You may know him as Tom Kirkman, the Designated Survivor who takes the highest seat in the U.S landscape. It’s like a flipped Man in the High Tower. In THIS reality, Trump doesn’t win and an Independent candidate works to provide proper housing and health care for his people in order to make the world a slightly less god awful place.
But who Kiefer Sutherland really is, is a God of Halloween.
Let me explain…
He’s already dressed up in your favourite Halloween costume.
No. I’m not talking about the times he played a white supremacist. This is not a free pass to dress as a white supremacist. Any of them. I shouldn’t have to tell you this, but the stupid is strong on the Internet and I know you’re better than this.
From the Three Musketeers (a movie that proves that in the 90’s we had very different ideas of what a ‘kids film’ is meant to have in it because the word ”whoring”) to cowboys (which are basically Musketeers but with different weapons), to soldiers, FBI agents and 80’s criminals.
He’s been the best action hero that didn’t save the day at Nakatomi Tower, TWICE. Once as John Bauer in 24 and again as Snake in Metal Gear Solid V.
He’s even played a Mage, by being the voice of Rastlin in Dragonlance.
“Oh, wait, you forgot the time he played a Roman senator in Pompeii“, you might be thinking. No, no I did not forget that. Though not for lack of trying.
His movies are on your Halloween binge list.
In Mirrors he’s a disgraced cop, just trying to face his inner demons, only to end up looking into mirrors and discovering there’s some demons in there as well.
Dark City is about serial killer/supernatural men in black coats and Kiefer Sutherland’s character Dr P Schreber who is quite literally a homage to the original Schreber, famous for documenting his own mental break down as he was having it.
Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me is one of the creepiest movies you’re ever going to watch and not fully understand. And there’s good ol’ Kief, pointing out the hypocrisy of society in its attitudes towards drugs. Also David Bowie was in that film, as was the law at the time.
Monsters Vs Aliens. Yeah, okay you know not all Halloween movies have to be scary, they can just be escapes into another world for a few hours. Because why be scared watching a movie when you can just literally look at your Twitter feed and see the word burning one update at a time?
Vampires.
You thought I’d forgotten about Lost Boys, didn’t you? No. I would never forget about Lost Boys. Long before vampires sparkled and also that time Antonio Banderas was one, there was Lost Boys.
It would be five more years before the Buffy movie staked a place in our hearts and two years after that we’d have Interview with a Vampire hit our screens. But I like to think that this love of vampires was reawakened with this 80’s masterpiece of music, special effects and biting skulls.
Sure, Kiefer Sutherland might not look like the classic God of Halloween on the surface, but that is the genius of it.