When
discussing the career of Wes Craven, everyone
seems to remember the highlights: the disturbing
THE HILLS HAVE EYES (coming soon to DVD),
the truly frightening A NIGHTMARE ON ELM
STREET, the successful (but moronic) SERPENT
& THE RAINBOW, and the SCREAM franchise.
Few recall (or care to recall) that one
of Craven's most monumental failures was
the 1982 comic book adaptation SWAMP THING.
Produced at a time when superheroes
were hot, Swampie seemed an off-beat choice
for stardom. The filmmakers, however, were
confident (as was DC, Swamp Thing's comic
home) and lunchboxes, trading cards and
Underoos® were all available in anticipation
of the box office blockbuster.
Whoops! SWAMP THING –
THE MOVIE disappeared faster than you can
say "commercial disaster," and
no one ever expected him to be heard from
again (cinematically, that is).
By 1989 Swampie had made a
comeback of sorts. First in the realm of
comics, where Alan Moore's SAGA OF SWAMP
THING gave the creature a new and serious
following; and HELLBLAZER, a spin-off of
sorts featuring the creature's friend, John
Constantine. Which explains the Jim Wynorski-helmed
sequel, RETURN OF SWAMP THING which appeared
in 1989. Lo and behold, while the sequel
is close to the original film in terms of
tone, it's highly successful – and
entertaining – in its own right.
Again played by Dick Durock,
Swampie is lurking the bayous, rescuing
two young boys from a monster created by
the evil Dr. Arcane (Louis Jourdan, reprising
his role from the original). Soon entering
the picture is Arcane's stepdaughter Abigail
(Heather Locklear) who goes down to swamp
country in order to confront him with her
ill-feelings. In a stroke of "luck,"
she turns out to be an in-touch plant lover
who says early in the film, "Why can't
men be more like plants?" Hmmmm...
any idea what'll happen here?
The functional plot concerns
Arcane's search for immortality... a search
for which he requires blood samples from
various "special sources." This
basic plot and Arcane's interest in "gene
splicing" provide the opportunity for
good action scenes involving Swamp Thing
and a variety of icky monsters from the
villain's lab.
Jourdan again steals the flick
thanks to his villainous role, and Durock
delivers a very good performance (in a far
superior costume than in the original) as
the lead character; but the roles that really
make the film work are those from the supporting
characters, especially the fat little white
kid/skinny little black kid team, and the
interplay between Joey Segal and Wynorski
regular Monique Gabrielle as members of
the Arcane security team.
If you're a fan of Craven's
original film (as I am) as well as Wynorski's
work, be sure to give RETURN OF a try. Fun,
packed with alot of bloodless action and
well-paced, ROST is an entertaining sequel
that I never expected to see. In fact, it
even spawned a USA Network television series
that ran from 1990 to 1993 also starring
Durock.
