The Hidden (1987)
“Oh boy, we’re talking spacemen here?”
Directed by Jack Sholder
Written by Jim Kouf
Starring Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Nouri, Claudia Christian, Clarence Felder, and fast cars
The Stage.
An alien being has come to planet Earth with only two goals - to listen to rock music and go on crime sprees. It does this by taking over peoples bodies, upgrading to new hosts when necessary. A cop and a weird FBI agent are on the case, trying to figure out why normal, law abiding citizens are going nuts all of a sudden.
The Review.
Late 80’s sci-fi movies can be very hit or miss, especially when you get to the Blockbuster bottom shelf style titles, but The Hidden is actually pretty great. For starters, the film never slows down. It plants us directly into the middle of a bank heist via CCTV as a man with a shotgun starts blowing people away. He then calmly walks to a Ferrari parked out front and pops in a rock cassette before smashing the gas and all of a sudden, we’re in a car chase. This alien being wants to have fun causing chaos, it’s like it’s straight out of the Grand Theft Auto video game series. The film rarely slows down from this breakneck pace as the alien jumps from body to body, inhabiting everyone from middle aged men to a stripper. With a plot as bizarre as this, it would be easy to bungle the ending, but the final act of this film is awesome. As I mentioned before, the film never really takes it’s foot off the gas, but it really turns it up to eleven in the last twenty minutes.
The main cop is the least interesting part of the film, which holds it back from truly being great. He’s boring and sort of mean spirited, making the payoff near the end of the film fall a bit short. I think it would have been great to see a different dynamic at play. Kyle MacLachlan plays Lloyd Gallagher, an FBI agent who inserts himself into the investigation. He’s awkward and weird, but clearly knows more than the cops about what’s going on. I thought his character was endearing in a unique way as the sweater started to unravel and you finally realize what’s going on.
The End.
The Hidden was an awesome sci-fi surprise that’s easy to recommend. The film is pretty smart despite it’s bonkers concept, looks great, has cool music, awesome cars, and the action just never lets up. This film is a blast.
