Reviews: Hide and Seek (2005) Movie Review
Genres: Horror, Thriller, Drama, Mystery
Subgenres: Possession, Psychological, Supernatural, Thriller, Cursed, Haunted, Psychic
Our take on Hide and Seek (2005) explores its plot, scares, and horror highlights to help fans decide if it deserves a place on their watchlist.
Hide and Seek (2005) is a 1h 41-min American psychological horror-thriller movie that had an estimated budget of $25 million and grossed over $122.7 million at the box office. Director John Polson (Mission: Impossible II (2000), Elementary (2013-2016), Swimfan (2002)) did a fabulous job conveying an appropriate morbid atmosphere and did a fantastic job with the suspense scenes. The movie contains s**ual suggestions, one brief upper body nudity scene, bad language, violence, frightening scenes, tension, suspense, thrills, mystery, drama and jump scares.
Hide and Seek revolves around young Emily (Dakota Fanning - Coraline (2009), War of the Worlds (2005), Man on Fire (2004), I Am Sam (2001)) and her psychotic imaginary friend Charlie who commits murders and a twist that I did not see coming. The movie ran at a slow burning pace, but it had enough meat/juice to keep you entertained as it held my utmost attention from the beginning to the ending. The ending could have been better, but it works. Hide and Seek got me good by reeling me into the point where I did not want to take a bathroom break because I could not wait to see what will happen next. Yes, there was a pause button, but it is not the same experience as watching the movie through in one sitting.
Dr. David Callaway (Robert De Niro - Goodfellas (1990), The Godfather: Part II (1974), Casino (1995)) is a psychologist who resides in New York City with his family. He found his wife’s Allison (Amy Irving - Carrie (1976), Adam (2009), Yentl (1983)) lifeless body in the bathtub. David decides to move to Upstate New York with his 9-year-old daughter Emily. Emily becomes friends with Charlie who is apparently imaginary, and David is very disturbed by that. He later found their cat dead in their bathtub, but Emily tells him that Charlie did that to the cat.
David is suspicious of their married couple neighbor Laura (Melissa Leo - The Fighter (2010), Prisoners (2013), Oblivion (2013), The Equalizer (2014)) and Stephen (Robert John Burke) because of their interest in Emily. Emily does not like anyone coming over to their house and does what she can to chase them away, even death. The movie goes on to exploring more details about the neighbors and others that are involved in David’s life.
All of the actors gave us outstanding performances but casting Dakota Fanning and Robert DeNiro together was brilliant. Hide and Seek had the potential of being something remarkable, but the lazy/tired conclusion made me give the movie a 6. The soundtrack was good and help to raise the chill/scare factor. The gore factor was not there, but there was blood, just not too much of it. Hide and Seek is a movie that all horror fans should watch at least once because it will keep you thinking and guessing until the thrill sinks in the final scene.
Sources Used to Shape This Review
Insights in this review are drawn from director interviews, fan commentary, production notes, and long-form breakdowns across genre-specific platforms. Content is written uniquely and reviewed for accuracy.
- Hide and Seek Rating Scores
- Our Score: 6/10
- Overall Score: 4.42/10
- IMDB: 5.9/10
- MetaCritic: 3.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 1.3/10
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