A brilliant scientist working in the swamps to help humanity. A rich, evil powerful villain who wants even more power.
A group of military men armed with lots of machine guns. And Adrienne Barbeau in a never-ending wardrobe of wet t-shirts.
In 1982, director Wes Craven was pigeonholed as a director who worked with small budgets, wrote some pretty strange, violent stories and would never be able to attract a mainstream audience. Wanting to prove he could, Craven set out to adapt the DC Comics character Swamp Thing to the big screen and make a film as crowd pleasing, action-packed and entertaining as possible.
The film tells the story of Dr. Alec Holland who is on the cusp of creating a plant/animal hybird. Just as he’s about to make a major breakthrough the evil Dr. Arcane spoils everything, has his henchmen kill a lot of people, knocks out newly arrived government agent Alice Cable and gets Holland engulfed in an explosion of his newly created formula.
Want to guess what happens next? I’ll give you a hint – lots of chases, gunfire and monster mashing. Starring Louis Jordan, Adrienne Barbeau, Ray Wise, David Hess and Dick Durrock, I take a look at what became the last film Craven directed before creating the Nightmare On Elm Street series and becoming an A-list director.
Here’s the film that solidified Barbeau’s status as one of the most buxom actresses of 80’s cinema. The film that showed kids what fun a good old-fashioned monster movie can be. And the film that introduced the majority of audiences to the mysterious creature – Swamp Thing.
Even though he kind of just looked like a guy in a green rubber suit.
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/108002405]
This article originally appeared on John’s site Haphazard Stuff. For more original content, also check out his blog here.