Saturday, October 14, 2017

Underrated Science Fiction/Horror Gems--"The Hidden"

     "The Hidden" is a 1987 film that did alright at the box office, and got okay to good reviews (currently IMDB has it at a 7.0 rating).  But, obviously since I'm writing about it using the title that I did, I don't think it has received the acclaim it deserves.  As is my usual practice, I'll open with a general summary, followed by a longer, spoiler-rich synopsis.  And then I'll close with some discussion about some of the movie's themes and some info about the filmmakers and cast.
     The people of Los Angeles seem to be going mad.  One by one, regular, law-abiding citizens are committing violent armed robberies, and murdering anyone who gets in their way.  Detective Thomas Beck is unable to piece together the mystery, and the connection between all the perpetrators.  An FBI agent, Lloyd Gallagher, partners up with Beck, as he's been investigating these murderers for some time.  Alas, the odd Gallagher isn't very helpful, and seems to be holding back vital information about the crimes.  The bodies keep piling up.  Finally, a speech by a Senator running for President leads to a stunning, unbelievable climax.
     (SPOILERS AHEAD UNTIL NOTED!)  "The Hidden" opens at a bank robbery in progress.  We see a trench coated man murder several people, grab a bag of money, and then go on a long car chase, which only ends after he's been shot several times and severely burned in an explosion.  The police learn that this man is Jack DeVries, described by neighbors as a normal, quiet, decent man.  DeVries has killed 12 people (including 2 children), and wounded 23 others, and robbed multiple banks and stores.  At the police station a young looking FBI agent, Lloyd Gallagher, announces he's looking for DeVries.  Back at the hospital, the mortally wounded DeVries approaches another patient.  A disgusting 2-3 foot long slug-like creature emerges from DeVries and enters the other man's body through his mouth.  This man, Miller, then abruptly leaves, just ahead of Gallagher.  We next see Miller in a music store, shoplifting cassette tapes.  When confronted by a clerk Miller brutally murders him, steals a gun from the cash register, and leaves.  Gallagher and Beck quickly establish that Miller is indeed the perpetrator.  Next, Miller discovers a local Ferrari dealership, and takes a shine to one of their cars.  To get it Miller murders 3 more people, including a shady customer who just bought the car that Miller steals.  Miller goes to the customer's business, an import company, and there discovers a huge stash of guns and other weapons.
     Beck invites Gallagher to his home for dinner.  Lloyd acts strangely in the presence of Beck's wife, Barbara, and their young daughter Juliet.  He then passes out after drinking some alcohol.  Meanwhile, Miller goes to a strip club.  We see his adopted body is in bad shape, as he's bleeding heavily, and clearly the alien possessing him needs to switch hosts soon.  He does so, possessing Brenda, one of the strippers.  The police arrive at the strip club and find Miller's corpse, and are on the lookout for the missing Brenda.  She's down the block, having violent sex with a local man in his car.  She kills him, and steals the car.  Beck and Gallagher chase her, and a crash traps her at a mannequin factory.  They appear to kill her, although it takes about 15 bullets and a fall off the roof to do so.  The alien quickly possesses Lt. Masterson's dog, and thus escapes, before Gallagher can get to Brenda's body.  Later that night, it leaves the dog and jumps into Masterson's body.  By this point Beck is frustrated by Gallagher, and has him arrested.  A check with the Seattle FBI reveals that Agent Gallagher is dead, and that a man named Stone has stolen Gallagher's identity.  During an interrogation, Stone tells Beck that he's an alien, and that they're chasing another, evil alien that can take over people's bodies.  Beck doesn't believe this story, and has Stone returned to a jail cell.
    The next morning a police lab worker activates Stone's weird alien weapon, which causes an explosion.  Masterson hears the commotion, and forces Beck at gunpoint to take him to Stone.  Along the way he confirms Stone's story about their alien natures.  After a gunfight, Masterson is mortally wounded, but manages to flee and possess Detective Willis before Stone and Beck can catch up with him.  Willis then goes to the building where Senator Holt is giving a speech.  After another gun battle Beck is shot and severely wounded, and Willis is shot up, but manages to possess Holt's body before Stone can stop him.  During Holt's speech, when Holt announces his intention to run for President, Stone is able to destroy the Senator's body with a flamethrower, although he's shot several times.  Then, Stone kills the alien as everybody sees it emerge from Holt's mouth.  In a hospital, Stone goes to Beck, and witnesses him die.  He then possesses Beck's body, and greets Barbara and Juliet.
