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Hide and Seek
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.


5.9

based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 38 votes
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FILM:

Swimfan

MPAA RATING: R for frightening sequences and violence

Starring Robert De Niro, Dakota Fanning, Famke Janssen, Elisabeth Shue, Amy Irving, Dylan Baker, Melissa Leo, and Robert John Burke

A widower (DeNiro) suspects his 9 year-old daughter (Fanning) has come up with an unexpected way of dealing with her mother's death through a terrifying "imaginary" friend.

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Horror \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Ari Schlossberg
DIRECTED BY:	John Polson
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: July 5, 2005 Video: July 5, 2005 Theatrical: January 28, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	105 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Surprises with its intensity and grip.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

As cliche-ridden horror films go, Hide and Seek builds a pretty darn good mousetrap.

Premiere Kevin Allison

It’s tightly paced and confidently styled. These times call for more daring in our horror films, but for this weekend, this will do the trick.

Entertainment Weekly Scott Brown

Hide and Seek, despite early signs of higher goals, is a factory-standard box of shocks.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

The movie's main purpose seems to be to make audiences squirm uncomfortably. Yelp and shriek in armchair-clawing glee? Not likely.

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

While the final revelation is laughably absurd, DeNiro and Fanning are so far inside their roles that one can't giggle for long.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

From the base-model script to the assembly-line thrills, everything about Hide and Seek is generic except its star.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Aside from its relentless exploitation of a child, this minor thriller features an intriguing beginning, a middling middle and an increasingly silly end, with a multitude of red herrings going squoosh underfoot.

Slate David Edelstein

The movie is OK for a January horror picture, but given the premise and the cast--it should wring you out emotionally as it's scaring you witless.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It's not technically true to say the movie cheats, but let's say it abandons the truth and depth of its earlier scenes.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Its frights are not that chilling or original, its secrets more run-of-the-mill than astounding.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Kind of a drag.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Through its first two-thirds, at least, Hide and Seek does a good enough job of piquing our curiosity that the movie's ultimate dumbness is more than a minor insult.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Jigh class briefly gives way to high camp, which then itself dissipates to an anticlimactic thud.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Takes itself seriously enough to pull off a clever bit of sleight of hand, but doesn't have much to offer once the twist comes out of hiding.

Variety Derek Elley

A routine haunted child psychothriller gussied up with A-list casting.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The film's last 20 minutes devolve into a tedious slog through the kind of pointless, predictable running and screaming that give horror movies a bad name.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

There are twist endings and there are twist endings -- and then there is the logic-strangling, complete cheat of a reveal that takes place in the final 10 minutes of Hide and Seek. It's so absolutely preposterous that it stops the film cold and draws a collective "Aw c'mon!"

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

That Mr. De Niro and especially Miss Fanning manage to register through all this murk is a testament to their talent, which however squandered does nonetheless shine.

Empire Nick De Semlyen

Aside from some effectively understated acting from the leads, there's not much to remember or recommend.

Boston Globe Janice Page

Ignore the hype. You won't find anything startling or memorable in the derivative Hide and Seek.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Far be it from me to spoil the secret, but I will say this: The last reel should've been sent straight to the city dump.

USA Today Mike Clark

There's not a cliché that isn't nailed.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It all falls apart at the end, however, and in such a loud and abrasive way that it makes Brian De Palma's "Raising Cain" look like a model of restraint.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

Unless you're a connoisseur of movies that are so bad they're good, Hide and Seek is one game you're not going to want to play.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

De Niro gives a crafty performance, and director John Polson (Swimfan) maintains a pleasantly low-key suspense. But the ending is a disappointment.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Like far too many junky post-"Sixth Sense" thrillers, Hide And Seek essentially exists for the sake of its third-act plot twist, but the climactic revelation merely pushes it from bad to worse.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A thriller without thrills. It's also a thriller that cheats. The story is stretched to feature length only by having the film's incidents arranged in such a way as to reveal as little as possible.

New York Post Debra Birnbaum

A schlocky thriller choking under the weight of its own psychobabble.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

It is a ghastly experience, and I left the theater feeling as if I had waded neck-deep through a stream of raw sewage.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

May steal from the best, but it does it so badly and obviously that it has to depend upon gratuitous shock-cuts and soundtrack stings to elicit any kind of reflex-action fright from the viewer.

