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

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The acting in this movie is really good.

Apparently impressed with movies like ALIEN and THE TERMINATOR, the producers of THE HIDDEN hit upon the novel notion of having an alien parasite turn ordinary humans into unstoppable killing machines. (I'm not going to go into my usual screed about ALIEN's origins, nor those of THE TERMINATOR; suffice it to say that BOTH "borrowed liberally" from movies that had come before.) One of the more interesting aspects (so to speak) of the Critter in THE HIDDEN is that it gets in touch with its Feminine Side, giving cache to the term "transgender." (It helps a great deal that it TRANSforms into Claudia Christian...) Kyle McLachlan is good as the Starman in pursuit of The Hidden One, and the movie overall is light but Entertaining.

****SPOILERS*** Far out movie involving a thing from outer space causing havoc in the city of Las Angles by using the bodies of humans and in once case a cute and lovable dogie to do its dirty or deadly work. It's up to l.A Det. Thomas Beck, Michael Nouri, to get to the bottom of all this as well as catch the crazed killer who by the time he got on it had already killed some two dozen people. Getting FBI Agent Lloyd Gallagher,Kyle Maclachian, as a partner Beck soon realizes that the guy, who instead of dissolving an aka Seltzer tablet in water eats it whole, is some kind of weirdo as It soon becomes apparent that Gallagher isn't who he says he is and has something personal against the killer or killers that he's keeping from his partner.Much like the 1956 movie classic "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers" the film "The Hidden" has an hidden surprise for its audience that becomes very apparent as the what seems like indestructible killer starts to rejuvenate him or herself throughout the movie. It takes a while for Det. Beck to realize that his partner FBI Agent Gallaher is on to something far more dangerous then anything that he had to face in his 13 years on the LAPD. That becomes very apparent towards the end of the movie when Det. Beck teams up with him, against LAPD regulation's, against this slimy creature before he or it destroys the entire city and everyone in it.***SPOILERS**** After some dozen reincarnations from man to woman and to animal the slimy looking things takes over the body of US Senator Holt, John McCann, who's planning to run, on the "Save the Whales Lobsters & Squids ticket", for president of the United States. With his partner Det. Beck shot and on life support during all the action in the movie FBI Agent Gallagher makes it to the news conference where Sen. Holt is to make his long awaited announcement and engages him-who pulls out a gum and peppers the audience with bullets-in a fire fight roasting Sen. Holt alive with a US Army issue. With he smoke cleared and in a last act of self sacrifice Gallagher saves Det. Becks life by giving up his own so he, with his job now done, can go back home in spirit if not body from wherever he originally came from.

There's very little I can say about 'The Hidden' which isn't gushing praise. When cult sci-fi films are being discussed, you always hear talk of 'Alien' or 'The Thing,' yet The Hidden never seems to get a mention. I always find that surprising as it's so good and yet so simple. No complex plots here - just an easy-to-follow bad alien being hunted down by a good alien.There's nothing much to say about it because it's just so much fun. If you like horror, action, or sci-fi, then you really should see this film. It has all of those elements, wrapped up in a simple plot with simple special effects and simplistic performances from its actors.Just sit back, grab the popcorn and enjoy. But only if you have a strong stomach, as some of the scenes can be pretty violent.I'm giving it a 9/10 as it's just an absolute retro-fave of mine. In reality, it's probably more of an 8/10 for most people. My guilty pleasure.http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/

Hugely enjoyable film predating MIB by 10 years and with a similar theme.However this film is deeper - 'The Hidden' at one level is just a body hoping alien but at another the alien possession is symbolic of our continuing lust for more and better things - plus the urge to do just as we want when we want that probably resides in most of us.Of course we do our best to keep these urges 'hidden' away but like the alien they sometimes claw their way to the surface.Perhaps a slight weak point is when we discover that the alien is an Altairan (like something out of a 50's SciFi film). In this respect - with reference to what 'The Hidden' really represents - sometimes it's better not to know!