User Reviews

'The Hidden' is one of those movies you might easily pass by on first glance, assuming it's just your standard 1980s b-grade trash. The thing is it's FANTASTIC 1980s b-grade trash! This is one of the most entertaining sci fi thrillers you'll ever see, and lovers of cinematic violence will be thrilled by its body count, which is one of the highest you'll see outside a Hong Kong action movie. Michael Nouri ('Flashdance'... yeah, I know) is a cop tailing an average guy who has seemingly snapped and turned into a homicidal maniac. He is teamed with a kooky FBI agent ('Blue Velvet's Kyle MacLachlan) who knows a lot more than he lets on. Very quickly Kyle goes all 'Starman' on us, and Nouri soon realizes that he's actually on the trail of an extraterrestrial psycho who is taking over people's bodies so he can go on a rampage of murder, car theft, fatty foods and heavy metal music! So okay, this isn't the most cerebral movie in the world but I defy anybody not to have a ball watching it! The supporting cast includes Claudia Christian ('Babylon 5') as a foxy looking stripper, Clu Gulager ('The Killers') as Nouri's superior, and even a blink and you'll miss it cameo from future tough guy legend Danny Trejo ('From Dusk Til Dawn',etc.) as a convict. 'The Hidden' is a non-stop action ride, and the cheesiest 1980s fun this side of 'Maniac Cop'. Highly recommended.

The Hidden is a movie that should embarrass a lot of people. Everyone who's ever made some stupid, crappy, sci-fi action flick filled with lame characters, lifeless dialog and a plot that would insult the intelligence of a labradoodle should watch this film and be ashamed.

Tom Beck (Michael Nouri) is a Los Angeles detective confronted with an unusual crime spree. A seemingly law abiding citizen has committed a rash of robberies and murders. After one final bank robbery and a high speed chase, Beck and the other cops blast the suspect with shotguns and blow up his car. But as he lies dying in the hospital, the suspect just sits up as though nothing is wrong. He goes over to the man in the next bed, props open his mouth, and a disgusting black creature crawls out of the suspect and into the other man. The suspect collapses dead and the other man sits up and despite serious illness, walks out of the hospital and starts his own crime spree. Beck teams up with an oddly serene FBI agent named Lloyd Gallagher (Kyle MacLachlan) and discovers that the murdering criminal he's chasing is an alien that possesses other creatures to take whatever he wants and kill anyone who gets in his way.

This is a very good piece of entertainment. Most of the 1980s power rock music in it hasn't aged well but other than that, there's very little wrong and a lot right with it.

To begin with, it's a genuinely clever idea. "Alien who comes to Earth to make trouble" is an old standby, but explaining why he's here and what he does by casting him as a simple criminal motivated by base desires is really clever. It grounds the sci-fi aspects of the story in something real and also elevates the "cop vs. crook" action story elements and takes them in a new direction.

The writing lives up to the potential of that concept. It creates a lean, fast moving story and logically moves from point to point with an absolute minimum of exposition. Too many movies are filled with characters telling you what's going on in the story. Like all really good films, The Hidden shows you what's going on. You can see what the characters are like by how the behave, not what they say. And it doesn't explicitly explain everything that happens in the story. It gives you just enough information and allows the audience to figure stuff out for themselves. The writing also gives the characters enough to do besides serving the plot to flesh them out as real people, without being obvious about it.

The acting in The Hidden is also quite noteworthy. Michael Nouri plays the heroic cop to a tee without lapsing into self-aware parody or trying to make the guy smarter or tougher than a real cop would be. The audience also knows a lot more about what's going on than Tom Beck does and Nouri handles that challenge perfectly. It's awful easy for a character to come off as stupid when the story allows the audience to be a step or two ahead of him, but Nouri keeps you engaged with Beck and concerned about him even though you know things he hasn't figured out. The Hidden also features one of the great performances of Kyle MacLachlan's career. I'm not sure anyone's ever played alien impersonating a human quite this well, behaving just differently enough to be noticeable but still letting relatable and understandable emotions come through. William Boyett also deserves praise as he spends the most time on screen portraying the evil alien in a human body. Again, he manages to be just enough off from a normal person to be noticeable without being over the top. He's also charged with telling us things about the alien through his actions instead of words and he pulls it off.