Film Threat Elias Sevada

Polson offers up a few chilling scares, but the underwritten screenplay really does show off its weaknesses.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Robert De Niro collects another stupendous paycheck for starring in another piece of exploitable junk.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Hide and Seek follows no semblance of internal logic--the unveiling of Charlie is a ludicrous cheat, the last reel a unique paroxysm of rancid idiocy.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.9 (out of 10) based on 38 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jess P. gave it a9:
I thought it was really good and it was jumpy and very twisted!!

Alma L. gave it a10:
Just Great!!!

Brian K. gave it an8:
Ethan, don't worry what Sam says about you never being a friend of Dakota's. Dakota is very open to her fans. In one rare moment, I was able to visit with her for 25 minutes before she had to leave. I even got a hug out of it at the end, which she gave without hesitation. Anyway, I only saw the movie because Dakota was in it. Yes, the plot is borrowed, yes the story is weak in some areas, but Fanning is nothing less than hypnotic--pure magic.

Mark B. gave it a3:
Little Dakota Fanning has got to be not only the most well-adjusted child actress in Hollywood history, but the most emotionally healthy and stable youngster in America PERIOD. Not only did she spend 90% of her screen time in War of the Worlds screaming at and running from Martians, but earlier this year was dealing with parental death, psychotic imaginary playmates and 87 other varieties of childhood trauma (to say nothing of having to look and dress like The Addams Family's Wednesday, only with brown sweaters instead of black dresses) in this derivative, mean-spirited horror movie frrom the director of Swimfan. (I'm sure Orson Welles never had a #1 box office weekend as a director, but this hack gets two different ones. Is there no justice in this world or what?) The usual array of pseudo-ominous tracking shots and cheeseball false alarms is made even more predictable by the fact that two of Robert DeNiro's lovely, talented costars, Elisabeth Shue and Amy Irving, are former Oscar nominees who've clearly seen better days, which gives you an idea of the thanklessness of their roles AND the relative length of their screen time. (Melissa Leo, of TV's acclaimed Homicide: Life on the Streets, also turns up, giving a performance that's both creepy and touching...and way too good for this.) Chances are you'll alternate yor viewing time between exclamations of "Man, those filmmakers are sick puppies!" and "Just how stupid do they think we are?" A couple of rather original jolts (such as Dakota's flip-movie book) make this vaguely better than DeNiro's last horror outing, the rock-bottom Godsend...but that's like saying that sawing your thumb and forefinger off in a workshop accident is preferable to losing your whole hand. And by the way, remember when DeNiro's appearance in a non-Scorsese film was a virtual guarantee that you were STILL going to see something terrific--be it an ambitious epic like The Mission, a guest turn in The Untouchables or even a purely commercial action-comedy like Midnight Run? The (hopefully not) late, lamented IFC game show Ultimate Film fanatic had a trivia category last year entitled "DeNiro: The Sellout Years"; if the writers of that category had known at the time of this and Godsend, they might well have altered the title to "DeNiro: The Whorehouse Years"!

matt a. gave it a6:
I think that most critics are missing the point. Yea, the screenplay isn't exactly first-rate and De Niro isn't as good as he used to be, but these kind of movies are out to win oscars, they supposed to scare the shit out of you, and frankly, I was scared, or better yet, disturbed. This was mostly due to Dakota Fanning's performance, which is nothing short of incredible for a child her age. Again, nothing amazing here, and the ending is contrived and a little maddening, but take it for what it is and you won't be all that disappointed.

ryan m gave it a2:
De Niro's performance is adequate, and the first half of the film builds some suspense. But the film eventually falls apart and becomes cliche and predictable, to the point of uneven silliness. Too many movies these days are looking for that "surprise" ending without effectively building the plot or characters. What usually turns out is an uneven movie with few truly suspensful moments and predictable outcomes. And Dakota's hype as a promising actress is just that. The future will tell. But overacting, dramatizing, and unmemorable performances won't help her now. Plus, boy is she ugly in this movie. Almost to the point of not being able to watch it.

Sam gave it an8:
Matt E, if you can't spell suspense, don't use in a sentence. Sorry, just had to say that though. Ethan N, you should write a review, not a letter to someone you have no chance with because of her age (she's younger) and fame. Just had to say that to, sorry. This is a great film in my opinion, I wasn't dissapointed at all, except for the surprise. It's a good idea, I just predicted it. I swear I did. It's a good film, not terrifying, but eerie.

Hide and Seek Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.

Hide and Seek
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.