Diagonaldi Very well executed

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

MartinHafer I am NOT a major fan of action films, so the fact that I liked "The Hidden" is unusual. The movie is jam-packed full of explosions, gun fire, deaths and mayhem. But it also works as an inventive sci-fi movie...one that pretty much went under the radar back in 1987 when it debuted.The film has an incredibly simple plot...when the film begins, a maniac is running amok in LA...killing and stealing as if there's no tomorrow. Soon, however, you realize this killer is NOT a typical killer...he's practically indestructible. And, when he's about to die, a disgusting alien pops out of his mouth and inhabits the next person...and begins the murder spree all over again!! However, an oddball who claims to be an FBI agent (Kyle McLaughlen) arrives to assist the lead detective on the case (Michael Nouri) and they are the Earth's best bet to stop this menace.Despite relying heavily on action and wholesale slaughter, the film is intelligently written and original. It's also an interesting time capsule of the late 1980s...in all its awfulness and excess. Well worth your time.

disinterested_spectator "The Hidden" could never have been a great science fiction movie on a par with "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) or "Star Wars" (1977), but as most science fiction movies go, this one could have been great in its own small way. Unfortunately, the producers of this movie did not have the guts to carry things out to their logical conclusion, but pulled back to something they felt would be safe. Big mistake.FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher enlists the aid of local cop Tom Beck to hunt for a succession of people connected to a bunch of strange murders. As Gallagher knows, but Beck does not, they are pursuing an alien from another planet that takes over human bodies, and when they manage to pump one so full of bullet holes that it can barely function, it leaves that body and takes over another. During the transfer, the human body opens its mouth, and a large, disgusting parasite that looks part slug and part insect comes out and enters into the mouth of its new host. As the alien moves from one host to another, it really seems to enjoy the pleasures afforded it by dwelling inside a human: it likes fast cars, rock music, and sex. Its big crimes, however, are motivated by a desire for money and power.Eventually, it turns out that Gallagher is actually an alien cop from the same planet as the alien they are pursuing. After coming to Earth, he took over a human body that was going to die anyway. Just as he and Beck finally manage to destroy the bad alien, Beck suffers fatal bullet wounds. But Gallagher has met Beck's wife and daughter, whom he likes, and having lost his own wife at the hands of his nemesis, he decides to take over Beck's body just as he is about to breathe his last. But when he opens his mouth, we see no parasite emerge, but only a golden beam of light leaving him and entering Beck's mouth. When the doctor enters the room, along with Beck's wife and child, they find that Gallagher has died and Beck has seemingly made a miraculous recovery.But imagine how great it would have been if Gallagher had opened his mouth and, instead of that beam of light, another disgusting parasite had come out and entered into Beck's mouth. We would have been forced to think that something that looks like a combination slug-insect could be good, decent, and kind.It is standard in science fiction movies that good aliens look like humans, usually with frail bodies, slightly larger craniums, and larger eyes. But if the aliens look like insects, then we know they are evil and must be destroyed.This movie could have split those alien stereotypes wide open, making us accept what we should have known all along, that someone who is ugly may nevertheless be a nice person to know. But the producers of this movie had a failure of nerve. Sure, we can assume that Gallagher and his nemesis were of two different species. We can make up any story we want. But the result will still be the same. The minute Gallagher opened his mouth and a beam of yellow light came out instead, this movie became second rate.

Fluke_Skywalker Plot; A no nonsense cop is paired with a mysterious FBI agent on a case that finds them tracking an alien life form who takes over people's bodies.Feeling equal parts 'Alien Nation' and 'I come In Peace' (aka 'Dark Angel'), the far lesser known The Hidden actually beat both of them to theaters by a few years. It's a quirky buddy cop style film that features several familiar genre tropes, but to its credit it never gorges on them. The sci-fi element is revealed early, but we're otherwise kept in the dark until the third act--and even then not much is really explained (a point of mild frustration). The "twist" is rather obvious, but it's still fun to watch it play itself out thanks mostly to effective performances from leads Michael Nouri and Kyle MacGlachlan.This is a surprisingly well made B-movie with a strong cast. The tumblers fall into place a little clumsily, but I still found it to be, if not a hidden gem, then at least an effective and entertaining genre mash-up.

TheMarwood Not even five minutes pass before a man in a wheelchair is run over for laughs and the next hour or so becomes an unhinged series of violent comedic escapades. An odd FBI agent played by Kyle MacLachlan teams up with a detective played with cheesy earnestness by Michael Nouri, who are after an alien who takes over the human bodies he invades - and goes on murder, theft and mayhem causing rampages. This is a B movie and proud of it and the sight of a scantily clad alien controlled stripper who's heavily armed and a geezer with a boom box who's out of control, are a few highlights in this absurd film. Jack Sholder directs with energy to spare and it's a shame his big screen career sputtered out after his '89 film Renegades and spent the next two decades directing TV movies - before briefly resurfacing in studio filmmaking by directing some of the reshoots for the doomed big budget fiasco Supernova.