Greetings, and welcome back to Horror Business. We’ve got one heck of an episode in store for you guys as we’re talking about 1987’s The Hidden and 2021’s Significant Other.
First off thank you to the fine folks over at Lehigh Valley Apparel Creations, the premiere screen-printing company of the Lehigh Valley. Chris Reject and his merry band of miscreants are ready to work with you to bring to life your vision of a t-shirt for your business, band, project, or whatever else it is you need represented by a shirt, sweater, pin, or coozy. Head on over to www.xlvacx.com to check them out. And as always thank you to our Patreon subscribers. Your support means the world to us and we are eternally thankful. If you would like to become a Patron, head to patreon.com/cinepunx. Thanks in advance!
We briefly talk what we’ve doing involving horror recently. Liam talks about reading The Snowman. Justin talks about a few of the films he watched for the Fantasia International Film Festival, as well as the film Saccharine and a screening of the 1988 version of The Blob at the Mahoning Drive In.
Up first is The Hidden. We talk about how the film is the essential late 80’s cop/action film but instead of merely flirting with horror elements it openly embracing them by having the antagonist being a body hopping alien addicted to the human experience. Liam brings up the phenomenon of loving a movie as a kid but being disappointed by it as an adult and how this movie avoids them.
Justin talks about how the film also openly embraces every late 80’s cultural trope in addition to cop movie tropes. We discuss how the film is the quintessential “one in the morning on HBO back in the day” film. The film’s flirtation with the “LA at night”/neon slime subgenre is discussed.
We talk about how the film is a rare example of a cop’s excessive actions is realistically depicted when a paramedic questions why a victim was shot fifteen times. Liam talks about the film using the tension of the good alien being found out as a source of anxiety.
We talk about the somewhat weak narrative that the one cops daughter knowing Kyle McLaughlin’s character is an alien actually brings the movie down a notch. We briefly talk about how the sequel likely sucks and the film being an example of something that kind of fell flat when it first came out but later found a wider audience. Justin talks about how his only real problem with the film is how the bad alien is revealed too early.
Up next is Significant Other. Justin talks about how the film’s twist is what makes it initially watchable and knowing that twist kind of takes away from the film and how the film is an example of the trope where aliens cannot comprehend the concept of love and laments not enjoying the film as much the second time around.
Liam talks about how he forgot that he had seen it initially and that the twist comes right when he was becoming overwhelmingly annoyed with the character, and how the concept of the alien as a “frustrated actor” was compelling.
We talk about how one of the film’s shortcomings is that it doesn’t explore the concept of aliens that are so different from humanity that they don’t understand love. We further dissect the concept of empathy as an alien idea.
As always thank you for listening and to everyone and anyone who donated on Patreon, checked this episode out, or shared a tweet/shared a post on FB/gave us love by recommending us to someone. We love you forever for listening and donating. Any questions, comments, suggestions for movies and guests, or if you yourself want to join us for a movie viewing or even an episode, can be sent to
[email protected]. We would love to hear from you! Thanks always to Justin Miller, Jacob Roberts, Paul Sharkey, and Doug Tilley for their technical contributions and fliers, Mike Smaczylo for the shirts and fliers (you can check more of his work out at here), and also thanks to Josh Alvarez for the theme song, Chris, Brad, and LVAC for the support and buttons (check them out at www.xlvacx.com and on Twitter), and a HUGE thank you to anyone who retweeted us or shared something on Facebook that we posted. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @thehorrorbiz666, like us on Facebook at facebook.com/thehorrorbiz66, check out our Spotify account at Cinepunx, and remember to rate, review, and subscribe to us on ITunes. In fact, if you write us a review, email us with your mailing address and we’ll send you some free pins and stickers! Check out www.cinepunx.com for more info on some of our other podcasts, some ultra-stylish Cinepunx related merchandise, and how you can donate to our Patreon! Until next time…thanks!