     One of the first things that struck me about "The Hidden" is how it was another take on the cliche about the two opposite cops forced to partner up, that eventually become friends.  To be fair to the movie, in 1987 it wasn't as hoary a cliche, but it had been done before, obviously.  But this film's version is, I think, still satisfying.  I enjoyed the back and forth between the frustrated human Beck and the alien Gallagher (aka Stone, and Alhague).  Gallagher has an endearing child-like quality to him, as he happily admits to stealing his Porsche, and doesn't know how to take Alka Seltzer or aspirin.  And Beck is appropriately sympathetic--from his point of view this case makes no sense, and it's clear that Gallagher isn't being straight with him.  And then when Gallagher finally is honest with him, he answer is even more seemingly crazy.
     I found the concept of an alien that can jump from body to body, hiding itself, an intriguing one.  How do you fight a killer that can do this?  I found it reminiscent of another movie I discussed on this blog, "Fallen" (see September 6, 2012 post).  (Technically "The Hidden" predates "Fallen," so maybe the latter was influenced by the former.)  Although the movie geek in me is curious--Gallagher says his gun is the only thing that can kill the evil alien, but is this true?  It appears to have a soft, fleshy, tangible body.  Wouldn't bullets, or blades, or fire wound and even kill it, if you were quick enough to attack while it was in the middle of switching bodies?  Or even when it's inside a host, wouldn't enough bullets eventually hit the alien body within the host body?  Surely it has vital areas--a brain (or the equivalent), circulatory system, digestive system, etc.  I know, I know, it's a movie, and they wanted to set up that only the good alien's laser gun could kill it, but I question that.
     Another aspect of "The Hidden" reminded me of "Alien," and its sequels.  And that is, simply, oral rape.  Both the evil alien, and Alhague/Gallagher/Stone enter their host via the mouth.  The former's is a revolting, tentacled slug forcing its way into the victim's body, while the latter's is a yellow light, but the avenue is the same.  (Also, perhaps importantly, the evil alien enters people who are still alive, while we only see Alhague possess Beck after Beck dies.)  Plus it leads to questions about the invaded person.  Once this happens, are they then permanently dead?  Gallagher says that "the real" Masterson is dead, but is this so?  The evil alien uses its host's bodies harshly, going along until it's too shot up and mortally damaged before switching to a new one.  But if, say, Masterson was caught, and securely bound, could you induce the alien to leave his healthy body, and thus have the real Masterson then revive in his own body?  Also, were the hosts conscious, at any level, about what the evil alien possessor was making their bodies do?  If so, that's a terrifying concept.  To be trapped, helpless, while your body commits terrible crimes and atrocities--how unsettling.  It's like another movie stereotype, the violent split personality.  Your body is robbing and murdering people, but the real you is innocent.  But no one will ever believe the truth....
     Then there's the ending.  I find this extremely disturbing.  Because, as presented, it appears that Alhague/Gallagher/Stone is going to appropriate Beck's identity.  We hear him admit that the evil alien killed his partner, wife, and daughter.  So it appears that he's simply going to adopt Beck's family as a replacement.  Which is, obviously, a terrible idea.  He's an alien--he knows the basics of human society, but certain mundane things elude him.  Plus a huge one--Beck's memories.  There's no evidence that the possessing alien gains the host's knowledge.  Some examples are that the evil alien doesn't know where Gallagher is, and where the Senator's speech is being held, even though his host, Masterson, knew these things.  We've already seen how shaky Gallagher is at convincingly playing a human--how will he ever portray Beck to Beck's wife, or his daughter, or his friends and colleagues?  He won't be able to.  Even if he tries to secretly learn about Beck's life and opinions, etc., he'll be tripping up and making mistakes constantly.  So his wife (and colleagues, etc.) will naturally believe the only rational explanation--his coma from the bullet wound damaged his brain, and changed his personality.  (This all assumes that Alhague doesn't come clean about the details of the alien, even after many people saw it emerge from Holt--but I think it's safe to assume Alhague will keep this secret, given his personality and history.)  So they'll tolerate it, because they have to--"In sickness and in health" after all, but secretly, they'll know something is wrong, and not completely accept it.  And then the guilt hits, from apparently rejecting your spouse because he suffered a wound while doing his job.  Barbara Beck will be unhappy, and frustrated, and guilty, so how can this marriage be a healthy one?  Her subconscious will know that this "Thomas Beck" isn't the "real" Thomas Beck, but she can't really admit this.  (Again, assuming the real details of the evil alien, and then Alhague, weren't made clear to the police, etc.)  Beck's colleagues and friends will go through this too, to a lesser degree, and also his daughter.  In short, if Alhague tries to recreate his family, using humans, he's being incredibly selfish, and is deluding himself if he thinks this will work on any level.  The only decent thing thing to do is possess Beck's body long enough to say a nice goodbye to Barbara and Juliet, and then let Beck's body die, and switch into another person's body, and/or leave Earth.  (Furthermore, if Barbara does learn that aliens can possess people's bodies, she's going to suspect Alhague is inhabiting Beck's body really quickly, and will quite naturally be furious about this.  The lying, deception, rape by trickery, etc. would clearly be monstrously unacceptable to anyone.)  After I wrote this, I checked the plot description of the movie's sequel, "The Hidden II," which was released direct-to-video in 1993.  (It's also very poorly regarded, with a 2.7 score on IMDB, with many poor reviews.)  In it Alhague has indeed continued to inhabit Beck's body, and his relationship with his family is limited and dysfunctional.  It's been at least 15 years, and Juliet is now a cop, investigating the evil alien's children, grown from eggs that the original one hid long ago.
