Hidden DVD Review
Hidden DVD Review
Somebody hid all the horror.
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Hidden (aka, Skjult) opens on two mysterious blonde boys playing a strange game of hide and seek in some lonely, dark woods just off an even lonelier, darker 2-lane roadway. Not far away, a wrecked car lies in a crumpled heap, a dead body inside. Who is it, and who are the boys? We aren't allowed to know yet, because it's a flashback that's the catalyst for present-day Kai Koss' (Kristoffer Joner) troubles.
Grown up KK is a quiet and brooding man, already haunted by something within when he arrives in the small Norwegian town where he grew up. He's had to come home to bury his elderly mother and to claim his inheritance — what he doesn't count on is having to deal with feelings that have festered since he was a little boy playing alongside that highway, and having them manifest themselves in very real and potentially deadly ways.
At first, writer/director Pål Øie is uses all the locations (woods, mansion, motel) to their fullest effect for some chilling horror. But he's a tricky one — with one trick. What seems like a taut setup simply crumbles into one fruitless boo scare after another. But still you hold on, hoping.
Joner is quite good as KK, given the narrowness of the glum character. Mother Koss (Agnes Karin Haaskjold) is dead, but occasionally her withered corpse leaps-to and she's quite a fright to behold. Convenient sidekick Sara (Cecilie A. Mosli) is fine, but her motivation for helping KK solve the mystery of his past is never revealed and so she only seems to be there as "the girl". (FYI, "the girl" doesn't provide any horror-friendly nudity, and in fact there is very little bloodshed either. Hidden is all about atmosphere and what's not seen.)
The cinematography is quite lovely and the music is appropriate, but that stuff can only carry a movie so far. As you keep watching, thinking something concrete is going to happen, it never does. At least there is resolution (convoluted though it may be) with Peter (Anders Danielsen Lie), the other little boy seen in the woods… so, if you do make it all the way till the end there is some payoff.
Still in the mood for a little chill? Here are some better, recent Nordic and Scandinavian fright flicks: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Fear Me Not, Sauna, Let The Right One In, and Terribly Happy.
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson