Light spoilers follow for Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Fallen.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day brings Peter Parker into a notably grounded story before Avengers: Doomsday arrives later this year. Its most disturbing idea is not simply a new physical threat, but an enemy capable of moving between minds and turning familiar people into potential dangers.
That fear is bigger than superhero fiction. What happens when the person facing you is no longer in control of themselves? The concept has appeared in films such as Get Out and Obsession, but Gregory Hoblit’s 1998 neo-noir thriller Fallen remains one of its most unnerving treatments. For more entertainment features, browse RETROCADE’s arcade blog.
A detective story with an impossible suspect
Fallen stars Denzel Washington as Philadelphia homicide detective John Hobbes. The film begins after Hobbes helps apprehend Edgar Reese, a brutal serial killer played by Elias Koteas. Reese is awaiting execution, yet he seems strangely confident as he is taken to the gas chamber.
On the way inside, Reese speaks in unfamiliar languages and gives Hobbes a smile that suggests he knows something no one else can understand. He even sings the Rolling Stones’ “Time Is on My Side” with unsettling calm. Reese eventually dies, leaving Hobbes to believe the case is finally over.
Then the murders start again.
As Hobbes investigates, the evidence refuses to behave like an ordinary copycat case. Witnesses describe suspects differently, people who should be strangers act as though they know Hobbes, and cryptic clues appear along the trail. His investigation gradually points towards an ancient evil that sits beyond conventional police work—and perhaps beyond logic itself.
Washington’s quiet, compelling performance
Washington’s work here is often overlooked beside more immediately celebrated films including Training Day, Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, The Bone Collector and Pelican Brief. That is a shame, because Hobbes is one of his most engaging detective characters.
Hobbes is intelligent, compassionate and relentlessly curious. Those qualities make him an effective investigator, but they also drive him deeper into a mystery that refuses to follow the rules he understands. His determination to identify the real enemy gives the film its emotional centre, making the growing paranoia feel personal rather than merely supernatural.
When noir turns into existential horror
Director Gregory Hoblit introduces the supernatural through the structure of a police procedural. Screenwriter Nicholas Kazan draws on the fatalism of classic noir, including Double Indemnity (1944), The Big Sleep (1946) and Out of the Past (1947).
The result is a mystery that patiently gathers contradictions before revealing the scale of the threat. By the time Fallen explains its supernatural premise, the audience is already invested in the investigation. The otherworldly elements do not replace the detective story; they corrupt its assumptions.
The film’s most frightening device is its body-hopping. The entity can take control of almost anyone: a passer-by, a stranger on a train, a key witness, a close friend or even Hobbes’ cat. Every public space becomes potentially hostile because any ordinary person might suddenly become a vessel for violence.
That makes Fallen feel closer to existential horror than conventional monster cinema. The danger is not a creature that can be confronted, but the possibility that nobody around you is truly safe—or truly themselves.
A late-1990s thriller that found its audience later
The film also shares a mood with the Japanese horror wave of the era. It does not use the same folklore or imagery as Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure or Pulse, yet all three films find terror in an invisible force spreading through everyday life.
Initial critical reception was poor, with Fallen holding a 43% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences have been more receptive over time. Its blend of noir, supernatural horror and biblical mythology did not fit neatly into the expectations surrounding late-1990s genre cinema, but that unusual combination is precisely what makes it distinctive now.
Why it belongs beside Brand New Day
Spider-Man: Brand New Day uses mind-hopping as a superhero challenge, while Fallen removes the spectacle and treats the same broad idea as an assault on identity. In Hoblit’s film, psychic intrusion is not an impressive power. It is a violation that makes a crowded room feel threatening.
That premise also explains why Fallen remains useful inspiration for anyone interested in suspense, interactive storytelling and games built around uncertainty. RETROCADE readers can find more viewing ideas in the site’s arcade videos collection, or explore the arcade machine buying guide when planning a dedicated entertainment space.
Nearly three decades after its release, Fallen stands as more than an underappreciated detective film. It is a carefully paced study of paranoia, built around the terrifying thought that an enemy may not need to kill you to defeat you—they may only need to take away your sense of self.
Fallen is currently streaming on Netflix.
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