Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		3.5

Swamp Thing Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 4, 2023

MVD's Rewind Collection is revisiting Swamp Thing, which Shout! Factory's Scream Factory imprint originally released on 1080 disc way back in 2013. This review will repeat appropriate sections of my original Swamp Thing Blu-ray review as a result.

It might not have risen to the level of the Florida woman who checked out a VHS tape (remember those) of Disney’s Home on the Range from her local library for her son to watch and was shocked when it contained a porn video instead, but another mother, this time in Texas, was outraged when she rented Swamp Thing from her local Blockbuster (remember those?), and was shocked—shocked, I tell you—when she discovered the film contained nudity! It turned out that MGM had inadvertently released the unrated international cut on DVD, a cut that ran just a couple of minutes longer than the “kinder, gentler” American version and which indeed had a few passing glimpses of the female form. MGM went into instantaneous damage control mode and recalled the "unauthorized" version, quickly releasing the relatively more chaste American version. The first release has now become a collector’s item, fetching some unholy prices on various online auction sites, and while some fans were probably hoping against hope that the Shout! Factory Blu-ray would contain the controversial footage, either in the form of the international cut, or at least as bonus material, it didn't, something that has been ameliorated with this new release. That might mean that this new release may require vigilant mothers to keep their children from seeing any untoward material in terms of unwanted nudity. That is, if you don’t already consider a monstrous half plant-half human hybrid untoward. Swamp Thing, based on a DC Comics character who has had more lives than a veritable cat, is a flat out goof-fest that came relatively early in Wes Craven’s career, and which finds the director concentrating more on mood than scares. Set in a Louisiana bog (Craven states the film was actually shot in South Carolina), Swamp Thing details the trials of Dr. Alec Holland, a man who, kind of like Dr. David Banner of The Incredible Hulk fame, is inadvertently affected by his own experiments and turns into a gigantic green behemoth who marauds through various adventures in a fit of pique.

The problem of global hunger never seems to find a really satisfying solution in films. Witness the largely lamentable Shark!, where a mercenary played by Burt Reynolds thinks he’s getting involved with scientists intent on developing a massive new food source, only to figure out he’s actually involved with modern day pirates (doesn’t it just frost you when something like that happens?). Swamp Thing at least has a scientist who really is working on solving global hunger, though his research has attracted the attention of both the government as well as a nasty villain who wants to use it for his own personal purposes.

Dr. Alec Holland (Ray Wise) has a secret lab buried in the backwoods of a Louisiana swamp, but that doesn’t keep government researcher Alice Cable (Adrienne Barbeau) from tracking him down, at almost the same time that a bunch of mercenaries show up to commandeer the good doctor’s work. (What is it with mercenaries and solutions to the global food supply?) Alec and Alice barely have time to notice how similar their names are, let alone that they’re deeply attracted to each other, before the mercenaries break in, douse Dr. Holland in his own formula and set the poor guy ablaze. Holland manages to stumble out and dives into the bog, extinguishing the flames but, one assumes, extinguishing his life as well.

It turns out the mercenaries are working for a mastermind named Antone Arcane (Louis Jourdan), a supervillain who is convinced that Holland’s formula to create mutated vegetation will help him to attain superpowers (don’t go looking for much logic in this enterprise, as there frequently isn’t any). Not content to have the formula, Arcane also kidnaps Alice and holds her hostage as he begins to experiment with Holland’s formula. In the meantime, a monstrous creature has shown up in the swamp who seems to be a bizarre hybrid of human and vegetation. He does have superpowers, as is made clear when he is able to miraculously cure some victims who have become collateral damage in Arcane's swamp escapades.

Swamp Thing teeters precariously close to camp a lot of the time, but the good news is, the filmmakers seemed to know that going in, and so the film has a rather breezily self-deprecating sense of humor. The film is yet another take on the Beauty and the Beast trope, with Swamp Thing (played in his transmogrified form by Dick Durock) pining after Alice but getting about as far with her as King Kong did with Fay Wray. Barbeau and Craven both mention in various supplements included on this Blu-ray that Swamp Thing turned out to be decidedly different from what was originally planned. There seems to be a slightly buried remnant of a film that was meant to be an outright parody, but which got dialed back a bit into a cheesier B-movie ambience, for whatever reason. Perhaps that’s only fitting, though. Swamp Thing creator Len Wein is also on record stating how much he loved comic books of yore, those often silly horror entries from the fifties that emphasized style over substance. Swamp Thing in its film version is a pretty apt film version of that same ethos. A lot of modern day comic book adaptations are more portentous and a lot more serious, but they don’t necessarily provide as much pure fun as Swamp Thing does.

