LogFAQs > #910235024

Swamp Thing (1982)
Nominated by: Xeybozen

When you consider the year Swamp Thing was released, you kind of have to admit that Wes Craven actually worked wonders with what little source material he had. Months before the heights of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run would elevate the character into cult-classic status, Craven came along and plucked ol' Alec Holland from the depths of obscurity, giving Swamp Thing a new lease on life and essentially providing DC with the momentum to give the character his longest running and most successful series. It's amazing to think about how a 171-issue series came out of DC's attempt to capitalize on a potential summer blockbuster.

But said blockbuster really doesn't hold up against the comics that spun out from it. The story suffers from lacking some of the nuanced depth Craven normally includes in his better films, and Swamp Thing has always been a character upon which you build layers of symbolism. Playing the character straight makes this just another campy, goofy rubber monster movie. The difference between this and the Creature from the Black Lagoon is minimal. Given that this is 1982, I think that I would try and snag Stanley Kubrick for this project, and let him overhaul the entirety of the script and cast. First and foremost, the casting of Ray Wise as Alec Holland is a bizarre and terrible miscast, and I'd honestly try to pull in Ryan O'Neal. There needs to be more innocence in the character and he has the name recognition value to make this movie more of a marquee project. Plus, his previous experience with Kubrick is a plus.

So with Stanley Kubrick pushing this project in a new direction, I would expect the transformation of Swamp Thing to be much more bizarre and maybe even a little grotesque. And the massive casting of Anton Arcane could now be given more weight, so I would probably try and snag Laurence Olivier. The role would have a little more understated tone to it, and I think such a meaty actor could prevent the concept from devolving into a campy super-villain.

I imagine the plot itself is not too different from the original plot, but small details that build a heavier focus on the symbology of Swamp Thing would maybe turn this into an awards contender if you build this film correctly. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the basic plot of the movie, and hewing close to the original Len Wein story arc is great. But the players involved in the original project placed a ceiling on the potential of this movie, and that's just not working for me. Swamp Thing could come out and rival Superman as a very different kind of comic book movie if you do it right. Artistic, measured and visually stunning.

Be prepared for a lot of these films to be completely overhauled with cast and crew as we go forward.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful