the burned lab, finds Swamp Thing there, and flees with the missing notebook. Arcane’s commandos are in the area in full force, and Swamp Thing engages them once again in an extended boat fight sequence.
57:00 Alice gives Alec’s notebook to a local kid from the gas station. Ferret finally captures Alice for a moment; then she’s on the run, right into Swamp Things’s path. Ferret amputates Swampy’s left arm; Swampy crushes Ferret’s skull. Swampy becomes more talkative, and Alice realizes he is Alec. Alice chooses this moment for a topless swamp bath, for no good reason – in a PG movie, no less.
66:00 Swampy allows himself, his notebook, and Alice to be caught by Arcane, hoping to be cured. Arcane throws a fancy banquet at his mansion for dozens of people (wives and kids included!) who politely don’t comment that Alice is tied to her chair at the table in an evening gown whose cut ensures that the rest of her time in this movie is all about her décolletage. Arcane tries Alec’s formula out on one Bruno, one of his commando; it turns him into an elf-midget instead of a mighty colossus, because the formula amplifies your personality, and Bruno was timid and kindly, for a commando.
76:00 Arcane imbibes the potion, believing that it will amplify his genius. He mutates into a hilarious sword-swinging, troll-haired man-in-suit just as Swamp Thing regrows his left arm and busts himself and Alice out of the dungeon. Bruno shows them a secret exit to the swamp, where Arcane and Swampy are soon slugging it out. Alice gets stabbed in the heart when she does the old “jumps in front of Swamp Thing for a moment, as if she were more resilient than he,” but he uses his regenerative power to heal her during a break in the combat, then impales Arcane decisively. Alec trudges off with a promise to “see you soon.”
My Two Cents: The acting isn’t great, but Wes Craven’s script was surprisingly good. Adrienne Barbeau was miscast as a tough-as-nails security consultant. Her moment of combat awesomeness early in the film does not repeat in the rest of the film, which puts her in damsel mode constantly. Ray Wise looked the part of the handsome scientist but wasn’t as good an actor here as later in Twin Peaks. Louis Jordan made a suitable sinister/elegant Arcane, in the mode of an urbane Bond villain. Wes Craven cast his wife Mimi, a former dancer, as Arcane’s lovely assistant.
Swamp Thing itself is as silly a man-in-suit as you’d expect for 1982, but at least they tried to give his face the weird vaginal shape from the comic book. The cinematography benefited from ample location footage from the bayou in which all the principal actors were required to swim repeatedly. Watch out for gators!
The story combines elements of the first two Len Wein issues. There’s even a scene with Swampy chained in Arcane’s dungeon to a giant “X” like in issue #2, but his arms aren’t actually chained along the upper arms of the X. All in all, a solid B movie, and more importantly the impetus for DC to try a new Swamp Thing comic book series.