     (END SPOILERS--SAFE FOR ALL READERS)  As for the filmmakers and cast, most of them had limited careers, or continued to work as character actors, often in smaller films and television.  Director Jack Sholder is probably best known for "Alone in the Dark" (1982, not to be confused with the Uwe Boll video game adaptation disaster), "A Nightmare on Elm Street 2:  Freddy's Revenge" (1985), "Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies" (1999), and "Beeper" (2002).  He's currently a stage and screen teacher at Western Carolina University.  Writer Jim Kouf (he used the alias Bob Hunt for "The Hidden"), wrote "Class" (1983), "Up the Creek" (1984), "Stakeout" (1987) "Rush Hour" (1998), and "National Treasure" (2004), among others.  Surely the best known of the people involved with "The Hidden" was star actor Kyle McLachlan, who played Gallagher/Stone/Alhague.  He's known for roles in "Dune" (1984), "Blue Velvet" (1986), "The Doors" (1991), "Showgirls" (1995), "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Part 2" (2008), and in television shows like "Twin Peaks," "Sex and the City," and "Desperate Housewives."  Michael Nouri, who played Thomas Beck, appeared in "Flashdance" (1983), "Finding Forrester" (2000), "The Terminal" (2004), "The Proposal" (2009), and "The Squeeze" (2015), among others.  The actress who played Barbara Beck, Katherine Cannon, is best known for roles in "Private Duty Nurses" (1971), "Women in Chains" (1972) and on television's "Beverly Hills 90210" in the 1990's.  Claudia Christian, who played the stripper Brenda, was also in "Clean and Sober" (1988), "Hexed" (1993), and on TV's "Babylon 5" in the 1990's.  Chris Mulkey ("Jack DeVries") was in films such as "First Blood" (1982), "48 Hrs" (1982), "Dreamscape" (1984), "Behind Enemy Lines" (1997). "Cloverfield" (2008), and "The Purge" (2013).  Richard Brooks ("Detective Sanchez") was also in "Teen Wolf" (1985), "Shocker" (1989), and the television show "Law & Order" in the late 1990's/early 2000's.  Clarence Felder, who played Lt. Masterson, is probably best known for roles in "After Hours" (1985), "Ruthless People" (1987), and "A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child" (1989).  The actor who played Lt. Flynn, Clu Gulager, is known for films such as "The Killers" (1964), "Shaft" (1974), "The Return of the Living Dead" (1985), "A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge" (1985), and "Piranha 3DD" (2012).  Finally, Danny Trejo has a tiny, blink-and-you'll-miss-it, role as a prisoner.  Trejo has been in dozens (hundreds?) of movies, including "Desperado" (1995), "From Dusk til Dawn" (1996), the "Spy Kids" series (started in 2001), and as the title character in "Machete" (2010) and "Machete Kills" (2013).
     All in all then, "The Hidden" is an entertaining sci-fi/horror/action romp.  It has an engaging plot, numerous fun car chases, and lots of exciting gun fights.  There are moments of levity, but the movie doesn't make the mistake of going too campy and self-aware.  I think fans of these genres will enjoy it.






     


















































































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