The Hidden Review

Review of The Hidden (1987) by screenqueeen: 👍 4/5

This might be my favorite Sholder joint experience. It's fluid, purposeful, and continuously entertaining. There's some moments that make me raise some suspicions behind a concerning motive to cast suspicions on the attitudes of people within the LQBTQIA+ spectrum specifically on Sholder's part, but it never becomes the film's focus.

There's a lot to love: McLachlan's loveable curiosity towards the inner workings of the human world (something he would master through his career, imo he would hit an apex with in TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN), a body-hopping evil alien whose character's ticks and behaviors predate (and likely providing the blueprints for) MEN IN BLACK, a screwball-forward comedy backdrop for this action-horror slice of excess that could only come in a post-ROBOCOP (or just Verhoeven in America generally) world.

This was a presentation to celebrate Kyle McLachlan (local PNWesterner who went to college in my city and landed his first film role from here), so a lot of what he said I found pertinent and invigorating to my surprise.

Hearing Kyle McLachlan speak so passionately about the art of useful film criticism gave me some new life. I've always written somethings about movies (sometimes in an arguably "professional" nature but not wholly, I digress) but learning more about John Hartley and how he read films within the body of work of certain filmmakers prodded me to do better in my own breakdowns.