Hidden (2005)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This Film was innovative in it's approach, anyone who knows anything about making films should be impressed with the quality of this film especially in accordance to it's budget. Regardless it was well crafted, the tension was clearly evident and the camera work was second to none. The NZ Film Industry needs more films and Directors with a fresh vision and skill as displayed by this project. There were some magic moments, one of them is up a tree, very interesting, good acting, good writing. I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys the Thriller genre or anyone who likes to be surprised by what someone can achieve independently.

Hidden is a classic example of what happens when someone makes a short film idea last for 90mins. With the odd piece of dialogue here and there we mostly get footage of people playing hide and seek, most of which is people running, people over reacting to being found you know the classic things that happen when there is no clear or actual narrative.Some of the camera work was OK, however the over bright white effect got annoying quick as did the Shaky cam.Now on to the misleading part, the cover art is hugely misleading, one it makes it look like a horror film, it isn't it is an alternative art house film, from the red eyed person on the front you would think it is something similar to Blair witch and the Ring. The only similarity is they all suck.The ending twist was remarkably predictable, lets see, people in an unrealistic situation, acting very oddly, well clearly something about them all is off, so either they are Aliens, Monsters, or dead. Considering how the film is shot in the over white effect, the answer was clearly they are all dead...perhaps the oldest "twist" in the book next to "it turns out it's man!".If it was a 15 minute film I would give it a good rating, but clearly it shows the director is unable to tell if a story can actually play out for that length of time. The characters are bland, with very little dialogue, in fact, there is really only an escalation of dialogue after the 40minute mark, till then it is pretty much people running, but don't worry after the 40min mark, people still run for the majority of the film.Dull as dishwater.

I really enjoyed Hidden for what it was - a no budget digital feature made on the back of writer/director and stuntman Tim McLachlan (who is one of New Zealands best stunt men and a Director with a bright future).You have to admit it's got some mean stunts! And I don't think a 13 year old could get those performances out of the actors! There was some choice acting by Hayley Halliday (played Brooke), Kiel McNaughton (played Mark) and Luke Peary (played Carl) and all the other actors were really easy to watch and likable.I'm curious as to weather people know just how hard it is to write a film, shoot it, edit it, and do post production all on your own because you have no budget?!Hidden won 4 awards at over seas festivals and was nominated for an award at the 2006 New Zealand Film Awards. And I can see why but I guess its a matter of taste - can't please everyone! I highly recommend renting it!

Hidden is one of the worst movies I have ever seen, and I've seen Battlefield Earth. This movie manages to straddle horror, daytime soap, the punchline to "The Sixth Sense", art house, and whatever genres have misconfigured cameras with too much white balance.The movie is set in bush tracks, kids camps, and trees, somewhere in New Zealand. People are being chased by something or other people. There are deep conversations. Sometimes people start shaking and pass out... unfortunately this effect did not extend to the audience and so people had to leave the theater to avoid the movie, which they did, in droves. Like a train of lemmings person by person got up and left. Sometimes group inertia would apply and people would leave in groups. I can't express how many walk outs this movie had but I'll continue doing so anyway: This movie has been widely reported as one of the most unpopular movies ever shown in Reading Cinemas NZ.Hidden is full of uncomfortably long and lingering shots of peoples faces. This gives you time to guess what's going on in their mind... certainly the plot or the narrative give you no clues. Perhaps they're wondering why they were given a script that told them to pretend as if they had finger guns and shoot at each other making "Peyaow!" bullet ricochet noises, a script that told them to crack jokes so bad they'd be rejected from chippy packets. Perhaps they're wondering how how this movie could possibly get them to where they want to be.There's no coherent story-telling going on here and each 5 minute story is never built upon. There's nothing that makes you care for the people. The characters are two dimensional and boring (for example there's a fat girl who was teased for being fat and that's her character). There are hints towards a Maori Taniwha but no reason given why other than that the character is Maori. New Zealanders might recognise some references to Cave Creek, but they'd be reading in to the storyline rather than being told it.A lack of budget isn't an excuse for a incoherent story, and movies like The Blair Witch Project have shown what small budgets can achieve. This movie isn't lacking special effects and 35mm film -- it's lacking story telling ability.On the positive side the movie does feature a girl with a great heaving bosom who runs up and down a track for a while in the movie. There is also a scene where someone runs up a tree against gravity. When a movie lacks plot, acting, and other appreciable qualities you have to take what you can get even if it is rather crass.I love New Zealand film. If WETA's Richard Taylor said the lavish quote that's adorned on all the movie posters then he was either intoxicated or motivated to encourage New Zealand film, not to give a fair opinion of the movie. Not saying negative things about a New Zealand movie has propelled this movie (and possibly "Spooked") to mainstream, not the movies quality.PS. the punchline is that they're all dead and ghosts. I ticked the "contains spoiler" check box so there's the spoiler. Now you don't have to see the movie. Good for you.