SWAMP THING (1982)
4K LaserVision Collection
(2-Disc Collector’s Edition) 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Label: MVD Rewind Collection
Region Code: A
Rating: PG
Duration: Theatrical Cut (91 min), International Cut (3 min)
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono, Dolby Digital Spanish Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: DolbyVision HDR 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (1.85:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Wes Craven
Cast: Ray Wise, Dick Durock, Adrienne Barbeau, Louis Jourdan, David Hess, Nicholas Worth, as Bruno
Don Knight, Al Ruban, Nannette Brown, Al Ruban, Nannette Brown
Swamp Thing (1982) is an early DC comic adaptation, coming a few years after the iconic Superman (1978) but years before Batman (1989), written and directed by Wes Craven (A Nightmare On Elm Street), based on the swamp-dwelling character created by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson. It tells the story of brilliant scientist, Dr. Alec Holland (Ray Wise, Twin Peaks) who while working at top-secret bioengineering project deep in the Florida swamps has developed a secret neon-green formula that could potentially end world hunger forever. However, the evil Arcane (Louis Jourdan, The Return of Swamp Thing) plots to hijack the serum for his own bag-guy schemes. Sexy government agent/scientist Alice Cable (Adrienne Barbeau, John Carpenter’s The Fog) is sent to the swamp to replace a scientist who was mysteriously been killed, and when she arrives her and Holland strike up a potential romance, which is cut short when Arcane makes his move on the lab, revealing himself with a fun, hokey face-peeling reveal, with the help of scum bag mercenaries lead by Ferret (David Hess, The Last House on the Left) and Bruno (Nicholas Worth, Don't Answer the Phone). During the lab takeover Holland's assistant/sister Linda (Nannette Brown, My Boyfriend's Back) and Holland is inadvertently doused with his own formula set ablaze and dives into the swamp, and left for dead, with Arcane and Cable at first unaware that he has transmogrified into a hulking half human/half plant “Swamp Thing” in the process. Arcane and his men kidnap Cable and begin to search for Holland's missing notebook (which Cable has hidden) so they can replicate Holland's groundbreaking serum. Now a verdant behemoth Holland pursues Arcane and his men throughout the swamp to free Cable, with whom the human Holland had started to develop feelings for prior to his metamorphosis, which turns into a very strange romance. That's the flick in a nutshell, plus we get more serum-induced mutant mayhem at the end that involves a sword wielding boar-creature with a showdown in, where else, the swamp!
The story here is super kiddie friendly, it's evil scientist fare on the surface, with some bizarre pre-PG-13 weirdness that is the stuff 80's kinder traumas are made of. For starters, I am both baffled and love that the producers set out to make a kid-friendly comic book superhero flick and they chose Wes Craven, the notorious director of exploitation classic The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes as well as the mainstream success of A Nightmare on Elm Streets to direct it, plus we get a pair of baddies from the aforementioned TLHOTL (Hess) and Nicholas North from exploitation shocker Don't Answer the Phone, how kid friendly is that? Hess for his part is really doing a sort of PG (not really) watered-down version of Krug here as the lead mercenary, who at one point literally whips a venomous poisonous snake right out of his pocket to murder someone! The second thing is the Swamp Thing suit, wow, it's not good, it doesn't fit well, and it doesn't look great. I think it did well enough for me as an eight year-old when I watched it for the first time, but re-watching more recently and with this viewing, it's pretty shit, with apologies to to the make-up effects guys. The suit actually looks quite good in the behind-the-scenes images of it being sculpted, but the look of it in-motion compared to Bernie Wrightson's iconic visuals just comes up short time and time again - it's a big green bust, and looks like someone wrapped in a wet, green garbage bag, which was thankfully remedied by the sequel eight years later which actually did excellent work bringing the comic character to life. Now don't get me wrong, the actor in the suit did fantastic work and I give major kudos to Dick Durok who gives the creature quite a bit of depth and pathos as he act through the rubber and latex. Durok would go onto play the Swamp Thing on both the sequel and the early 90's TV series, where he also did impressive work..
