Capital Celluloid 2018 - Day 78: Mon Mar 19

The Hidden (Sholder, 1987): Institute of Light, 7pm


This film is screened by Science Fiction Theatre, a monthly film club dedicated to classic sci-fi movies. Before the film, author and critic Tom Huddleston will examine where the film sits in the esteemed canon of inventive and offbeat 80s genre cinema, the career of maverick director Jack Sholder, and the prophetic typecasting of Kyle MacLachlan as an oddball FBI agent two years before the release of Twin Peaks.


Time Out review:
A fast-paced, blackly comic sci-fi thriller about a power-hungry alien organism which invades the bodies of law-abiding citizens and transforms them into deranged criminals with a penchant for fast cars, blasting rock music, and violent anti-social behaviour. When a respectable businessman robs a bank, guns down the security guards, and crashes into a road block, LA cop Michael Nouri thinks it's all over. But at the hospital, the inciting organism slips into a neighbouring patient, who then continues the previous host's crime spree. Forced to team up with FBI cop Kyle MacLachlan, Nouri's frustration is exacerbated by his new partner's quirky behaviour and air of debauched stillness. Created by ace SFX man Kevin Yagher, the organism is a classic (mostly kept hidden); the developing relationship between the two cops is nicely handled; and there's a neat twist concerning the origins of MacLachlan's vendetta against the organism. Powered by a driving rock score, this is by turns sleek, reckless, and smoothly effective, like a Ferrari with a psycho killer at the wheel.
Nigel Floyd
 

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