A delayed commentary on “The Hidden,” which, to begin with, was not the most revealing concept under the sun but then again, psychopaths with body-hopping parasitic insects on a murder spree always promise to entertain.
This story begins with the burning down of an old church and then shifts into the modern times. The twist is that along with the church burning, some entity escapes from the cellar that was burnt. This entity was marked with the name ‘the Scourge’ who latches onto a fireman and and turns him into a cobb-like zombie. This gives a start to the fireman’s journey across the town. Now the fireman zombie is very hungry and makes an explosive sports stadium appearance during a match, where he strides onto the pitch to kiss the ‘cheating’ girlfriend of the idolized hero.
The Fireman is emptied out and a bug-like creature burrows itself inside a girl, who happens to pick up a guy from a bar, who is then ransacked while in a mall (his jaw gets unhinged) and he hands the bug to a paramedic who is also a skateboard pro, who in turn, skates into a mocking skater girl (Frankie Nash). She (offscreen) hooks up with a tough biker dude (Russ Ball) who in turns shares a cell with the hero (he blames everything on him because the Sheriff is a complete jerk) and is about to latch onto him when the nasty Sheriff shows up to get possessed and make things much direer.
Scott Miller (Nic Rhind) is a ‘troubled’ and young man who did jail time for his father. His father is a criminal and was supposed to serve a lengthy sentence, however, Scott decided to protect his dad by serving time. Jail was never expected from a person as decent as Scott, who’s also interesting enough to be popular with Jesse (Robin Ledoux), the tawdry niece of the crafty (and somewhat bent) Sheriff Durst (Russell Ferrier). After a series of drunken hosts, Scott and Jesse blazed around town trying to find an odd historical record. They disbelieved possessed people, trying to work out the cycles of a creature and their weaknesses (if lightning worked, so will a taser, and the parasite hates alcohol so stays away from drunks). A clandestine church faction that’s vague on whether the creatures are demonic or classified aliens sends a man with one eye and a natty identification ring to take custody of the worm-like creature after using shock tactics and putting him in a jar of booze.
The script is simple but effective. The cast does not go beyond the reaches of Lance Henriksen or Tobin Bell. The effects are decent, when used in moderation. The business with the hero and the Sheriff is the fifth lift from The Blob, but I was not expecting so many surprises along the chain of this la ronde of gruesomeness. It was reasonably well-paced and rattles through acceptably. It is better than The Hidden II for instance. Written and Directed by Jonas Quastel (The Untold).
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