Hide and Seek Year: 2005 Director: John Polson Written by: Ari Schlossberg Threat: Psychopath Weapon of Choice: Shovel IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
None

Rish's Reviews
One time, while surfing, I fled the Pacific Ocean, reached the shore, turned, and shouted, "Damn you, Steven Spielberg!" Maybe I've mentioned it.
But lately, more and more often, I've walked out of a movie theatre, turned, and shouted, "Damn you, M. Night Shyamalan!"
While I adore The Sixth Sense, the truth is that it affected, negatively, the entire Horror/Psychological Thriller/Suspense genre for years afterward. You probably know how.
In Hide and Seek, Robert DeNiro plays a psychiatrist who, after the death of his wife, takes his young daughter Emily to upstate New York to try to help her cope with the tragedy. Instead of confiding in him, the girl appears to have dreamed up a new friend, someone named Charlie, who seems harmless at first, but feeds Emily increasingly hostile and disturbing information. How dangerous is Charlie? And is he imaginary?
This had a really excellent first half, and I dig Robert DeNiro. Dakota Fanning, as much as I hate to admit it (I despise female child stars something fierce), is an amazingly talented young actress. Also, Famke Janssen had a role, and I dig her too.
But the film really falls apart after a certain point. What I came away from, more than anything, was that it is the unknown that's what's really scary. It was pretty spooky, wondering if Charlie was a part of Emily's psyche, an invention, a creepy neighbour, or a ghost. But once the big twist showed up, I realized I had seen this movie several times in the past six years (around the length of this website). And that's too bad. After the truth is revealed, it just isn't scary anymore. In fact, I was surprised the film didn't simply end, because I found it difficult to care.
I'm trying to think if there was anything even remotely original about this film. I guess the fact that it had DeNiro in it, but still . . .
It's probably not all Shyamalan's fault. After all, Psycho had a twist ending. But Psycho was a long time ago. And it didn't make two hundred million dollars.
Best Scare: Probably the old someone-you-think-is-dead-grabs-hold-of-someone gag. It still worked.
Posted: February 17, 2005

Total Skulls: 21

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?