Swamp Thing Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Swamp Thing is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual's MVD Rewind imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Both MVD's 1080 and 2160 presentations are culled from new 2023 work and the results are quite impressive, at least when compared to the old Shout! Factory release. The first thing that's evident in this new 1080 presentation (and frankly probably more so in 4K UHD) is the upgrade in saturation, along with an overall darker look (so much so that the Shout! release almost looks artificially brightened now in hindsight). Despite some "baked in" softness, detail levels are also measurably improved throughout the presentation, with fine detail on things like our title hero's rubbery skin more palpable looking. There's even some improvement in general detail levels in some of the midrange and wide shots in the bayou. There are still some rather noticeable downturns in quality, including the scene of Adrienne Barbeau exiting a helicopter fairly early on, and a later moment with Louis Jourdan on a boat, but this may be one place where the 1080 presentation actually looks relatively better, since the lesser resolution and lack of HDR may not point up the variances quite as much. As I mentioned with regard to the Shout! Factory release, this can definitely be very grainy looking at times, most of which has to do with opticals. Despite a few passing issues, I can't imagine fans of this film not being over the moon and/or swamp with the general look of things here.

Swamp Thing Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track on this disc struck my ears as being virtually interchangeable with the track on the Shout! Factory release from years ago. As I mentioned in my original review, this is one film that actually might have benefitted from a surround track, given the ubiquity of ambient environmental effects in the swamp, but the mono track is decently layered and offers secure fidelity. Dialogue, effects and score are all presented cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Swamp Thing Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This release ports over the supplements from the Shout! Factory release, though as often tends to be the case, the timings can be a little different, and this disc has separated the photo galleries. There are also two featurettes (marked with an asterisk) that were not on the Shout! release.

• Theatrical Version (HD; 1:31:20) and Unrated Version (HD; 1:33:03) are accessible under the Choose Version Menu.


• Tales From the Swamp with Actress Adrienne Barbeau (HD; 16:09) is a great little reminiscence by Barbeau, who talks about some of the trials the cast and crew had to endure to get Swamp Thing filmed.


• Hey Jude with Actor Reggie Batts (HD; 14:43) is also on the sweet side, with Batts stating being in the film was a blessing.


• That Swamp Thing, a Look Back with Len Wein, Creator of Swamp Thing (HD; 13:20) finds Wein in fine form, talking about his initial desire to be an artist, which morphed into him writing for DC Comics.


• Swamp Screen: Designing DC's Main Monster* (HD; 20:34) is an 88 Films featurette featuring production designer Robb Wilson King.


• From Krug to Comics: How the Mainstream Shaped a Radical Genre Voice* (HD; 17:36) offers a reliably ebullient take on things from Kim Newman, in another piece done for 88 Films.


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 1:31)


• Posters and Lobby Cards Photo Gallery (HD; 1:24)


• Photos from the Film Photo Gallery (HD; 8;19)


• William Munns' Behind the Scenes Photos Photo Gallery (HD; 1:24)


• Behind the Scenes Photos by Geoffrey Rayle Photo Gallery (HD; 3:23)


• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Wes Craven. Craven is joined by moderator/questioner Sean Clark. Craven seems to have a sense of humor about the film, and no illusions about having made "Art", but he delivers a very interesting commentary that deals with some of the rigors of the shoot.


• Audio Commentary with Makeup Effects Artist William Munn. Michael Felsher hosts this commentary, which is slightly more sporadic than the Craven commentary. Munn gives some biographical data about himself, but gets into some nice detail about a bunch of the effects in the film.

MVD sent their 4K UHD release for purposes of this review, but it looks like this standalone 1080 release also features a folded mini poster and a slipcover.

Swamp Thing Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Swamp Thing is neither as scary nor as funny as it really could have been, but it's still enjoyable most of the time, aided by Barbeau's earnestness and a surprisingly well done villain turn by the ultra-suave Jourdan. Craven is still finding his directorial legs here, and the film has some pacing issues as well as a certain tonal unevenness, but this is a near perfect recreation of fifties' drive-in fare, whether that result was intended or not. This 4K UHD presentation offers a more robust palette and good improvement in detail levels from MVD's already excellent 1080 version, both discs easily outpacing the old Shout! Factory release, though the increased resolution here does offer a few obstacles as well. Audio is problem free and supplements are excellent. Recommended.