THE sweet-natured horror film Swamp Thing (Pearl, 9.35pm) is based on the DC comic strip of the same name and is not half as bad as it sounds. It was good enough, in fact, to give rise to a sequel called The Return of the Swamp Thing and to a cable television series.
It is set deep in the South Carolina bayou, where a scientist (Ray Wise) and his sister are working in a secret government laboratory. They are experimenting with orchids to develop a plant cell with an animal nucleus. Why they are doing this is not clear, but it is also not especially important.
What is important is that the evil genius Arcane (Louis Jourdan) wants to get his hands on the mutant orchids. His efforts to steal the formula are thwarted, but in the process it is spilled on poor old Wise, and he turns into walking vegetation, a cross between Grizzly Adams and a Waldorf salad.
Wise is more vegetable than human, but his mind is still intact. He continues to love Adrienne Barbeau from afar, while vowing ghastly revenge on Arcane.
If this sounds like a load of old baloney, that's probably because it is. But it's also good, clean fun. Director Wes Craven had his tongue firmly in his cheek. As you watch it, so should you.
IN THE Rocky films Sylvester Stallone reached the limit of his acting talents. Comedy, as he demonstrated in Oscar, is not his forte, and neither is real drama, as he demonstrates in Norman Jewison's F.I.S.T. (World, 9.35pm). Here Sly is called upon to do more than posture and fails.
Jewison, director of notables such as Moonstruck, knew he was taking a gamble casting Sly in a serious role - as a Hoffa-like union kingpin (in the film Hoffa, Jack Nicholson, despite his ego getting in the way, did a much better job of a very similar role).
