Originally appearing in comic book form from creator Steve Gerber (who also thought up Howard The Duck, a character part of its own movie disaster in 1986), Man-Thing was Marvel Comics' answer to rival company DC's Swamp Thing. While the latter was made into a campy B-movie in 1982 by director Wes Craven, it look twenty years before Man-Thing would be adapted into a movie under the direction of Lawnmower Man helmer Brett Leonard. Originally slated to be released into theatres, distributor Lions Gate shelved the movie before unceremoniously dumping it straight to home video (and it's easy to see why since, really, the movie has limited mass appeal).

Not that things don't get off to one Hell of a start as two partying twenty-something's sneak off into the swamp during a party in order to make-out only for the boyfriend to be dragged away by some unseen monster while his girl lies in the boat naked, screaming, and splattered with his blood. This brings in transplanted city boy turned small town sheriff Kyle Williams (Matthew Le Nevez) who has decided to investigate a rash of deaths in his county when invading oil tycoon Schist (Jack Thompson) and his minions start to disappear.

Seems the residents of the town of Baywater don't like Schist raping and pillaging their land for profit and soon Sheriff Williams learns about a part of the swamps called "The Dark Water" where an organic creature thought to be summoned by Natives dwells. There's also a few sloppy subplots with La Nevez's character becoming interested with schoolteacher Teri (Rachael Taylor) and his search for eccentric local Rene (Steve Bastoni), a French-Native who hides out in the swamps and is the top of the suspect list.

Of course, this being a horror movie, it turns out to be all the work of the aforementioned creature that is a towering mess of plant-life with glowing red eyes and some deadly vines that like to snake out and wrap around its victims. This leads to a final showdown between man and beast.

While director Leonard does a decent top of capturing the feel of our backwater town location and he keeps things moving for the first half, Man-Thing soon loses momentum before closing with a junky finale (that does, however, give us a pleasing demise of the main human baddie). It also doesn't help that the script by Hans Rodionoff (who showed promise with 1998's Sucker: The Vampire) is as half-assed as they tend to come. Rodionoff has loaded his script with plenty of underdeveloped Native American mumbo jumbo, weak scenes of characters walking aimlessly through swamps, those pointless sub-plots, and (in what are the two biggest problems) thin character development and not enough Man-Thing action.

Sure, the dark locations add some mild mood to the proceedings and there's a few alright quick glimpses of bloodshed (and one cool "rip into pieces" moment), but it's not nearly enough to keep Man-Thing that interesting. Which is really too bad since the movie plays out much more seriously than Swamp Thing did, although I suspect if they'd of attempt to throw in a little bit more humour than they did, it would've been a good thing. (Chris Hartley, 12/11/05)

Directed By: Brett Leonard.
Written By: Hans Rodionoff.

Starring: Matthew Le Nevez, Rachael Taylor, Rawiri Paratene, Steve Bastoni.