My Blu Ray Picks for 10/3: The Hidden and Popcorn

I love the month of October. Every year, there always seems to be a lot of forgotten horror gems that make their way to blu ray just in time for Halloween. This week we have two making their blu ray debut.

The Hidden

Two years before playing quirky FBI agent Dale Cooper on Twin Peaks, Kyle MacLachlan played another odd FBI agent in the terrific 1987 horror/sci fi flick The Hidden. He is on the trail of an alien who jumps from body to body in pursuit of the nicer things in life, money, fast cars, and loud music. And this alien also loves to murder anyone who gets in his way. MacLachlan enlists the help of a skeptical LA Police detective, Michael Nouri, to help hi track down the other worldly criminal before he kills again.

This is a fun and solid movie from director Jack Sholder. MacLachlan is terrific and injects some much needed humor into the proceedings. He and Nouri have a nice chemistry that also works in the films favor.

This is a smart thriller that is able to rise above what could have been conventional.

Popcorn

Back in 1991, I was into my first year of being a film major. That same year, a little horror film about film majors being killed off one by one named Popcorn was released. I'll admit, I wasn't crazy about it on my first viewing. Mainly because all of the students in it were obnoxious morons. But upon repeat viewings, this clever thriller grew on me. Plus I was realizing that a lot of film majors are pompous jerks.

The classmates of a struggling film department decide to have a fundraiser by showing an all night horror film marathon at a creepy old movie theater. And wouldn't you know it, there's a killer on the loose who targets an aspiring screenwriter, Jill Schoelen. Her classmates, and teachers, become victims as the killer gets closer to his prey. It's up to Schoelen, who has issues of her own, to figure out just who the murderer is.

This one has a lot of laughs and plenty of nods to the classic horror films. Schoelen is terrific and is aided by a game cast of familiar faces that include Tom Villard, Dee Wallace Stone, Tony Roberts, and Ray Walston.

It's a clever mix of classic horror and the slasher genre with it's tongue planted in it's cheek.