I’ve said two or three times that Jack Sholder‘s The Hidden (slithery monster aliens invading and taking over bodies of human hosts) should be remade. It’s too good and too hilarious of a premise to not rework it somehow. It came out nearly 35 years ago, which means that most Millennials and Zoomers have barely heard of it, much less seen.

On 3.5.18, or roughly three and a half years ago, I suggested that one way to remake The Hidden would be to blend it with This Gun For Hire. Use an early ’40s milieu and shoot it in black and white within a 1.37:1 aspect ratio, but with slimey, squishy monsters living inside the traitors.

I haven’t thought through the particulars, but the basic character would still be the half-psychopathic, half-sympathetic hit man Raven (Alan Ladd‘s role), and he’s been hired to rub someone out. But once he gets wind of a certain cabal of alien-controlled governmental figures his arc changes…he’s still a shady loner but in a pivotal position, and non-alienized cops begin to consider the possibility that he’s not the malevolent figure they had him pegged as.

Plus I love the concept of black-and-white CG monsters. To me that’s ice cream, cake and syrup. There were two or three monster-glimpse moments in The Lighthouse (King Triton, mermaid, demonic seagull) that really turned me on, and the idea of a ’40s monster noir in 1.37 feels delicious. I realize that 98% of the audience regards black-and-white CG as a fringe appetite at best. I still love it. This Gun For Hire With Monsters could be made for a price.