philosoraptor42

The Hidden (1987)

A very dated 80s sci-fi action film about an alien that causes havoc by stealing cars and murdering anyone who stands in his way.

Kyle MacLachlan, who was Altreides in the movie "Dune", plays the FBI agent who is investigating. However he may be more than he seems, claiming early on to be able to read minds.

The film never seems quite sure whether it wants aliens to seem wholly other or whether they want a cartoonish world where aliens live just like us. I could just about accept an alien having a wife, not least since we are never expected to think marriages work the exact same way on other planets. However, when two aliens are talking together in English about the alien detective being in the intergalactic police force and working with a partner, I found my suspension of disbelief was sorely tested.

Another problem I had was when our central baddie possesses the body of a stripper. The alien had previously been aggressively heterosexual, yet as a stripper about the only thing which seemed to change was sexuality. As a stripper the alien feels rather more one-note than before and the very decision that, of all women, it should be possessing a stripper seems a bit dodgy. It's also pretty strange when the alien-possessed stripper seems to be discovering her breasts straight after having sex with a guy. Wouldn't those have been kind of obvious prior to that point?

Still the central characters are cool and the film is generally pretty fun. Also there's a pretty cool early appearance from Danny Trejo (though blink and you'll miss it).

What's perhaps most frustrating about the "The Hidden" is the number of points where it seemed to suggest more interesting ideas and then entirely fail to explore them or even, in some cases, actively undermining those ideas. On the one hand the film seemed to pose a more darker almost Lovecraftian tale where human systems are undermined by a far greater power than their own. Yet on the other hand, there was clear influence from the fluffy "Close Encounters" glowy-aliens aesthetic, whereby we need not worry since the most powerful aliens are pretty nice really.

At one point I thought the alien detective was actually considering giving up the chase entirely. At that point I was briefly quite impressed by the direction the film had taken. But unfortunately this isn't that sort of film. It's silly nonsense and in spite of a few hints at something better still to come, this ends up being fairly predictable. I didn't hate it, but it was missing something. Without that 'something' the film remained pretty bland.

C+