Swamp Thing — half man, half plant — was a popular D.C Comics character of the 1970s. The film version was written and directed by Wes Craven in the early '80s, just a few years before his franchise-spawning A Nightmare on Elm Street. It's a game but ultimately failed attempt to bring the offbeat comic book superhero to life on the big screen. Makes for a fun double bill with Darkman, though. (Victimized scientists seek personal justice in this sci-fi thriller double feature!)
    Former sitcom star Adrienne Barbeau (The Fog, Escape from New York) headlines as Alice Cable, a federal security agent assigned to the protective detail guarding top government scientist Dr. Alec Holland (Twin Peaks' Ray Wise). Operating from his top-secret lab located in the swamplands of an unidentified southern state, Holland and his scientist sister are developing a formula that fuses the DNA of plants and animals into a new type of organism. While the Hollands view their research as a means to feed starving peoples of the Third World, the government, naturally, is keen to explore its potential as a weapon. (Just what kind of weapon that could be frankly mystifies me.) Cable isn't even at the lab site for one day before the charming Holland tries to put the moves on her. Then all hell breaks loose. An evil rival scientist, Arcane (the ever-oily Louis Jourdan), has hired and equipped a small army of mercenaries to attack Holland's lab and steal his research notes. All witnesses are to be eliminated and the complex torched. Arcane personally shoots Holland's sister dead; her genius brother wigs out, succeeding only in getting himself dowsed in his own formula and set on fire. A blazing human torch, the scientist runs from the building and dives into the swamp. Presuming Holland dead, Arcane's men collect the desired records and complete the destruction of the lab. Amid the confusion the intrepid Cable manages to escape with the seventh and final notebook. Soon Arcane's henchmen are stalking the swamp in search of her.
    Though Cable is a pretty tough cookie, lost and unarmed she doesn't stand a chance against Arcane's paramilitary thugs. But a mysterious humanoid creature rises from the muck to do battle with the mercenaries — a green man-plant hybrid possessing Herculean strength and cunning intelligence. This is no monster, of course; it's Dr. Holland, accidentally transmogrified by his own formula into an avenging mutant. (In costume the character is played by Dick Durock.) Once some of his men are killed, the megalomaniacal Arcane — who plans to use Holland's formula to conquer the world — deduces the nature of this new opponent thwarting him. Still lacking the project's final notebook, Arcane orders this "swamp thing" captured for biological study rather than killed. Holland's own body will provide the answers.
    Swamp Thing is an entertaining bit of low budget comic book camp, ably directed by Craven with tongue firmly in cheek. (How else could you film a story about a man-plant?) There are some decent action scenes and the violence is kid-friendly, i.e. never brutal or bloody. The performers are certainly game — Jourdan, though merely going through the motions in his patented "urbane yet slimy" villain role, makes for a thoroughly hissable heavy; an offbeat touch of comic relief is provided by child performer Reggie Batts as Jude, a local African-American kid who befriends Cable and whose deadpan delivery would give Bob Newhart a run for his money. (This was Batts' only acting role that I know of.) David Hess (from Craven's infamous Last House on The Left) is one of the evil mercs; Nicholas Worth, who's made a career of playing dimwitted henchman types in a host of B-movies, is also on hand as Bruno, Arcane's dimwitted — and rather cruelly double-crossed — henchman. (I've always wondered what the employee turnover rate is for ruthless Master Villains. The Mabuses, Blofelds and Arcanes of the underworld must offer great benefit packages.)
    This swamp isn't without its share of quicksand, however. The final third of the film devolves into a tiresome captured/escape/captured routine, and the climactic showdown between Holland and a transformed, reptilian Arcane is massively underwhelming. (The Arcane monster suit — a sort of Wolf-Crocodile Man — is pretty lame, too.) The weak, tacked-on feel of the climax seriously undercuts all that transpires before it.
    Ultimately the film is a misfire. Sci-fi and/or superhero fans should have an agreeable time with it but others are advised to pass. (Note: This is definitely not the PG-rated version of the film I'd previously seen on videotape and HBO. In the DVD version Barbeau has a 30-second topless bathing scene never before glimpsed; the bare breasts of hookers entertaining Arcane's men at a party are also shown. I can only imagine the shocked reaction of parents buying this disc for the kids!)