Biochemist Dr. Alec Holland developed a formula that could regenerate organic matter, but when his rival Arcane broke into his lab and tried to steal it, Holland was set on fire and dived into the swamp. Holland, who was covered in the formula when he dove into the swamp, became a mutant that were called Swamp Thing. Fast-forward in time, and Arcane is working on different experiments in his mansion together with a group of scientists on how to prolong life. One day his stepdaughter Abby Arcane shows up and gets dragged into her stepfather's sick experiments. But luckily for her, Swamp Thing is out there to make the world a better place.
The Return of Swamp Thing is a sequel to Swamp Thing, based on a comic from DC Comics. It's a humerous and at the same time a lame 80's sci-fi adventure with a young Heather Locklear falling for our green hero in the swamp. I'm actually a bit of a fan of Jim Wynorski (Chopping Mall etc) who directed this movie, not that he's a great director, but that his movies often are cheesy and campy. And campiness is something you'll find plenty of in The Return of Swamp Thing. And it's also one of those movies were the expression, so bad it's good can be used to describe it.
It's actually not a good movie, and I don't know if that expression above would be the totally correct way to describe it, it's up to you to decide. This is a movie I thought were somewhat cool many many years ago, but watching it now, it was most of the time quite embarrassing. I like Heather Locklear and I'm a huge Melrose Place fan (yeah yeah yeah, I know) but watching her here isn't actually that good. She's the best there is though, because the rest of the cast are really awful. This movie oozes of bad acting, and some of it is just horrible having to sit through. On the other hand it makes it more cheesy, and I think that if the acting would've not been as cheesy, the movie would've looked even worse. It's a campy flick, so don't expect anything else.
Thing is that Abby Arcane is obsessed with flowers and plants, well maybe not obsessed but she cares deeply for them, so it's no wonder that she falls for Swamp Thing who's covered in plants. Swamp Thing is a nice dude who used to be a biochemist, but got his lives wrecked by Abby's evil stepfather Dr. Arcane. While Arcane and his team are conducting experiments on how to prolong Arcane's life, Abby finds Swamp Thing and together they find love. But things doesn't stay nice for long, and it all makes for some predictable action.
Thing to look out for when watching The Return of Swamp Thing though is a little fat kid with red hair. There's one scene early on when he and his friend are going through the friends dad's collection of adult magazines, when suddenly a monster comes knocking on the door. This whole scene, together with the dialogue, is so extremely bad that it ends up being a whole lot of fun. The same kid are in a few scenes after that and he just brings everything down so much, it's so fun to watch. Ok that he's just a kid and while I don't wanna rack down on kids, he must be one of the worst actors of all time. He has cheese written all over him and while he's so bad you're most likely to get a headache from watching him, at the same time it's great fun.
The movie manages to have somewhat of the comic book feel to it, as well as a lame 80's comedy feel to it as well. The acting is absolutely terrible, some worse than others, and most of the time the movie's so bad it's actually a hoot to watch. Surprisningly there's no nudity at all in the movie, something that's very strange considering the fact that Wynorski directed this flick. This man is famous for having a lot of flesh shown in his movies.
I can't really recommend it since it actually sucks, but at the same time if you wanna see a really campy and cheesy movie, this is a really good pick. It's more one of those movies were you get a group of people, a fridge full of beer, turn off your brains and just have a good time.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 1989
DIRECTOR: Jim Wynorski
WRITING CREDITS: Len Wein, Bernie Wrightson
GENRE: Horror, Comedy, Sci-Fi
CAST: Heather Locklear, Louis Jourdan, Sarah Douglas
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 88 min
RATING: 5/10
Return of Swamp Thing, The Website/IMDB Click here
Return of Swamp Thing, The Trailer Click here
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