THE HIDDEN
US, 1987, 98 minutes, Colour.
Kyle Mac Lachlan, Michael Nouri, Clu Gulager, Ed O'Ross.
Directed by Jack Sholder.
The Hidden is a very entertaining blend of police action, police buddies, aliens. The screenplay has variations on the alien theme - including an erupting monster as in the original Alien. It is a sombre variation on Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The plot of a migrating murderous alien was also used in 1989 for Wes Craven's Shocker.
The film works quite well as the police action and buddy film, Michael Nouri as the ordinary policeman, Kyle Mac Lachlan as the mysterious impassive policeman who is revealed to be a police alien. (MacLachlan appeared in David Lynch's Dune, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks.)
Ultimately the film uses the myths that have been popular in movies in the '70s and '80s, the alien coming down to Earth and acting as saviour (echoes of the Gospel). This has been seen in films as wide-ranging as E.T. and Edward Scissorhands.
1.Enjoyable police thriller, police action and crime? The blend with aliens and detection from outer space?
2.Small budget, special effects? Los Angeles and the streets, the locations? Authentic atmosphere? The range of songs, the mood and the musical score, editing and pace?
3.The title, the mystery, the hidden good and the hidden evil? The opening and the surveillance eye? Mayhem, the robbery, the puzzle? The transfer of the alien and expectations? Gallagher and his mystery? Drawing audience interest?
4.The conventional picture of Los Angeles police, the precinct, the department, the personnel? Their interactions? Tom Beck and his work, investigations? His assistants? Surveillance, chases, use of guns? the deaths, the risks? His working with partners? Getting Gallagher?
5.De Vries and the initial mayhem, the stockbroker acting normally and the violent robbery? His death after all the car wrecks? (The jokes about plate glass?) His laughter as he is shot by so many marksmen? The alien transferring into Miller? The music store, the Ferrari, the guns? The transition to the sex striptease club? The guns, the stripper becoming possessed? Her violence towards the customers, the death on the roof? The transfer of the alien into the dog? The dog eventually taking over his master? The transfer of the alien into the various police? Finally into Senator Holt? The flamethrower forcing the alien out of Holt's body? The destruction of the alien with the special weapon? The visuals of the alien? The multiple personality as the alien acted through the humans and the animal? The power of evil coming into the world?
6.The contrast with Kyle Mac Lachlan as Gallagher: impassive, basically human but no emotions? The trouble with beer and Alka Seltzer? Knowing about the FBI? Partnering Tom, the chase, the photo? Awkwardness about the meals? The tablets? Tom's daughter? The revelation of the truth? The real Gallagher killed in a forest fire? The chase, the shooting, prison, the guns, the clashes with Tom? The final killing, saving Tom? Gallagher becoming the saviour? The good alien coming into the world to pursue evil? His survival?
7.The personality of Tom - policeman, style, experience and action? The investigations, the bonds with Gallagher after investigating him? Saved?
8.Police buddy film, the expectations? The precinct? The serial killer and the variations?
9.A picture of American society, crime, politics? Values - by contrast with the coming of aliens?