Barbeau is a bit of a bad-ass though she can look awkward with a gun in hand, but she's both sexy and strong and pulls it off while sloughing it through the much. Ray Wise also does solid work as Holland, he's always quite a presence on screen, and when Dick Durok (Raw Deal) takes over under the rubber and latex in the role of the creature he also acts his ass of as best he can from beneath the rubber. Louis Jourdan's is good fun as the gentlemanly villain of the piece, he doesn't bring much threat to it, but I guess it is a PG rated kiddie flick, so it's fine he's sort of playing the same kind of villain he does in Octopussy which came out the same year as this. Other notable appearances include Craven's attractive wife Mimi Craven as Arcane's secretary, and young Reggie Batt's as Corey, a youthful wise-cracking presence in the film that is temporarily teamed-up up with Barbeau's Cable.
As far as special effects these are all pretty dated but not without their nostalgic charms, as I said the suit is pretty rough looking in hindsight, but I do love a scene of Swampy re-growing a severed arm through photosynthesis - that little hand is so cute, sort of a pre-cursor to what we saw with Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. The metamorphosis scenes of a half-human, half-armadillo creature is also pretty bad looking, the metamorphic stage looks like someone fighting their way out of moldy-old paper bag, and the fully realized creature is pretty corny. There are some notable explosions that look great involving an air-boat, plus a terrific fire-stunt as Holland is set ablaze and he throws himself into the swamp. The swamp locations used in the flick looks decent, there's some wonderful swamp scenery shot by cinematographer Robbie Greenberg (Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Baker) but none of it rises to the level of what comic artist Bernie Wrightson brought to the comic page, but that's asking a lot of a film from 1981, they do what they can, and they certainly do achieve the appropriate swampiness, it's just not remotely comic accurate
Craven is quoted as saying, “Swamp Thing was an extraordinary experience because it was the first time I was given a budget that was decent. It was the first time I had a really good cast, and it was the first time I was shooting on location in a really beautiful area. So, it was very pleasurable in that sense. The downside was that it was an extremely difficult shoot because we were in a swamp, and it was hot, and there were mosquitoes and snakes and alligators. It was just an extremely difficult environment to work in, but we had a lot of fun.”, and sure enough this was his biggest budget flick with notable stars, but as a superhero film it is a curiosity, a far cry from the current slate of overstuffed and bloated CGI heavy action-flicks, it feels raw and it looks a bit rough, but it was certainly an early comic adaptation entry. The camp-factor is pretty tasty if you just go with it, it's more akin to Roger Corman's scrapped Fantastic Four flick than a modern DC/Marvel entry, less a superhero epic and more a slice of B-movie fun, it's certainly not a flick that takes itself too seriously, and that seems to be what Craven was going for, just a pulpy good time. It's not perfection my any means, and I would have preferred a more horror-centric entry myself from Craven, which it seems to want to be, but it's an interesting flick and plenty entertaining.
Audio/Video: Swamp Thing (1981) arrives on 4K Ultra HD from MVD Rewind Collection in 2160p UHD framed in the proper 1.85:1 widescreen, with a brand new 2023 4K Restoration (16-Bit Scan of the Original Camera Negative) of both the US Theatrical PG Version and Unrated International Version of the film with Dolby Vision/HDR. The new scan looks terrific, grain appears organic and unmolested, and the increased resolution brings out a tad more depth and detail throughout. There are some rough patches, a few of the exterior swamp sequences look pretty gauzy, which appears to be a stylistic choice of the cinematographer, so it's inherent to the source, and there's not much to be done about that. Not surprisingly the biggest benefit here is the HDR/Dolby Vision dynamic range color-grading, colors are deeper and nicely suffused, primaries have a nice blush to them, especially green and reds. The Swamp Thing suit is what it is, it's not great and pales in comparison to the much better design in Jim Wynorski's - I'm gonna say it - superior sequel, but the green hues and textures of it are improved, as does the fauna of the swamp, and the neon-glow of the serum. The 4K resolution does highlight the seams of the costume though, in that regard it might not be such a great thing.
Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono with optional English subtitles on both the US Theatrical PG Version and Unrated International Version. It's a solid presentation with good fidelity, well-balanced wind with a solid low end. I didn't notice much of any deference over the Scream Factory release, but that's fine as I had no issues with it. There are no age-related issues like hiss or distortion, and the terrific Harry Manfredini (Friday the 13th) score sounds awesome.
On the extras front MVD have licensed all the previous Scream Factory produced extras, which is fantastic. Both the 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray feature the Theatrical PG Version and Unrated International Version. On the 4K disc we get a pair of archival commentaries for the Theatrical version, first up is the Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Wes Craven moderated by Sean Clark of Horror's Hallowed Grounds - where's the Swamp Thing episode of Horror's Hallowed Grounds?, then a second Audio Commentary with Makeup Effects Artist William Munns moderated by Michael Felsher. The remainder of the extras, including the commentaries, can be found on the Blu-ray and are presented in HD, but MVD go a step extras and import the bonus features from the UK release from 88 Films, these include the 21-min Swamp Screen: Designing DC's Main Monster featurette, plus the 18-min From Krug to Comics: How the Mainstream Shaped a Radical Genre Voice
featurette with my favorite UK horror talking-head Kim Newman, all of which which make this worth the upgrade just for the additional extras, let alone the superior A/V presentation, and that they licensed the unrated International version with the notorious gratuitous nudity from Barbeau in HD and 4K UHD makes this a must-own.
The 2-disc 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray combo arrives in a dual-hubbed black keepcase with a sleeve of single-sided artwork, which is also replicated in the first-print only slipcover, featuring the original illustrated movie poster artwork, both of which branded with the 4K LaserVision Collection and a retro-looking MVD Rewind Collection logo, paying homage to the long retired RCA’ SelectaVision VideoDisc releases of yore with some wonderful attention to detail. Both the spine of wrap and the slip are numbered - this being no. 1 of the new 4K LaserVision Collection series from MVD Rewind Collection. Inside there's a Collectible “4K LaserVision” Mini-Poster of cover art.
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Special Features:
Disc 1: 4K UHD
- 2023 4K Restoration (16-Bit Scan of the Original
Camera Negative) of both the US Theatrical PG Version and Unrated International Version of the film presented in its original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio in Dolby Vision / HDR
- Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono, Spanish Mono
- Optional English Subtitles
- Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Wes Craven
moderated by Sean Clark (Theatrical / PG Version)
- Audio Commentary with Makeup Effects Artist
William Munns moderated by Michael Felsher (Theatrical / PG Version)
Disc 2: Blu-ray
- 2023 HD Restoration of both the US Theatrical PG
Version and Unrated International Version of the film presented in its original
1.85:1 Aspect Ratio
- Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Wes Craven
moderated by Sean Clark (Theatrical / PG Version)
- Audio Commentary with Makeup Effects Artist
William Munns moderated by Michael Felsher (Theatrical / PG Version)
- DTS-HD Audio 2.0 Mono, Spanish Mono Audio
- Optional English Subtitles
- "Tales From the Swamp" (Remastered) with
Actress Adrienne Barbeau (16:56) HD
- "Hey Jude" with Actor Reggie Batts (14:30) HD
- "That Swamp Thing" with Len Wein, Creator of Swamp Thing (13:19) HD
- "Swamp Screen: Designing DC's Main Monster" featurette (20:32) HD
- "From Krug to Comics: How the Mainstream
Shaped a Radical Genre Voice" featurette (17:34) HD
- Posters & Lobby Cards - Photo Gallery
- Photos from the Film - Photo Gallery
- William Munns’ Behind the Scenes Pictures - Photo Gallery
- Behind the Scenes Photos by Geoffrey Rayle – Photo Gallery
- Theatrical Trailer (1:31) HD
Packing Extras:
- Collectible “4K LaserVision” Mini-Poster of cover art
- Limited Edition “4K Laservision” Slipcover (First Pressing Only)
For their debut 4K UHD offering MVD absolutely knock it out of the park with this definitive edition of Wes Craven's Swamp Thing. All other previous release have been relegated to drink coaster status effective immediately - this is the one to own - all others are inferior, 'nuff said.
Screenshots from the MVD Rewind Collection Blu-ray:
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| Is that a snake in your pocket? |
Extras:
