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Hidden 2 (1994)

The Hidden II
The Hidden II: The Spawning


Cast:

Raphael "How do you pronounce my last name?" Sbarge is MacLachlan
Kate "She Wolf of London" Hodge is Juliet Beck
Jovin Montanaro is Stanton
Christopher Murphy is Tony Thompson
Michael "When a movie can't afford Michael Nouri..." Welden is Tom Beck


What the box says:

This terrifying sequel to the original thriller stars Raphael Sbarge as an alien policeman sent to save the palnet Earth from an alien that has awoken from deep hibernation for the past 15 years.


Plot:

We get 2 minutes of credits before learning 15 minutes ago a signal report is received about the alien’s activities. Detective Tom Beck is the local contact. The report was made by Lloyd Gallagher. A spawning is the most dangerous threat. The movie flashbacks to the end of the original Hidden.

The evil alien slug has possessed a cop and is after a US Senator (who is also a prospective Presidential candidate.) The possessed cop is shot repeatedly before hitting Detective Thomas Beck. Gallagher tends to his friend.

A Secret Service agent is gunned down. The slug possesses the Senator.

In the middle of a press conference, the Senator proudly announces how he wants to be President. Gallagher rushes in and is shot at before whipping out a mini flame thrower to BBQ the Senator. When the slug leaves the body, Gallagher is able to use his phaser to blow the slug to pieces.

At the hospital, Beck is on a respirator.

Back at the hotel, a dog walks in and carries off a piece of the slug. Ever want to see Benji used as a host for an evil parasitic alien space slug?

Beck’s room, Gallagher sees that Beck is dying. He fuses his alien spirit with Beck to save his life. However, Gallagher collapses and dies.

The dog heads to an abandoned warehouse. The slug crawls out of the body and lays a number of eggs.

Back at the hospital, a doctor finds the dead Gallagher on the floor. Tom Beck wakes up. His wife is happy. Julie, the daughter apparently senses that something is different about her father.

15 years later, a very grizzled Tom Beck is in the city.

At the warehouse, a few guys check the place out for a rave. Stanton stays behind to check out the lower levels. One of the eggs hatches and gets Stanton’s body.

Leaving, Stanton spots a car. A parking valet gets in his way. Stanton is able to get a hold of a valet’s tazer. A rich guy pulls up. Stanton wants the car and the woman. Needless to say, he drives off.

A news report announces that the woman’s body was found later.

A very grizzled Tom Beck heads to where the woman’s body was found. He zaps a few eggs when Stanton attacks him. The possessed human runs off. Beck can get the eggs or him. The fight is on. Stanton mortally wounds Beck who announces he called for backup. He is able to kill Stanton’s slug before dying.

Beck is at the morgue. His daughter, Julie, claims that can’t be her father. The man is too old. However, the dental records identified him as Tom Beck.

That night MacLachlan is at the morgue before breaking into Julie’s apartment. He orders her to cut herself to bleed just a little. MacLachlan puts his gun away. He had to be sure she wasn’t “one of them.” The truth has been kept from her and reveals her father was an alien. Julie is positive that this guy is nuts.

Handing Julie his gun, MacLachlan collapses on the floor and releases his computer generated energy essence to float around the room. Apparently, the energy being in her living room convinces her.

MacLachlan reveals he is using a body that was between life and death and had no soul. They must catch the evil alien that may have spawned.

Going through a few of Beck’s belongings, they head to his apartment.

In a dinghy, run down building, Beck had a number of newspaper articles and maps. MacLachlan thinks Beck may have become evil and murdered those people. Julie is understandably freaked by that notion. They check a video tape which shows a dog picking up a piece of the slug from after the Senatorial BBQ. It has spawned.

Searching for the eggs, Julie learns about the philosophy of these parasites. They use whatever they want and when the host is worn out take a new host body. MacLachlan and Julie are the only ones that can stop them. Searching, they head to the music and see the rave at the warehouse. The eggs could be close.

Bad techno and lame dancing ensues.

The lower levels are searched while the X’ed out dancers flail about on the dance floor above.

MacLachlan finds the eggs and sees that one has hatched.

Slug slides down the throat of lap dancing chick. The newly possessed chick rides her boyfriend’s baloney pony to the guy’s death and walks away. MacLachlan finds the dead guy.

He tries cutting through the dance floor. Julie is in danger because she saw the host. He tells Julie to force the slug out they must kill the host.

Elsewhere, the chick doesn’t tongue a guy but worms him. Sure sounds kinky until you realize a giant slug was used instead of a tongue.

MacLachlan can’t find the chick. However, the dude finds the hero and starts beating him. Julie fills the guy with some lead. Slug boy decides the better part of valor is cowardice and gets out of Dodge.

MacLachlan and Julie chase Slug boy who is able to beat our alien cop once again. Slug boy is even able to destroy the zapper which can destroy the slug. HE walks off now that MacLachlan is unable to hurt him. Julie realizes her father had a phaser, too. .

Slug boy passes the slug which heads into the sewers. A bum gets possessed next.

Julie and MacLachlan sneak into a police station and get her father’s belongings that were on him when he died. Mac has to fight a guard to keep him away long enough for Julie to get the phaser.

The two have a quiet moment before heading back to eliminate the eggs. Sac destroying fun for the entire interstellar family ensues. A slug hatches and tries to take over Mac. Julie is able to phaser the slug off him.

They must wait for the possessed host to return the eggs and have 12 hours until then. Mac collapses needs food and rest.

The bum is still in the sewer.

Mac is chowing down on some Chinese. He tries explaining about his planet. They are all energy, no physical bodies. They crave physical experiences. The slugs evolved from the same race though they are entirely physical.

Julie demonstrates to Mac how to use a toothbrush.

The bum awakens. “Father, the sleeper has awakened…”

Mac talks about how he never knew physical sensations…Apparently, that is a great pickup line. Let the lovin’ ensue…

At sunrise, the bum leaves the sewers. Walking into a garage, he grabs a boombox and drops a car on a mechanic. Further down the street, a gang decides to pick on the bum. The leader transplants a couple of caps into the bum’s chest. Though it does no good, because the bum is able to kill him and drives off in a car and finds an Uzi.

Julie is basking in the afterglow…Mac has another spell. Apparently, the longer he stays the greater the chance he’ll turn into a killer space slug.

A bum walks into a diner and picks a fight with Mustache Guy whom he promptly possesses.

Mac wants Julie to stay behind. However, she talks him into letting her go.

Scream of anguish ensues. Mustache guy discovers the dead eggs…

Gunfight in the dark warehouse ensues. Mac is able to unload a few clips into Mustache Guy. However, the host knocks our hero out.

Julie is trapped as Mustache guy chases her. The slug needs a new host.

Mac fills the host with more lead than a water fountain until the slug crawls out. He uses the phaser on the slug itself.

It is just Mac and Julie. He gets rid of the rest of the eggs and shoots one that just hatched that was trying to possess Julie.

In bed, Mac can feel the change. He wants to stay even for a few years. However, Julie doesn’t want him to end up like her father. In the morning, she finds him gone.

Later, a possessed Julie opens her eyes. She wakes up from that nightmare…End credits ensue.


What I say:

Let this be a math lesson. This movies is 91 minutes long. The first 2 minutes is just a black screen with credits. It is followed by more than 13 minutes of showing the original movie. The closest to original footage consists of a dog eating a slug for a few seconds. So, the Hidden 2 is only a little over an hour when the flashback is ignored. If you take out the scenes that are so dark you can't see anything, the movie has been pared down to about a little over half an hour of scenes that can actually be seen.

Ed Woods was known for switching day and night shots. The Hidden 2 has so many scenes that are in the dark it is impossible to see what is happening. A movie shouldn't be filmed where you need night vision goggles to figure out the scene. Darkness like this allows filmmakers to hide the fact they're using incredibly bad effects. The idea of using darkness to hide a monster until the big shocking scene is far different than doing it to try to hide how little money you used on a movie.

I get the feeling the director who also wrote the script learned about a rave and just decided to film at it just to get more into the movie. Do low budget movies need crappy raves to help kill time of a movie? The House of the Dead rave was bad. I stand corrected. My nerdiosity and geekiness must not allow me to see what is so cool about listening to bad techno (redundant term) music in a dirty warehouse.

Raphael Sbarge is able to do a pretty strange guy which should be like an alien who isn't sure of this third rock from the sun...While not trying to do Kyle MacLachlan's character from the original movie, he is able to portray an alien who is mystified with human customs though wanting to experience a world far beyond what he knows.

Back in the mid 90s, I had a slight crush on Kate Hodge. The repeats of She Wolf of London were the main reason for it. Well between that series, this movie, and guest appearance on one episode of Xena: Warrior Princess as Death, what else was she in? OK Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, never got around to seeing it though.

In the mid 90s, I remember watching it when it first came out on the Sci-Fi Channel. Though, I'm not sure if saw the original Hidden in all is R-rated or in its edited glory on a Sunday afternoon. Well, this time, I have seen the Kyle MacLachlan classic (not Dune ok bad joke on my part...) before getting around to seeing the direct to video sequel.

The Hidden 2 isn't really that bad as a sequel. However, it just is so bland compared to the far more entertaining and original movie. The Hidden had the scenes that were able to be seen, a writhing Claudia Christian stripper, great car chases, and a true homage to Death Race 2000 the wheelchair scene.

So much of the Hidden 2 seems to a retread from the original movie, too. Possessed chick boning a guy. Possessed guy with a boombox listening to hard rock. Too many times, many sequels don't do anything creative. Well, creativity led to Piranha 2: the Spawning which had flying pirahnas attacking a tropical resort. It wasn't original but at least ludicrous enough to not be boring. Why does a the second movie need to be called the "Spawning"? Hidden 2 wasn't subtitled with Spawning on all the movie cases. Piranha 2 couldn't be separated from the "Spawning."

The Hidden 2 was a direct to video sequel to a cult classic movie that deserved far better than an evil alien escaping by possessing Benji. The DVD had both movies on it. Well, it has the directory commentary track of the original for those who enjoy those things. So if the Hidden 2 doesn't impress you, you should watch the Hidden instead.

Random trivia
Did you notice the Robert Heinlein in-joke near the end?
Stranger in a Strange Land

2 1/2 NINJAS

Quotable Dialogue

"The underground of undergrounds, a party to end all parties."
"I want to call it 'Bad to the Max'."
"You have a peculiar way of asking for someone's help."
"They will destroy your people, and they will enjoy doing it."
"No, I am definitely not all right."
"It's a figure of speech like 'kick butt' or 'ice the mother'."


Morals of the Story

No one is bothered by parasitic space slugs inside of US Senators.
Dogs love to eat pieces of dead space aliens.
Children can sense alien energy beings.
Aliens love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Guns are excellent lockpicks.
Lap dancing can be fatal.
Aliens are mystified by toothbrushes.
Space slugs love to listen to hard rock.