Horrorfest 2022: The Hidden

The Hidden
Directed by Jack Sholder
Written by Bob Hunt
Starring Kyle MacLachlan and Michael Nouri
USA, 1987

THE HIDDEN hits the ground running and never stops, opening with a spectacular bank robbery and car chase on the streets of Los Angeles, seemingly perpetrated on a whim by an average, normal guy. What would make a guy snap like this and cause so much wanton destruction?

Much to the hard-boiled detective (Michael Nouri) on the case’s chagrin, an FBI special agent shows up to help figure this out. This agent is played wonderfully by Kyle MacLachlan, who at first just seems a little off but quickly begins to appear… alien. 

In fact, maybe the whole thing is alien – turns out, some kind of entity is jumping from body to body, causing seemingly regular people to go on kill crazy rampages, avoiding detective by swapping bodies at the last moment.

This is an endlessly inventive movie that never even flirts with getting boring, and there’s even a strangely effective buddy cop relationship between down-to-earth Nouri and space cadet MacLachlan. There’s even a blink and you miss it Danny Trejo cameo, where he gets to utter a line… before getting killed.

One final note – this film features a flame thrower that is introduced briefly in the first act so that it can come back in a glorious moment of payoff and catharsis in the third act. It made me wonder if Quentin Tarantino had THE HIDDEN in mind when he crafted ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD.