Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Swamp Thing



The above trailer is hopelessly murky, but I had to post it because the voiceover kind of illustrates why I love the movie Swamp Thing. "Monsters and midgets!...An incredibly adventure that grows on you!" Surely, this is one of director Wes Craven's masterworks!

Now, I am a huge fan of the Alan Moore "Swamp Thing" comics; they're what got me into comics in the 80's. And while the movie has absolutely nothing to do with those comics, I think it is because of the movie that DC decided to revamp the series in the first place, so it at least deserves our thanks, if not our love.

And yeah, I do love it. I remember it being a really fun day at the movies. I think by the time we saw it on April 17th, it had moved to the second run theaters, (it opened in February), and we saw it at the 4 Star for a mere three bucks.

I'm pretty sure that at first, I was a little confused about it. Was it intentionally funny? Was I laughing at it, or with it? But by the time I saw it again, most likely on video, it was clear it wasn't a movie that was taking itself too seriously. I mean, you can practically see the zipper running up the Swamp Thing's back.

And it's that goofy humor that made me love it. Indeed, there is a midget monster in it, and there's a completely awesome moment when Swamp Thing starts to grow a new arm, after it's chopped off by bad guys, and during the process we see this tiny little twig hand start to pop out of his shoulder and make a fist.

Also, Adrienne Barbeau runs around in a wet shirt a lot, and what's not to love about that?

And I wasn't the only one who liked it. I remember watching Siskel and Ebert talk about the movie on their show, and I know they both loved it, even while they were cracking up about it. I can't find that original show, but they do talk about it in an episode about "Buried Treasures." I'd include the video here, but it can't be embedded without autoplay turned on, (annoying!), so go here to view the episode, and skip to the 18 minute mark to see the Swamp Thing discussion. (It also includes, right before that, some discussion of a previous Mulled Movie, The Wanderers.)

Only have a few things from my "book" for this one. First is a newspaper ad...


And the second is a couple of review clips, including another from "Trashola"...


I didn't get to re-watch the movie before posting this, but am happy to report it is available on Netflix Instant, and it's also available on Amazon as a cheap rental, (free to Prime customers). A re-watching is definitely in my future.

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