Hide and Seek (2005)

As a widower tries to piece together his life in the wake of his wife's suicide, his daughter finds solace -- at first -- in her imaginary friend.

Director:

John Polson

Writer:

Ari Schlossberg

Stars:

Robert De Niro, Dakota Fanning, Famke Janssen

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Robert De Niro	...	David Callaway
Dakota Fanning	...	Emily Callaway
Famke Janssen	...	Katherine
Elisabeth Shue	...	Elizabeth
Amy Irving	...	Alison Callaway
Dylan Baker	...	Sheriff Hafferty
Melissa Leo	...	Laura
Robert John Burke	...	Steven
Molly Grant Kallins	...	Amy
David Chandler	...	Mr. Haskins
Jake Dylan Baumer	...	Disturbed Boy

Storyline

Hide and Seek revolves around a widower and his daughter. They move to upstate and Emily soon creates an imaginary friend named Charlie... but this act takes an unexpected and terrifying turn, where her father and doctor start to worry about Emily's gruesome habits.

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Plot Keywords:

suicide | doctor | imaginary friend | widower | moving in | 

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Taglines:

Come out come out whatever you are

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for frightening sequences and violence

Details

Country:

USA Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 January 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mente siniestra

Filming Locations:

257 Central Park West, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$502,631 (Japan) (22 April 2005)

Gross:

$3,082,877 (Japan) (13 May 2005)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Fox 2000 Pictures, Josephson Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In 2004, director John Polson missed attending Tropfest, the Short-film Festival he created, for the first time ever since it began in 1993 due to his directing commitments on this film.

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Goofs

During the beginning of the movie when Emily is on the merry-go-round, she has permanent front teeth, but during some of the latter parts of the movie she still has baby teeth.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Alison: Faster.
Emily: No, no, no.

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Connections

Featured in Hide and Seek: Do You Want to Play? The Making of 'Hide and Seek' (2005)

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Soundtracks

"Sax Kitten"
Written by Carlos Diernhammer
Courtesy of Extreme Production Music

User Reviews

Top Notch Acting In A Good Suspense-Mystery.

"Hide and Seek" is one of the best horror films I've seen in awhile. It is about a psychologist, David Callaway (Robert DeNiro) whose wife commits suicide, and he decides to move to upstate New York with his daughter, Emily (Dakota Fanning), whose personality has severely changed after her mother's death. A family friend/psychologist/co-worker of David, Katherine (Famke Janssen) disagrees with David's decision to move, and thinks that Emily should stay where she is. Then after David and Emily move into their new house, David meets Elizabeth (Elisabeth Shue), who becomes a friend to David and Emily. Then strange things begin to happen - Emily discovers a new imaginary friend, Charlie. And then people start to die.

Robert DeNiro and Dakota Fanning are both brilliant, their performances were extremely real and convincing. Dakota is quite talented for her age, and DeNiro gives another great performance like he always does. Famke Janssen ("Don't Say A Word" and "House on Haunted Hill") also does great, and Elisabeth Shue ("The Karate Kid") is also very good. In fact, the whole cast was great. The whole film was really suspenseful, and it tricks you a lot. The atmosphere was heavy, I loved the whole feeling of the secluded upstate New York small-town, and the large house David and Emily move into.

I liked this movie because it was more psychological rather than chop and slash gore that most horror films use to scare people. "Hide and Seek" has a good, solid story behind it, which is why it is such a good horror film, and the acting is top notch on top of it all. I don't understand everyone's problem with this movie, it was actually quite good. Sure, the ending is a little cliché, but the rest of the movie was good enough on it's own. 8/10.