With today’s plethora of super hero films, it is hard to imagine that DC’s Swamp Thing was the second adaptation after Superman to hit the silver screen, seven year’s before Tim Burton’s Batman.
Obviously, Swampy didn’t receive the same love (or budget) from the parent companies, but it did succeed in getting another comic to the screen and helped raise fan recognition for Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson’s monster before Alan Moore’s reinvention less than two year’s later.
MVD Rewind Collection’s Swamp Thing hauls Wes Craven’s adaptation from the Southern weeds and gives fans a deluxe package that no one could have imagined back in 1982.
The new edition also includes both the original PG version of the film and the unrated, international version which features more Adrienne Barbeau than some viewers would have expected in the PG release back in the day. Having both versions available in one set is a first, and a definite selling point for completists and Barbeau aficionados.
The improvement in terms of the picture quality immediately stands out, and both of MVD’s 1080 and 2160 presentations are from the new restoration work. With B-movies like Swamp Thing, you aren’t looking for a Stanley Kubrick level of attention to detail or quality, but the film certainly looks better than any version than has previously existed. There are some scenes that drop in quality due to the original source material, but overall, the restoration makes Swamp Thing look like a more expensive film.
In addition to the improvement in picture and sound quality, the MVD release contains many of the previous bonus features from Shout Factory’s 2013 version, offering hours on bonus archival footage, commentary, and interviews. Some highlights include: audio commentaries with Craven and an additional commentary track with makeup effects artist William Munns, the “Tales From the Swamp” and “Hey Jude” featurettes with Barbeau and Reggie Batt respectively, and a conversation entitled “That Swamp Thing” with Wein.
The two disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray LaserVision Edition retails for $49.95 and the one disc Blu-ray MVD Rewind Collector’s Edition retails for $39.95.
Both editions also come with a mini-poster of Richard Hescox’s original one-sheet.
