There are certain movies that stick with you throughout the years. Sometimes, when you see the flicks you loved as a child, they don’t hold up nearly as well as you’d hope. However, every so often there is a movie like THE HIDDEN. Have you heard of it? Is this one on your radar? If not, it should be. Recently, The Arrow himself praised this awesomely 80’s genre bender that featured car chases, alien invasions, rapid fire shootouts, practical gore and effects sequences and even the charms of Claudia Christian getting to be all gorgeous, evil and dangerous. This 1987 feature film had it all and then some. It was also directed by the one and only Jack Sholder who made the entertainingly weird and wild – and uniquely gay themed – A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY’S REVENGE in 1985. The dude certainly had a talent for creating strange and cool low budget genre excursions.
Upon its initial release, the film managed to make a bit of money. Sure, less than 10 million may not sound like a ton today, but it did well enough to consider it a minor hit – of course that was a long time ago folks. However since the film’s release, there was only one terrible sequel that most of us have completely forgotten about. Even then, the original film starring Kyle MacLachlan and Michael Nouri earned strong reviews and terrific word of mouth which helped this gem of a science fiction, action, thriller to become a cult classic. So much so that we’ve seen several movies that have borrowed heavily from the theme of a strange alien slug that transfers between humans – THE FINAL FRIDAY: JASON GOES TO HELL comes to mind. Yet still, all these years later, we’ve yet to see any kind of return to this incredible story. Perhaps it is time.
When Arrow did the retro-review for this film, it instantly brought back memories of how cool it was. And we here at AITH weren’t the only ones to take notice. My good pal Jon Kondelik – a talented filmmaker in his own right – upon seeing the link, mentioned in a comment that he’d like to see a modern take of THE HIDDEN on the small screen. And that had me thinking, why not? The past few years genre has really blossomed on TV. We’ve seen numerous horror properties make the transition including Bates Motel, The Haunting of Hill House (which was technically inspired by the story but still it seems relevant), Hannibal, Ash vs. Evil Dead and so many more. So why not a remake or a big screen sequel? Well, maybe because with all the genres that the film covered and how television has changed, you can certainly make a series like this work.
First of all, the beauty of THE HIDDEN was the fact that it happened to also be a buddy cop movie. While it appears that MacLachlan and Nouri didn’t quite hit it off during shooting, it didn’t affect their on-screen chemistry in the slightest. Get the right cast involved and you could certainly recreate this. As far as the mythology behind it all, there is ample room for a few creative minds to give this a remix and bring it to a 10 to 13 episode sci-fi series. My only hope would be that if someone did have the smarts to tackle it, I’d want them to remain true to the original and keep the effects as practical as they possibly could. And then, bring together a cast that is just as impressive as they were in the original film. If you aren’t aware, it also starred Clu Gulager, Ed O’Ross, Clarence Felder, Chris Mulkey and even Lin Shaye! It would be amazing to see either Nouri or MacLachlan come back in some shape or form as well.
In the year 2019, many fans believe that television is offering better material than what you’d find in theatres. While I don’t completely subscribe to that, I do find that the quality of high concept TV is certainly impressive. So with THE HIDDEN, you have a classic and familiar story that could easily get expanded. And considering visual effects on the small screen have much improved, I genuinely think there is something to be said for taking on a heavy action feature like this. You get the right people behind a small screen reboot and the possibilities are absolutely endless for a creepy and clever modern version. And perhaps maybe it would help that the original film isn’t on the level of other remakes and such, so you’d have less of a negative response when it comes to revisiting the franchise.