There are many tropes used in horror films, from characters running upstairs and not out the front door to cell phones that stop working at the exact wrong moment. One of the most persistent tropes is a child who is creepy and connected to the supernatural. Maybe the child is dead or they can see spirits that no one else can. Often, this is perfectly scary and fans like these characters. But sometimes, a movie is truly bad and even this interesting trope can't save it.
Hide and Seek was released in 2005 and stars Robert De Niro as David Callaway. After moving to a house in the country with his young daughter Emily (Dakota Fanning), David realizes that something is off about the home and that Emily is acting strangely. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't have much going on and it can be said that Hide and Seek wastes this horror trope.
The cute but creepy child is a horror and thriller genre trope that sometimes works. After all, it can be pretty terrifying to see a seemingly innocent little kid walking through their house in the middle of the night, sure that they have seen a ghost. Kids in horror movies tend to know more than the adults, and that can be unnerving as well, as they sense what's going on before others do. But watching Dakota Fanning's character Emily in Hide and Seek serves as a reminder that sometimes, the creepy child trope can be done poorly.
There are many horror movies about creepy children, but Hide and Seek goes in an incredibly disturbing direction that is a big mistake. After Emily seems to have an imaginary friend named Charlie and Emily becomes more and more afraid of living in the house, the big plot twist comes out: David is Charlie and he killed his wife and Emily's mom Elizabeth. Unlike some incredible horror movie plot twists, this one is a bad idea and it will stay with fans for the wrong reasons. Audiences are told that David has dissociative identity disorder. Because the movie treats David as an evil villain, it makes light of mental health conditions, and that feels difficult to accept. David is not treated in a careful way at all.
The twist in Hide and Seek is also pretty easy to predict. David looks a mixture of upset and guilty for most of the movie, and since something always feels off about the death of his wife, horror fans can likely guess what's going to happen. The twist of a husband killing his wife is nothing new and it's likely that most people watching this film will know what's coming.
Emily also talks about her imaginary friend so much that nothing else seems to be going on in the film, and that makes these scenes boring after a while, as audiences know what to expect. There are no amazing, interesting surprises here. The movie's tone is also flat, which is the last thing that thriller fans want. Instead, the movie should move ahead at breakneck speed and audiences should be excited to learn the truth about what's going on. Dakota Fanning is a talented actress and she has been impressing fans since she was young, but she isn't given too much material here and it feels like anyone could have been put in this part with the same results.
The ending is also problematic as Katherine Carson (Famke Janssen) shoots and kills David/Charlie. This is a tragic and dark conclusion to a fairly flat movie where nothing seems to happen and yet the threat of "Charlie" is always present. At the end, Katherine is taking care of Emily, who draws a self-portrait. Because she has two heads, audiences are supposed to think that she has the same condition as her dad. This seems like a cheap shot and it's not a great way to end the movie. Emily still looks so sad and upset that it doesn't seem like her life is going to be any better now.
Hide and Seek doesn't add much to the horror/thriller genre and is ultimately forgettable. Emily and David don't have a very warm or loving relationship, so when David is revealed as Charlie, it's hard to really care. Unlike smart elevated horror movies or even campy fun ones, this 2005 film isn't much to write home about. It's not saying anything particularly interesting, but it's not enjoyable to watch, either, as audiences are going to spend most of the run time feeling badly for Emily and wishing that she had some compassionate, proper adult supervision. That's not exactly the point of a scary movie.