M Night Shyamalan has a lot to answer for! The writer-director of The Sixth Sense brought about a new rash of thrillers which build up mystery for the first two thirds before revealing an ‘earth-shattering’ twist near the end.

Hide and Seek is the latest offering. Following on from recent twisted tales such as Secret Window, The Village and The Forgotten, it comes with a heavy dose of hype. Twentieth Century Fox were apparently so keen to keep the plot twists under wraps that they delivered the third reel to cinemas separately from the first two, and it came heavily guarded. They also made all critics swear not to reveal what happens in the finale. Another gimmick they employed was to scatter two different versions of the film in different cinemas, with the final scene different in both versions. The gimmicks worked however and the film raced to the top of the US box office with an impressive opening weekend. The UK adverts claim "The movie that terrified America is here". So, is it worthy of all this excitement?

After the death of his wife, psychiatrist David Calloway (Robert DeNiro) relocates with his young daughter Emily (Dakota Fanning) to the country. Moving into the ‘biggest house on the lake’, David hopes that the new surroundings will help Emily to recover. But Emily is largely unresponsive and David finds it hard to communicate. Tucking her into bed one night, Emily confides that she has made a new friend. He’s called Charlie. David gets uncomfortable as the imaginary friend becomes more of a confidante than he is. Things get worse when Charlie reveals a vendetta against David and he begins to question whether Charlie really is imaginary….

Hide and Seek has been rubbished by the majority of critics. Dismissing it as silly and a waste of DeNiro’s talents it’s already been labelled a turkey. It is ridiculous, preposterous, lurid and absurd but, don’t tell anyone, also ludicrously entertaining. In the midst of the serious awards season, it’s refreshing and kinda fun to watch something a little less ambitious which focuses on creating enough intrigue and suspense to captivate it’s undemanding audience.

Despite the somewhat Channel 5 plot, the leads are so good they make you think it’s better than it is. Robert DeNiro puts in his most creditable performance for a while, okay, so that’s not saying that much, but it’s infinitely better than Godsend or Meet The Fockers. His portrayal of an introspected father, dealing with a troublesome daughter makes you believe he is genuinely concerned. As his goth-like pre-pubescent daughter, Dakota Fanning is excellent. Vulnerable and chilling, her threats from Charlie are delivered with terrifying conviction. What could have been a laughable role is made totally believable.

So, the much vaunted twist? Well, while watching Hide and Seek, you’ll no doubt be sifting through all the evidence and coming up with your own view on who or what Charlie is. It is inn this aspect that the film really succeeds. There are some genuinely suspenseful moments leading up to the final reveal. Charlie isn’t seen so he/she/it is made all the more scarier. There are some clichéd scares, involving the horror staple 'the cat', but it still manages more tension than most recent Hollywood thrillers. In getting to the twist, there is a ridiculous amount of red herrings. They are so obvious, they might as well have a little arrow pop up in the corner saying ‘Red Herring!!’.

The twist did actually take me by surprise. It’s stupid all right but it’s still fairly unpredictable. Although looking back, it probably makes little sense on second viewing. Make no mistake, this isn’t gonna win any awards or restart DeNiro’s career and I wouldn’t blame anyone for hating it, but taken as spooky trash with good acting it’s perfectly satisfying. Already ranks as one of 2005’s guiltiest pleasures.

More film reviews on LeftLion

Comment (0)

Send to friend

Print

Add to Facebook