Another noteworthy part of The Hidden is its level of restraint. Yes, there are bloody shootings, explosions, strippers with shotguns, hideously burned corpses and disgusting alien slugs but this isn't a movie that's trying to shock you. It's not about going over the top or assaulting you with craziness and disturbing imagery. It has a certain subtlety to it, which is not something you often find in sci-fi action flicks. Though, the fact it's probably the only R rated movie in history to have a scene in a strip club where the stripper never takes off her shirt is taking that whole subtlety thing too far.

The Hidden proves that a film about an alien slug who loves fast cars, loud music and goes on a killing spree in Los Angeles can be just as smart and as good as any other movie. It doesn't use the fact that it's science-fiction as an excuse to suck.

I wrote the following three paragraphs and then scanned some of the reviews....only to find everyone else saying pretty much the same thing as I had written, namely that this movie is a hidden gem and enormously entertaining. Well, add my name to the list of admirers.

Here's a low-grade sci-fi/crime story that is amazingly entertaining. It's a fast- paced account of normal people taking turns being inhabited by an alien being and suddenly turning into out-of-control killing machines. It guess it kind of sounds dumb, but seeing it is better than describing it. The characters in here are wild.

Kyle MacLachlan plays his normal mid-80s strange character, a la Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, etc. Here, he is the FBI agent....or is he?

On the first viewing I found Michael Nouri's role as too abrasive, taking away from some of the fun of viewing this, but, in future viewings he was more tolerable. What also helps this film is a little bit of humor thrown in here and there. It will probably wind up as a cult classic.

Sholder's allegorical B-movie offers unblinking aliens, loud rock music, car chases, and the presence of Kyle MacLachlan together with a quiet, emotional core. It's the sort of film that gives low budget science fiction a good name, one that effortlessly combines a sharp view of society together with the brisk pace of 'The Terminator' (1984)

At one level, 'The Hidden' is a film about acquisition, by implication digging at the American Dream. The aliens acquire human bodies, much as humans might go shopping, casually discarding one form for another when it is worn out or no longer wanted. The possessed Jonathan P. Miller sees a ghetto blaster on display, takes it after clubbing the salesman to death. A little later on, after viewing the Ferrari just sold to a arms and antique dealer, he states glibly 'I want that car'. Its new owner has just mused 'Do I trade in my Mercedes or just hang on to it?' (his white suit ironically anticipating imminent mortality.) Later, in his final incarnation as Senator Holt,like a child who has made its mind up, the alien can announce just as decidedly and without any sense of irony 'I want to be President'. Power in American politics can be 'bought' just as easily as a cassette player, its accession just an impulsive decision by the strong. Apart from the scheming necessary to exchange bodies, what is most disturbing about this invasion is its relative guilelessness, how the alien 'Sees something. He takes it.' Other SF films might offer up a plan to be defeated; 'The Hidden' replaces galactic conquest with ghastly cupidity.

Kyle MacLachlan makes an excellent Lloyd Gallagher, a weird 'FBI' presence instantly suggesting that of Agent Dale Cooper, whom he was to play 3 years later. MacLachlan had previously only appeared in two other Lynch productions : 'Dune' (1984) and, more notably, 'Blue Velvet' (1986). Sholder was quick to take advantage of MacLachlan's quirkiness and androgynous appearance, ideal for a part in which ambivalence and social disorientation are essential. There's a faint echo too of 'The Man Who Fell to Earth' (1976) in this character separated from his loved ones, a lonely survivor on Earth.

The title of 'The Hidden' refers most obviously to the invader lurking within humans, only emerging to swop bodies. But there's something else, equally hard to see, and only gradually expressed: the emotional link which binds kind and kin. The recognition of these ties is one of the film's most rewarding aspects. Beck's home and family life are both a new, and a familiar, experience to Gallagher. His question 'Your little girl. She is very special to you?' is both naïve and affirmative, a means to assign the value of such relationships in a way initially quite lost on Beck. 'Gallagher's melancholia predominates during his visit to the Detective's home (despite the humorous nature of his indigestion). His sense of loss, which overshadows so much of his mood is only finally resolved in the last scene, as 'Beck' is welcomed back to life by his daughter.

