As a 7-year-old boy, I had a lot of guilty pleasures. Astro Pops candy. Digging up worms in the backyard. And the movie, Swamp Thing. Bear in mind that I’m aware that Swamp Thing isn’t really that good and I always forget that the man who directed A Nightmare On Elm Street (Wes Craven) directed it, but it’s the definition of a guilty pleasure to me. Of course as an impressionable young boy, Adrienne Barbeau’s breasts in the movie didn’t hurt in the pleasure department.
We’re talking creepy shit in this post though, and believe it or not – Swamp Thing actually gave me the creeps. It’s one scene in particular, where our villain Arcane (Louis Jourdan) drinks the magic potion and proceeds to turn into a hairy life-size He-Man character. It’s before he gets all hairy though where the creep factor was really in full effect.
Yeah – that Arcane monster costume is pretty ridiculous. But focus on what happened in the clip before he got to that point. The blood running down in his face while his hands are bubbling and smoking. The Harry Manfredini spooky soundtrack full of eerie strings. It’s creepy shit. And I’m not afraid to admit that it still kind of makes me shudder. You know what doesn’t make me shudder though?