The Hidden is an alien attack movie that wraps its unearthly arms around 1980s film trends and gives them a potentially sloppy bear hug.
While definitely a sci-fi action thriller, it’s a mishmash of other builds that lets the genre pieces land wherever they tumble. Elements of horror seep in, and because it is 1987, the film is also a buddy cop-ish actioner.
But while fiddling through genres is fun, its premise and spirit set it apart.
Most alien films’ antagonists are here for our natural resources or humanity’s enslavement.
The berserker visitor in The Hidden is a demented space bro. It would rather just crank up the stereo, take what it wants, and kill anyone that gets in the way.
You could think of the movie like an alien in human skin going full Grand Theft Auto on our world (and since it’s the 80s, the Vice City kind).
Released by New Line Cinema and directed by horror director Jack Sholder (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge), the film was a modest box office success and gathered primarily favorable reviews.
But rather than deliver a quiet profit and fade into the cinema graveyard, the long arms of the internet bring quiet corners murmuring that The Hidden once again needs to see the light of day.
That’s because the picture isn’t just an exhibition of full-auto hijinks and nonstop explosions.
There’s something a bit smarter here that audiences have latched onto.
So is The Hidden a good movie?
The Plot of The Hidden:
When a formerly law-abiding citizen, Jack DeVries (Chris Mulkey), goes on a killing spree, Sergeant Tom Beck (Michael Nouri) and his partners mortally wound him in pursuit.
Soon, mysterious FBI Agent Lloyd Gallagher (Kyle MacLachlan) arrives at the police station, inquiring about DeVries’s whereabouts and demanding to be taken to him.
Before Agent Gallagher reaches DeVries, the suspect passes away.
Meanwhile, DeVries’s former hospital roommate, Jonathan Miller (William Boyett), begins a killing spree of his own.
Can Beck and Agent Gallagher uncover the new killer’s motives and stop his murderous rampage? And what is Agent Gallagher withholding from Beck?
The Rest of the Main Cast Includes:
- Claudia Christian as Brenda Lee Van Buren
- Clu Gulager as Lt. Ed Flynn
- Clarence Felder as Lt. John Masterson
- Ed O’Ross as Det. Cliff Willis
- Larry Cedar as Det. Brem
- Richard Brooks as Det. Sanchez
- Katherine Cannon as Barbara Beck
- John McCann as Senator Holt
Fun Fact: The legendary Danny Trejo (Machete) has a cameo in the film as an inmate, popping up only to immediately get shot. This adds to the actor’s supposedly record-setting long list of on-screen deaths.
What’s Working Well Here:
Forget the Brakes, +3 Points
Led by the evil alien, who doesn’t take a day or night off from pillage and murder, there is an ever-forward thrust to the film.
Yet the screenplay manages to take little side roads, like Beck inviting Agent Gallagher over for dinner, to fill out its characters and introduce setups and payoffs.
Like any good thriller, the stakes keep climbing. The evil lifeform must take on a new host once its current body is out of go juice or too full of bullets to continue, giving it little mini-missions along the way.
At one point it turns from hunted to hunter, and it finds a host that could be a game-changer for the whole planet, if taken.
It’s a well-structured script that balances action and drama all along the way.
We’ve Got Everything, +3 Points
The film is like a checklist of desirables for an 80s action movie. There are car chases, a bank robbery, and plenty of shootouts. A lot of squibs go off because what 80s action film doesn’t explode many of those.
And the practical effects of the snail-like alien, in the rare glimpses we get of it as they change hosts, still convince.
Mighty Fine Possessed Player Continuity, +3 Points
You have to give credit to all the actors who play the alien’s possessed humans.
It’s like there was a coordinated meeting of everyone involved to get the facial expressions and subtle cues of demented, altered life. They each act plain-faced, with something enjoying itself behind the eyes. And it’s never oversold. There’s a continuity of a handful of actors here, and that’s a feat.
Kyle MacLachlan also performs excellently as the other alien (it’s not a spoiler — the movie clues you into this early). He’s only a bit off, unlike a Starman going full fake bird. It’s enough that you, the audience, immediately suspect his otherworldly orientation but not so much that you wonder why Beck and the other cops aren’t picking up on it.
