Hide and seek

Year of release : 2005

 

Run time : 1h41min

 

Genre : Psychological Thriller / Horror

 

Cast : Robert de Niro, Dakota Fanning, Elisabeth Shue, Famke Janssen, Melissa Leo

 

 

After his wife commits suicide,David takes his little girl,who was treated for trauma,to a small town to heal.

As he is settling in, his daughter turns darker and darker, and when he brings her a friend to play with,she scares her away. After,she is rude to the little girl's aunt,because she says, her father likes her as much as he did her mother.

The daughter blames all this behavior on her imaginary friend,Charlie.

David wants to meet Charlie,but his daughter says that's not possible.

David starts suspecting his neighbor of being Charlie,as the man deals with the loss of his own daughter, and David sees him creeping around their place.

 

David deals with some trauma of his own,as every night he has a recurring nightmare (about the New Year's Eve party) he wakes up from,at 2:06 in the morning.

He becomes increasingly disturbed by his daughter's attitude,as he finds the bath tub a mess with the writing on the wall "You let her die",after which he finds the family cat drowned in it. Every time this happens,his daughter is telling him it's Charlie.

 

From an imaginary friend, Charlie starts becoming more and more real,and it seems something darker is hiding behind this name.

Personally, I enjoyed the movie, especially the reveal at the end.

This was one of my favorite movies back when it was released. It was one of those movies,which had quite a few alternate endings,and they were all pretty good.

 

I liked the movie's atmosphere,the late autumn vibe,although I think it's supposed to be January or February , the secluded house ( I really liked its architecture) with its forest and own grotto.

 

The movie is called Hide and Seek after the game the little girl played with her mother, and after,with Charlie.

 

The actors were good.

 

The soundtrack was good.

The movie was a box office success, as it grossed 127.4 million dollars, against a budget of 25 million. Despite its success, the critics gave it negative reviews, calling it " derivative, illogical and silly".

Cinema Score audiences gave the movie a B-.

 

Rating : Worth a watch !