The Hidden II


The Hidden II is a 1993 American direct-to-video science fiction crime horror film and the sequel to the 1987 film The Hidden.

Plot

The alien criminal from the first movie is dead, but he left a few eggs which are hatching now. It is explained that on the alien's homeworld, evolution took two parallel paths: half of their race became violent criminals who live only for pleasure, and the other half evolved beyond their base desires and even physical bodies, becoming creatures of pure energy.
A good alien has been inhabiting Tom Beck's body. He has been waiting just in case this happened. Unfortunately, his presence in the body has taken a terrible toll on it, draining it of life energy.
Additionally, relations with Beck's daughter Juliet, now a cop herself, have deteriorated. But when the killing starts again, both will need to work together—and with a new alien policeman, who comes to Earth to aid in the struggle—to stop the new generation of aliens.

Cast

  • Raphael Sbarge as MacLachlan
  • Kate Hodge as Juliet Beck
  • Jovin Montanaro as Stanton
  • Christopher Murphy as Tony Thompson
  • Michael Welden as Tom Beck
  • Honey Lauren as Rave girl

    Production

In June 1993, it was reported that New Line Cinema had hired Seth Pinsker to direct The Hidden 2: The Spawning, a sequel to The Hidden.
The film was announced to be preceded by a three-part comic book limited series titled The Hidden: Gene War which would be written by Andy Mangels for Millennium Publications.

Release

The film was released direct to video in the United States by New Line Home Video on July 20, 1994.
However, in Japan, it was released in September 1993, 10 months ahead of its US release.
In 2005, New Line Home Entertainment released the film on DVD on a double feature release alongside the original The Hidden.

Reception

Creature Feature found the twist of the alien slowly being consumed interesting, but otherwise the sequel was found inferior to the original, giving it two out of 5 stars.
Moria gave the movie a half-star. While it found the pairing of Sbarge and Hodge to be a plus, especially as Sbarge attempts to understand human behavior, but found the rest of the movie to be an example of everything wrong with sequels.
While Entertainment Weekly enjoyed the first movie, it gave this one a D− finding it to be "crud."
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction notes that the first 10 minutes of this movie are reprised from the first movie.