Men, a woman, even a dog, are all possessed by the alien before it ends up as the Senator. Both the bespectacled de Vries ('that Jack - kinda quiet. What'd he do? Rob a bank?') and the sedentary Miller are ostensible squares, mild-mannered citizens whose ensuing transgressions are completely out of character. Even the police Lieutenant, one of the alien's last victims, apparently lives alone with his dog. Their violent actions are faintly ludicrous, even to the point of raising nervous laughter. When Miller smashes the radio playing 'I believe in sunshine', after glaring at it with alien incredulity for a long moments, it invariably raises a chuckle in the audience, as does his belching in the diner. Far more of a frisson is created by the take-over of the stripper. Her already aggressive on-stage sexuality, and existing control over the patrons has been supplemented by something far more dangerous. To a (largely male?) audience, this is female empowerment brought home with a vengeance, her cool return of the gaze unnerving.

Sholder's uneven career contains at least one other good film. 12:01 (1993) is an effective and amusing variation on the 'Groundhog Day' theme co-starring Martin Landau. Others are best passed over in silence. It may well be that and 'The Hidden' will remain his best work, as they still play well and remains fresh on repeated viewings. A sequel to the present film followed, by a different director, but it was not in the same league.

This starts out with a bang, literally, and doesn't let up for the entire film. The picture zips along, whether with speedy car chases or interesting suspense, keeping the audience on their toes. We can credit director Sholder for keeping things exciting but I also suspect this was one those scripts that wasn't tampered with much (which is as it should be for most scripts, but isn't in Hollywood). For sheer level of entertainment as a sci-fi thriller, this approaches Terminator (84) - the one to beat. Some of the premise is similar, featuring an unstoppable menace. You're always guaranteed an adrenaline rush with scenes of cops firing their weapons repeatedly at someone who just won't fall down; they may slow him or it down, perhaps stagger it, but in the end they need something more than just bullets.

This pic represents a fortunate confluence of personnel and events. The two lead actors, MacLachlin & Nouri, had just reached their respective peaks in their careers and both were at the top of their game (both careers went into downswing afterward but it can't be blamed on this film). In fact, I'd venture that this film contains both their best roles. Nouri is the strong-willed earth-man cop and MacLachlan takes full advantage of his unusual persona to play an alien visitor (sort of like Jeff Bridges in "Starman"/1984, but Bridges had to try harder). The supporting cast are all great too, with many having to play two versions of themselves. Who can forget Christian as an exotic dancer suddenly gone gun-crazy? There's a lot of inherent humor in such scenes. The best and most memorable must be the one with Boyett acquiring a Ferrari in his own alien style. Just unforgettable.

Unfortunately, there was a forgettable and quite awful sequel several years later. But this remains one of the most unique, vivid alien visitor/invader films of the eighties and nineties.

A series of bizarre, unusual crimes are committed by seemingly ordinary citizens of Los Angeles. L. A. Police Detective (Micheal Nouri) is totally baffled by these strange crimes. When a mysterious FBI Agent (Kyle MacLachlan) is helping the police detective with these inexplicable robberies and murders but not telling the detective that it is a demonic extraterrestrial creature is invading the bodies of everyday citizens and transforming them into inhuman killers.

Directed by Jack Sholder (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2:Freddy's Revenge, Wishmaster 2:Evil Never Dies, Alone in the Dark) made a entertaining, wildly violent, kinetic, sci-fi action/thriller that is even touching with a sense a humor. This independent film has high production values and it was made with a budget of under $5 million. This was a Small Hit for then independent studio:New Line Cinema. MacLachlan and Nouri are good in the film.

DVD has an fine anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) transfer (Also in Pan & Scan) with an digitally remastered-Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound (Also in the original mono Sound). DVD has an running commentary track by the director and fan/friend of the filmmaker:Tim Hunter (River's Edge). DVD also has unused footage, never seen before special effects production footage with narration from the director and the original theatrical trailer. The film has become a Cult Classic and it is also one of the most underrated films of the 1980's. This film is a fast, violent, edge of your seat thrill ride. Written by Bob Hunt (Hunt-who is actually screenwriter:Jim Kouf). Kouf is best known for his screenplay of "The Stakeout Films" and the little seen "Gang Related". Terrific music score by Micheal Convertino. (**** ½/*****).