After two ’80s cult movies, two live-action TV shows and a short-lived animated series (plus numerous appearances in DC’s animated film franchise), DC Comics’ Swamp Thing is crawling out of the muck once again to terrorize theater screens with its mud and twigs in an all-new movie. But will it ever compare to Wes Craven’s original adaptation? Some would say “sure“. I say no way.
I was absolutely gobsmacked the first time I saw Wes Craven’s take on Swamp Thing back in 1982, watching it on a double feature with Super Fuzz in some rundown, creepy old theater with ripped-up seats and the permeating smell of spoiled soda spilled across a permanently sticky floor. Maybe it’s that ambiance that has me convinced Wes’s version is unbeatable. A lot of people stand by the more recent TV show. The good folks over at DC think they can do Wes one better, as a new Swamp Thing reboot movie is still moving forward under James Gunn.
James Mangold’s long-developing movie is still moving forward at DC Studios, with co-chief Peter Safran confirming that the screenplay is being written. That’s good news for fans of the moss-covered monster, but it also raises a question for horror fans who remember when Wes Craven brought the character to the big screen in 1982: can the new movie possibly be as much fun as the original?
“We’re working on it, absolutely,” Safran told Deadline. “The script is being written as we speak.”
It’s the clearest sign in a while that the project hasn’t been abandoned, though DC still hasn’t announced a production start date, cast, or theatrical release date.
Mangold, the filmmaker behind Logan and Ford v Ferrari, was attached to write and direct the movie when it was announced as part of the first chapter of James Gunn and Safran’s DC Universe, Gods and Monsters. The idea has always sounded a little different from the standard superhero blockbuster. Mangold has described his vision as a standalone Gothic horror movie about a man who is also a monster, with less interest in untangling decades of comic-book continuity than in telling a compelling horror story. That sounds an awfully lot like this week’s Clayface release, doesn’t it?
Swamp Thing is one of DC’s strangest characters, and the right filmmaker could do something genuinely creepy with a creature born from the intersection of science, nature, and the supernatural. Mangold has already shown he can bring a darker edge to a comic-book adaptation with Logan, so there’s reason to be curious about what he might do with a character who spends most of his time looking like the world’s angriest compost heap.
But there’s another hurdle: Wes Craven got there first.
Craven’s 1982 Swamp Thing is a very different beast from the solemn, prestige-flavored comic-book movie audiences might expect today. Starring Ray Wise as scientist Alec Holland and Dick Durock as the transformed Swamp Thing, the film mixes creature-feature horror with pulpy adventure. It has rubbery monsters, a memorable swamp atmosphere, and the kind of gloriously old-school genre energy that makes it easy to revisit even when the effects start showing their age.
The movie also has a place in Craven’s filmography that makes it worth remembering beyond its title character. It arrived between Deadly Blessing and A Nightmare on Elm Street, during a period when Craven was exploring different kinds of horror before Freddy Krueger became a household name. It might not be the filmmaker’s most celebrated work, but it has developed its own following among fans of offbeat comic-book horror.
The new film has an opportunity to take Swamp Thing somewhere Craven’s movie couldn’t. A modern adaptation could lean harder into the character’s body horror, his tragic transformation, and the unsettling idea of a creature that is no longer entirely human. The character’s comic-book mythology has also grown considerably over the decades, particularly through Alan Moore’s influential run, which explored Swamp Thing as something far stranger than a man in a monster suit.
Still, a bigger budget and a more serious tone won’t automatically make the new movie better. Craven’s Swamp Thing has a scrappy charm that could be difficult to replicate, especially if DC tries to turn the character into another piece of a much larger cinematic puzzle. Mangold’s stated interest in a standalone Gothic horror story is encouraging, provided the studio gives him the freedom to make something that feels like his own movie.
For now, DC is still working on the script, and the creature has yet to emerge from the development swamp. There’s no release date to circle on the calendar, and plenty could change before cameras roll. But if Mangold can capture the character’s weirdness while bringing a fresh horror sensibility to the screen, Swamp Thing might finally get the movie he deserves. Whether it can dethrone Craven’s original is another question entirely.
