Hide and Go Shriek (1988)

Powerful

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Brilliant and touching

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This 1988 horror film features 8 friends who decide to spend the night in a furniture store owned by one's father where they celebrate graduating high school and play a game of hide and seek, but a killer decides to change the rules. This starts off OK, but falls flat because the characters are unlikable, it's over a half hour until the killer strikes and most of the film is too dark. The film does have a creepy score and some gruesome deaths/kills. Fans of the genre may still want to view this at least once, but it's bland in my opinion.

"Hide and Go Shriek" follows a group of high-schoolers who have just graduated. Naturally, to celebrate their adulthood, they decide to spend the evening throwing a small party in one of the kids' father's furniture store after hours. But a cross-dressing killer has arrived to crash their party game of hide and go seek.Drawing on pre-established slasher traditions that were honed by many films in the early–mid-eighties, "Hide and Go Shriek" doesn't really get any points for originality. The setup is predictable, and the furniture store setting is reminiscent of the shopping mall backdrop in "The Initiation" or even "Chopping Mall." Kids have sex, they are effectually murdered, and a jarring synth score punctuates the deaths. What the film does have that distinguishes it a bit is the gender-bending killer, which, save a few rare instances, does mean the film was a bit ahead of its time. Director Skip Schoolnik plays with the killer's image effectively, providing eerie fleeting shots of a masculine figure in a negligee running through the store; the prologue of the film shows the killer being raped, which sets the stage. At other times, the killer appears in men's clothing, donning a blonde wig stolen from store mannequins. Each of the images are well composed and eerily rendered.The acting is a mixed bag, and some less-than-stellar dialogue doesn't exactly help matters, but by eighties slasher standards, the performances here are far from the worst. In true slasher fashion, the gore is ramped up here, with some brutal and inventive death scenes. As is the case with the majority of the film, the last act isn't particularly fresh or interesting, but the reveal at the end is definitely unorthodox in the slasher world.Overall, "Hide and Go Shriek" is not bad as far as eighties slasher films go, especially those from the latter half of the decade, a time when the well seemed to have run dry. The film doesn't offer much in way of surprises, but it is an entertaining and mostly well made film. The scuzzy, gender-bending villain who shifts from guise to guise is what really makes the film stand out, and is where most all of its tension and intrigue is generated from. 7/10.

HIDE AND GO SHRIEK is quite possibly the most "80's" horror movie I have ever seen. Unsurprisingly, the VHS was distributed by New World Pictures, who distributed some of the most eighties movies ever to see the light of day (1985's GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN, anyone?).A group of fun-loving and very horny teenagers decide to stay the night in one of the teens' father's furniture stores. However, what they don't know is that someone else is in there with them…someone who doesn't like intruders. Soon, they begin to die horrible deaths, one by one… HIDE AND GO SHRIEK really surprised me. I was expecting some laughs at the expense of dated fashions, ridiculous kills, a stupid killer, etc. Okay; this movie does have some laughable moments, but it also has more suspenseful moments than expected. The cover scene, featuring a terrified woman under a bed with the murderer's foot a few inches away from her, does indeed occur, and I will admit that it is quite scary. A certain habit of the killer's does make for some creepy scenes as well, and there's a good sense of isolation in the furniture store.Like in TERROR TRAIN, the killer here takes the costume of his recent victim in order to lure other victims to him when they think it is that person. Only here, it's clothes and not costumes. Even if it's a woman. Or if it's lingerie. This does create a few creepy moments, such as when a lingerie clad figure darts past one character giggling, and we just saw the character that was wearing lingerie killed.That's the thing, though; HIDE AND GO SHRIEK sports a lot of homosexual undertones that would make even A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2 blush. Aside from the cross-dressing killer, there's an implied relationship between two male characters, as shown in the beginning when the two are lifting weights and one tells the other to meet him in the shower, then gives him a seductive look as he chomps on his banana.The gore in HIDE AND GO SHRIEK isn't much, but we do get an absolutely fantastic elevator decapitation (try to tell when the real head of the actress is replaced by the fake one) and a few more somewhat bloody deaths. They are inventive, but my problem is that it could have been a lot higher. A lot of the teenagers end up surviving, but I think this is to leave room for a sequel that, sadly, never was.Some laughs are to be had at the wonderfully dated fashions and hairstyles, including the ever prevalent mullet (one character gets teased throughout the film for his short hair).All in all, a fun movie that actually got rid of a lot of the gripes I have with stupid characters. Instead of all running away, they actually rush the killer in one scene and bring him down! Good, good stuff.Highly recommended.

A handful of teenagers sneaks into a furniture store owned by the father of one of the teenagers.An ex-convict,just recently released,has been hired to realize a variety of manual tasks.Because he hasn't had the time to find anywhere to live,he is temporarily living in the building.The teenagers believe they are alone to eat,drink and have sex.However,someone is spying on them from the darkness.As to not be noticed,they leave the lights out.When they understand that somebody is watching them,it is too late:heads start to roll and blood starts to flow.After each murder,the killer steals his victim's clothes and fools the next teenager by making them believe he is one of them."Hide and Go Shriek" is a pretty good slasher.The killer wears his victims' clothing,whether they are men or women and the plastic mannequins look creepy.There is a good amount of violence and gore including memorable death scene where a teenager is attached on the roof of an elevator and the ceiling tears off her head when the elevator changes floors.So if you like slasher films give this one a look.7 out of 10.