Are there already posts here, about this movie? Maybe I'm missing them... anyway, I just wanted to ramble about it, a little bit.

The Hidden is very much a Trash Epic, and therefore eminently suitable for this forum. It features Kyle MacLachlan as some kind of alien interstellar cop, pursuing an evil alien interstellar criminal. Kyle M's character appears human, but he comes across almost like an angel, really. In one scene, we see that his animating lifeforce is sort of a glowing, spiritual-looking mist, whereas the alien criminal that inhabits various human hosts is a freaky-looking thing, like... sort of like if someone made a cyborg carp (yeah, the fish) in the style of our old pal Ash the Android from Alien.

But, the fun thing about this movie, and the reason to watch it, is just the sheer level of mayhem and gonzoness that permeates every scene. The alien criminal liks fast cars, heavy metal music, and strippers. Don't ask me why a cyborg carp is into human (female) strippers. Anyway, the movie takes itself seriously enough to do a good job with the car chases and shootouts, but not so seriously that it forgets to have fun with the material. It's just a blast to watch. The setting of Los Angeles in the 80s, usually in the daytime, calls to mind several other movies that have stood the test of time, like The Terminator, Lethal Weapon, Fletch, Beverly Hills Cop... I think of Fletch and BHC because this is a movie with lots of cops in it, I guess, although it is not nearly as much of a comedy as those movies. Anyway, if you think of a sci-fi version of those movies, with a soundtrack that is comparable to the one in Demons or Demons 2, you will have the right expectations of what this movie is like.

A sci-fi version of The Terminator is totally redundant, of course... well, you know what I mean.

I also want to mention that somebody in the YouTube comments section for this movie mentioned that he thinks Jason Goes to Hell borrowed heavily from this movie. I don't think I have ever noticed that before, in my entire life, but it's a pretty fair point to make. The Hidden is not supernatural in any way, but, of course, the effect is pretty much the same, of normal average people suddenly getting possessed by some kind of psycho killer entity that just generally does a shitload of damage to everything around him.

There is a funny little scene that I like a lot, when one of the people carrying the alien (a middle aged guy named Miller) is driving down a major street with expensive looking shops and hotels... maybe Rodeo Drive, I have no idea... and he tries to pick up a cute young woman. He just pulls up to the sidewalk next to where she is walking with her friend, points at her, and makes his intentions clear. She just says "Fuck off!" and walks away. He immediately scrambles for his gun, to blow her head off. That little exchange just cracks me up, the way they did it... it's one of those things that I would personally not be able to film, because I would just not be able to keep from cracking up. Anyway, it's just under a half hour into the movie, if you want to keep an eye out for that scene. (He does not actually blow her head off, by the way, although there is plenty of carnage through the movie in most of the other scenes).

Coming back to edit: I said the alien was like a cyborg carp. I should correct that. The texture of its skin makes me think of a carp, but it is shaped more like a combination of a giant slug and a baby bird, with tarantula legs and some kind of plastic looking tentacles or other appendages in the rear. So, I just wanted to say that. The tentacles/appendages in the rear still make me think of Ash the Android from Alien, because his innards contained some crap that looked a little like that.

Anyway, I just watched this recently and wanted to share it. It really is a lot of fun... if you want a little escape from all the crap in the news lately, you could do a lot worse than to watch The Hidden. Two thumbs up from Tommix!