You know my basic belief—90s sequels destroy 80s classics. Well, revisiting The Hidden movies challenged everything I thought I believed…about the 90s and myself.
THE HIDDEN (1987)
In my mind this is one of the classics my favorite decade—just like every other 80s film.
The Hidden has an awesome alternative soundtrack, including music from The Lords of the New Church, Hunters & Collectors, Concrete Blonde, and The Truth. It’s directed by Jack Sholder, who brought us Elm Street 2, Wishmaster 2, and Alone in the Dark 1982. It stars 80s cuties Michael Nouri and Kyle MacLachlan.
And it’s one of the most uninspired, generic sci-fi horror flicks of the decade, with very little sci-fi or horror. It’s actually more action movie. In essence it’s The Terminator with a slug parasite we get to see about twice.
The parasite passes from person to person, and each person commits a bunch of crimes and murders as they go. Nouri is a cop on the case. MacLachlan is his new partner…who also happens to be an alien trying to stop the parasite.
Basically it just jumps from car chase to foot chase throughout the film, with a whole lot of shootouts and a visit to a strip club to solidify that it’s an 80s movie.
Even Danny Trejo is tossed into the mix for a second as…what else? A convict.
And this is a New Line Cinema film so a) keep an eye out for Lin Shaye and
b) it therefore should have been a better horror film.
THE HIDDEN II (1993)
You can fast forward through the first ten minutes of the sequel because it’s literally the last ten minutes of the first film. One star immediately earned because that makes this film only 80 minutes long.
A dog that leaves the scene of the first film’s conclusion now has the parasite, which gives the dog gore from The Thing a run for its money and makes this a better film than the first already.
Sure the plot is mostly the same, but the focus is on lots of slug special effects rather than shootouts. Awesome. Yes, a 90s horror sequel is actually more satisfying than the 80s original.
This time Nouri’s character appears briefly, played by another actor.
15 years haven’t been kind to Michael Nouri
Then the film focuses on his daughter, now grown, teaming up with another alien man to stop the parasite.
They even attend a rave club to solidify that this is a 90s movie…and that’s where a good chunk of sex and parasite horror takes place. Awesome.
