During the 1980s, filmmakers managed to make some of the best sci-fi movies without having much special effects. Look at the first Back to the Future or the first Terminator.
Even then, we knew that a lot of special effects are just eye candy if the story isn’t well made. There are a number of campy and crappy sci-fi movies that were released during this era that have been long forgotten. I had to laugh in 2002’s The Ring where there is a VHS copy of Yor, the Hunter from the Future on a shelf. And with the new Masters of the Universe trailer, we’ve come a long way from the atrocious mess that was the 1987 version.
People went in expecting to see He-Man battle Skeletor on Eternia. Instead, we got a story about a young Courtney Cox in a California town. The make-up and special effects were on par with Ed Wood style of filmmaking. That might be why a movie like The Hidden has remained a cult classic decades later.
It mixes action with sci-fi and horror. And for the most part, you only see the alien creature about half a minute of screen time. The movie, like The Terminator, is basically a pseudo-slasher and was produced and released through New Line Cinema back when Freddy was still helping build the house.
It starts off with a CCTV footage of a man, Jack DeVries (Chris Mulkey) robbing a Los Angeles Wells Fargo bank and shooting the security guards. He escapes into a Ferrari and leads the police on a high-speed chase for many miles hitting whomever comes in his way. That is before he comes upon a barricade of police who open fire on him stop his spree which we’re told has been ongoing for about two weeks.
Sent to a hospital with no chance of surviving, DeVries wakes up and goes to the middle-aged man, Jonathan Miller (William Boyett), lying in the bed next to him. And he opens his mouth and out comes a black slug-like creature that moves into Miller’s mouth. Hospital officials find DeVries lying on the floor and Miller gone.
Sgt. Tom Beck (Michael Nouri) is visited at his desk by Lloyd Gallagher (Kyle Maclachlan), who claims he’s with the FBI. But Beck is apprehensive. Gallagher seems too young to be a FBI field agent and says he’s been tracking DeVries over many cities for months.
We also suspect something is off about Gallagher. Maclachlan would later use this character style as part of his iconic role as Agent Dale Cooper on Twin Peaks. He looks very serious but seems to have some bewilderment to little things.
You would probably suspect that Gallagher is some form of alien himself the way he is unfamiliar with how Alka-Seltzer tablets work and tells Beck he stole a Porsche he is driving. However, Beck thinks he’s joking and just thinks Gallagher is another college-boy fed overstepping his jurisdiction. It turns out that the alien creature that is body hopping from DeVries’ body to Miller’s is responsible for the death of Gallagher’s family.
It always puzzles me how a slug creature could master intergalactic travel, but I’m going to presume the aliens act as a parasite so they travel by switching through other alien bodies. I find it funny that the alien Gallagher is chasing likes Ferraris while he is driving a Porsche. They also enjoy loud heavy metal music. Maybe it’s because their species doesn’t have these item. Or it might be because they know they can’t be killed while they’re in human bodies so why not indulge their vices?
And that’s what they do. Unfortunately, Miller’s host body is dying as he was having heart problems. One of the movie’s best sequence is when the alien hops into the body of Brenda Lee Van Buren (Claudia Christian), an erotic dancer. She picks up a sleazy fan who she then proceeds to have sex with until he dies. How this happens I don’t know as most of it happens off screen and we just hear the characters. The notion that the alien may have some bisexual feelings could’ve been deeper explored as a species that has no genders the way humans know.
This was one of Christian’s first roles before she would go on to appear in Babylon 5 where she would build a bigger fan base. The casting itself is impressive for the era. Clu Gulager has a supporting role as a police lieutenant. The late actor had a career resurgence during the 1980s thanks to horror movies. Danny Trejo makes an appearance in one scene as a jail inmate who is shot and killed. Mulkey would later appear on Twin Peaks as well as in other movies and TV shows.
Lin Shaye appears in a few scenes as an assistant to Senator Holt (John McCann). The movie’s poster art gives away a huge twist as Ed O’Ross is featured in a crucial role as Det. Cliff Willis, a close friend/colleague to Beck.
But mostly, director Jack Sholder, who had previously directed the second Nightmare on Elm Street and the cult slasher movie Alone in the Dark, knows what audiences want. Since the alien can’t be killed while in the host bodies, they are constantly being shot at. There’s a lot of gunplay and violence as well as explosions.
The Hidden wasn’t given a big enough release but still managed to make more than half of its $4.5 million budget. It found its audience on cable and the home video market as well as for the casting of people who would go on to appear in bigger movies and TV shows.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 