[TV Terrors] Remembering the Early ’90s “Swamp Thing” Series
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Horror and science fiction have always been a part of the television canvas, and constant attempts have been made over the years to produce classic entertainment. Some have fallen by the wayside, while others became mainstream phenomena. With “TV Terrors,” we take a look back at the many genre efforts from the 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s, exploring some shows that became cult classics, and others that sank in to obscurity.
This week we take a look back at… Swamp Thing.
- Aired from 1990-1993
- Aired on USA Network
“The swamp is my world. It is who I am. It is what I am. I was once a man. I know the evil men do. Do not bring your evil here, I warn you. Beware the wrath of… Swamp Thing!”
We’re reaching a new era in streaming television where it’s becoming so much easier to bring our favorite comic book heroes to the small screen. With the fascination with horror reaching an all time high, DC and Vertigo’s Swamp Thing is one of the many characters tapped to make a return in the coming years. With the anticipation for the modern revival, it’s easy to forget that the eighties was a decade where Swamp Thing was able to thrive, for better and for worse.
Alan Moore made his debut in comics by reviving Swamp Thing for a new generation of readers for the Vertigo label. In 1982, Wes Craven brought the character to the big screen in a horror and action hybrid that is considered a cult classic. In 1989, Jim Wynorski brought us a campier and sillier follow up co-starring a young Heather Locklear. In 1990, we were treated to the titular Swamp guardian getting his very own basic cable series.
For all the live action portrayals, both small and big screen, stunt man and actor Dick Durok took up the mantle of the character, playing the monster to whatever the order of the day was. Thankfully Durok’s charming personality and frank delivery of the character allowed Swamp Thing to become a sympathetic and enigmatic hero every single time. Whether played for laughs or creeps, Swamp Thing was always the protector of the swamp. Originally airing on the USA Network, my own introduction to the series began with the Scifi Channel in America back in 1994.
Much like the first two films, the series itself is a huge missed opportunity that can never be sure how to approach the character. To its credit, the series lasted almost a hundred episodes, however during its run it was retooled drastically fourteen episodes into the first season. From there the series progressed from a supernatural drama to more of an anthology based series with Swamp Thing confronting various villains and nemeses.
What made “Swamp Thing” so utterly abysmal is that the titular monster is shockingly just a side character in his own series. While we do get bits and pieces about the origin of the character, including flashbacks to his days as a human and his rivalry with the evil Dr. Arcane, Swamp Thing is mainly reduced to a supporting player. “Swamp Thing” watches a lot like the typical eighties dramas where he’s handed a kid sidekick, something happens near the swamp, and the character is forced to step in at the last minute. And everything has to happen near or in the swamp, lest the character be rendered useless in his own show.
Swamp Thing, for all his amazing powers, barely does much of anything until the very last second. The rest of the time he’s basically standing in the distance, watching people, and muttering to himself on what to do next. Most people know by now that the shooting schedules for television series rely on rapid fire filming, and cutting corners whenever possible. This provides problems for “Swamp Thing” since the series relies on the make up heavy character that (according to interviews) took forty five minutes to apply. Not to mention there’s the revelation of other mutants bred from Dr. Arcane. If anything the series at least brings mutants back, all of whom are products of the evil Dr. Arcane, as played by the slimy but charming Mark Lindsay Chapman.
I dare you not to stare at his massive hair band mane. His purpose relies on trying to get the formula for immortality that Swamp Thing’s human form perfected, and he comes up with various schemes for obtaining it. This would allow for a great hook, but again, Swamp Thing is reduced to being nothing more than a bit player and often just a sentient observer. Even the character’s portrayal is confused and muddled at times, where he at one moment manages to befriend a local boy named Jim who lives with his single mother near the swamp; the next he’s stopping a thug in his territory by using his powers to encase the man in a tree in cold blood. The times Swamp Thing is able to come forward and stomp heads with other mutants, it’s pretty anti-climactic.
The series has all the right pieces but never quite knows how to put them together to form a coherent narrative and arc. Plot lines are unresolved, characters disappear during seasons with little explanation, and Swamp Thing’s powers are inconsistent at best. We’re also given little clarity in the realm of how he bonded with the swamp, why he clings to the swamp, why he has to protect it and his struggle with his own humanity. Sans commercials, every episode clocked in at twenty minutes, and a lot of the story and character drama felt like tacked on fat to a fairly paper thin series of episodes. If anything I love that the producers were hell bent on keeping the tone of the series dramatic with a heavy leaning on the supernatural, and Dick Durok is my favorite portrayal of Swamp Thing yet.
It’s just a shame none of this matters since only about ten episodes contain meaty forward progression in Swamp Thing’s arc. With the retooling fourteen episodes in, young Jim is literally hauled off to be a child slave, while we’re introduced to a young buxom Kari Wuhrer who plays Abbey Crane. She’s another of Arcane’s experiments who works with Swamp Thing to stop the mad scientist. This change allowed for more adult and mature tones, but still never quite fixed the lack of focus, and glacial pacing of every episode.
Despite the quality of the series, “Swamp Thing” still garners a respectable cult following and thrived for years on cable, jumping from USA to the Scifi Channel, where it played for years, and so on. In 1991, there was even a short lived animated series that played Saturday Mornings which tried hard to make the character a kid friendly hero. The character of Swamp Thing can be great in the right hands and with enough respect to the mythos; in spite of the spooky opening credits, the serious never quite got supernatural enough. With the James Wan-fueled, live action adaptation coming up the pipeline, perhaps we’ll get something more in line with Alan Moore’s legendary revival. The door is wide open for a weird, creepy, and intense series.
Is It On DVD/Blu-Ray? The entire series is still in print on DVD, and you can also grab the series in two separate volumes. You can also stream episodes on various websites including Amazon. The precursor “The Return of Swamp Thing” was recently re-released on a deluxe edition blu-ray from the “MVD Rewind Collection.
Editorials
‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel
The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.
The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.
Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.
With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).
It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.
The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.
The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.
Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.
Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.
Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.
The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.
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