I also enjoy Michael Nouri as Beck. He’s a little crass but only that little bit. A little hardass but, again, only a little bit. A little family man but only so much. It leads to him being a little less cliche than he could be.
The film and performance also avoid other cliches. Beck’s definitely one of the boys, who shoots some improvised basketball with his chums and drops his heavy police files on one of his subordinate’s desks when it’s too much work for him.
But he’s soft-voiced with his wife and daughter. He doesn’t seem to disregard nutrition or have a drinking problem or lack of protocol. So he’s not that loose cannon, I-don’t-play-by-the-rules cop you’re used to.
In all these ways, he fits but goes against that grizzled detective type.
Teammates More than Polar Opposite Buddies, +1 Point
I want to give the movie credit in that, though it’s not a straight buddy-cop vehicle, the light buddy-cop pairing of Gallagher and Beck is more interesting in its contrast than most of these films are.
Many buddy-cop films are as unapologetically unsubtle as an episode of Wife Swap. They just go for the throat of the obvious conflict. They might pair a racist cop with a criminal who is a person of color (48 Hrs.) or a young headcase with a by-the-book veteran (Lethal Weapon).
Here, it’s more about Beck’s incredulous reactions to Gallagher’s alien revelations, which is genuine to the story and less about a gimmick.
Please Note: I’m not crapping on 48 Hrs. or Lethal Weapon here, just citing what makes this different.
What’s Not Working So Well Here:
Well, What is it Then? – 2 Points
With an alien on one rudeass holiday, stealing Ferraris, and blasting metal and rock all movie, there’s a definitive upbeat and somewhat carefree vibe going on here.
Yet, a consumer skewer message is leaking through the sci-fi cracks for a minute.
As a crass businessman openly snorts coke with a car salesperson, lifting the powder from the trunk of a model Ferrari in the salesman’s office, you think you’re getting a critique transmission.
Or not. Because any social commentary that was about to come isn’t followed up.
It’s also the film where the alien, now in the body of a stripper, literally screws a man to death (it’s not revealed biologically how this actually kills). Soon, the now-she gets fond of….fondling her own newfound cleavage.
But we don’t stay with lighter moments like these, mostly sticking to action/horror vibes.
The tonal swerving makes the movie unique. But you wonder why the filmmakers didn’t take a step further and commit to a more significant thematic idea. Pulling off a critique or commentary could have elevated it above pure entertainment.
Or they had that in there and it got cut. You never know.
Either way, it could have helped.
All the Tools but What’s Sharp? -2 Points
While there are a variety of action scenes, you can’t put your finger on one as a standout trademark of the movie. All the action is around that 6- or 7-out-of-10 fare.
That’s still competence, but I wanted that little bit more stamp of authority that says, “This is The Hidden’s trademark set piece.”
The alien sapien will wreck everyone who unassumingly treats it like a mortal sapien, but that’s not played up like the movie’s calling card.
Oh, Who Didn’t See That Shit Coming? -1 Point
**Spoiler Alert Here**
I’m only docking a point here because you could argue this is nitpicking.
But this is my review; so we’re doing it.
There’s a scene where you absolutely know this moment of expositional dialogue is happening so that this random-ass device will come back later in the film for some purpose.
I begrudgingly give every movie a pass for one expositional detour or happenstance. Writing is hard; sometimes you need your hero to stumble onto a clue, etc., to keep your plot warm.
Still, it’s best to bury this need a little into the actual fabric of the story.
For example, Ripley demonstrates her ass-kicking wielding of a Power Loader in Aliens early in the picture. The moment serves the character. She shows the space marines that she’s not a helpless weakling and just as tough as they are.
Later in the story, when Ripley climbs inside a loader to battle the queen alien, it is established that she can drive it so that the audience isn’t scratching their heads, taken out of the movie’s flow.
