The Hidden

🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿

🎙️ EPISODE 217: 12.24.19 *Review starts @ ~ 10:20 HEAVY METAL BUG ALIEN. The Hidden is, at face value, a gritty 80s shoot 'em up, car chase aplenty around Los Angeles popcorn flick with sci-fi elements, and yet it miraculously ends up being more than the sum of its parts (and there are a decent amount of parts!). Sure, there is plenty of the type of cheese that rings the ole nostalgia bell: the forced odd couple/cop partner buddy dynamic, strippers with blown-out hair, the black guy being able to make the trash can basketball shot and the white guy missing it. There's plenty of over-the-top gratuitous violence (a random guy in a wheelchair is sent flying to his death by a runaway Ferrari) and babes but no nudity (can't have that! it's rated R but not a hard R, wink wink).

Kyle MacLachlan plays an FBI agent that's actually more Dune than Dale Cooper. This is a spoiler review but, honestly, the movie is not shy about spoiling itself: ten minutes in we get the reveal that our enemy is not human. Rather, a demented giant bug alien (half fly, half slug?) is crawling in and out of "hosts" and wreaking immense havoc in the form of mass murder, luxury car theft and some serial killer type stuff that honestly isn’t ever explained. And it’s all set to a rip-roaring heavy metal / hard rock soundtrack, which it procures by, you guessed it, shoplifting. This reveal of our antagonist is purposeful; it's not the secret they're trying to withhold. So then my one main gripe with the flick, I suppose, would be that that OTHER secret isn't too well HIDDEN either. 😬

That MacLachlan is also an alien is practically shoved down the audience's throat before it's actually disclosed at the beginning of the final act. I didn't mind it. Sometimes, it feels good to know you're right, to know where you're heading. Where this movie succeeds is in its craft, hitting all the action movie beats (yes, that flamethrower WILL come in handy later) and actors selling the hell out of the wacky premise. Michael Nouri, as MacLachlan's human foil, is perfect in the scene-it-all, hardened cop mode, and character actors abound in strong performances along the periphery, holding together the house of cards which is the greater plot; it's all secondary to the singular, in-the-moment dynamics, FX and set-pieces.

This movie is a nice, under-the-radar find. (Well, not that under-the-radar as it was a modest success upon release, and has been re-released on DVD and Blu-ray.) It's not good in the way bad movies of this era/genre are good because it's actually wellmade. It's just good. And I'd expect nothing less from the director of Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999) – it’s on my list!

Lastly, I found the ending fascinating. I'm not sure if it was purposefully ambiguous or it just feels that way because they were trying to keep this puppy under 100 minutes long. Does MacLachlan inhabit Nouri's body or does he use his alien energy to save him, thus killing himself? (Also, I'm not sure they would be nextdoor neighbors at the hospital after the latter just killed a Senator with a flamethrower and shot a bug alien with a laser beam after it emerged from the charred body of said Senator, but that's neither here nor there.) MacLachlan's previous admiration for his pal's family could lead us to read this ending either way. I think I'd lean in favor of this being a sacrifice to save his new human friend, but I'm not sure. What I am sure of is this: The Hidden is a good, weird 80s action/sci-fi flick that's worth your time if good, weird 80s action/sci-fi flicks are something you might be into.

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 217B - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 218A ⫸

---