But The Hidden’s not-so-hidden weapon plant was so evident and left-field it rankled. From nowhere, some of Beck’s cop subordinates walk up to show him the flamethrower they confiscated, just so we know it’s around for later.
Another oddity is that Gallagher carries around a Ray gun, apparently the only thing that can destroy his enemy- the snail thing.
But from looking at the slimy creep, who is only a few feet long and one foot high, you’re pretty confident he’s the type of baddie Duke Nukem would happily crush under his boot. Do we really have to bring ray guns into this? I wasn’t sold.
Should I Watch The Hidden?
Total Arbitrary Points Score: 5 Points
You’ll have no doubts they built The Hidden in the 80s. And it’s not just the practical effects or buddy-cop vibes.
Forget all-out planetary conquest or secretly blending in. This alien baddie is like a space frat boy. It’s just a nasty dude from outer space who wants to party on this playground we call Earth.
Part horror, science fiction, thriller, and all action, there’s a surprisingly well-balanced mix going on here.
But while the film is different and its execution wholly competent, I can’t say it has jaw-dropping potential in any one aspect that, for me, demands viewing or revisiting.
I’d say it’s a movie worth remembering by those who saw it but not memorable to cult or classic film history.
So if you want to see a solid 80s sci-fi action film, enjoy. If you only plunk down for the true vintage classics, you can look elsewhere.
The Hidden’s Legacy:
So what would we say is The Hidden’s legacy?
Well, at the 1988 Saturn Awards, Michael Nouri got the nod for best actor, Jack Sholder for best director, and Jim Kouf for best writing. And the film was nominated for best science-fiction film.
But since that time, I can’t say that anything overly notable has come out to crown the movie. It’s almost like its title, The Hidden, is a metaphor for its standing.
But like I have said in this review, people who have seen it do continue to enjoy it, or those that have found it, like myself. I don’t know that I would consider it a big cult film, more a minor one.
From what I can find, it was featured on The Criterion Collection’s Criterion Movie Club, with a watch-along with Kyle MacLachlan himself. So there are fans.
There was a direct-to-video sequel, The Hidden II, released in 1993.
It doesn’t have the same cast, but strangely one of the lead characters is named MacLachlan and the detective Beck character returns, though played by an actor named Michael Welden this time.
Considering the sequel’s 3.1 rating right now on IMDB, 2.6 on Letterboxd, and 17% on Rotten Tomatoes, yeah, I don’t think I’ll be diving in here.
Even though The Hidden didn’t turn out to be a big hit, Director Jack Sholder’s Wikipedia page says he was in pretty good standing in Hollywood after it since so many people in the industry liked it.
He continued making movies but none that I can claim to have seen or know much about, which is really too bad. I’ve definitely heard of Alone in the Dark 1982 and A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge that he made before this movie, though.
You could say Kyle MacLachlan, who played Agent Gallagher, showed his ability to play an interesting FBI agent before he was on the TV show Twin Peaks. But the late, great David Lynch already knew him anyway from Blue Velvet and Dune 1984. So I can’t say that playing Agent Gallagher led to his casting.
MacLachlan, of course, continued his career, which is still going strong. He appeared in TV shows like Sex in the City and was the hilarious mayor of Portland in Portlandia.
And he’s been in many more films, like 1991’s The Doors, 1994’s The Flintstones, and 1995’s Showgirls as well as voice acting in Pixar’s Inside Out, Inside Out 2.
Michael Nouri, who played Detective Beck, continued acting in films but none that I really recognize. He is more well-known for his work on TV. He’s been on All My Children, The O.C., NCIS, and Yellowstone, to name a few. He also has a daytime Emmy nomination.
I can’t prove this, but I have a theory that people with really suave curly hair like Michael Nouri had in this movie just play well on TV. Don’t ask me for the data on that because I don’t have it. But I really think so.
Well, enough hair theories. That’s all I got. Thanks for reading.
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Disclaimer:
This review’s factual information was gathered through online sources, like Wikipedia, IMDB, or interviews. Misrepresentations and errors are possible but unintentional.
Making art is hard. This is a fan’s blog. Any criticisms are meant to be constructive.
