Hide and Seek

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2:01

Hide and Seek

R

2005

1h 40m

Mystery & Thriller

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

12%

Tomatometer

154 Reviews

50%

Popcornmeter

250,000+ Ratings

Following the suicide of his wife (Amy Irving), psychologist David Callaway (Robert De Niro) decides to take his daughter, Emily (Dakota Fanning), away from New York City to a house in the country for a fresh start. Unfortunately, Emily is too grief-stricken to really appreciate her new surroundings, and she hasn't made any friends, save Charlie, who is imaginary. When Charlie begins to harbor resentment toward David, an already bad situation gets worse.

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Critics Consensus

Robert De Niro and especially Dakota Fanning have earned some praise for their work in Hide and Seek, but critics have called the rest of the film derivative, illogical and somewhat silly.

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Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

12/24/2010

3/5

Older teens may enjoy; too creepy for kids.

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Nathan Rabin

AV Club

10/06/2006

A tawdry cocktail of red herrings, cheap psychology, and shameless horror-movie tropes.

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Nick Schager

Lessons of Darkness

06/20/2005

D

A lame showcase for DeNiro's monotonous blankness and the hysterics of Fanning.

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Matthew Rozsa

Dread Central

01/15/2025

3/4

I appreciated director John Polson’s ability to capture the feel of upstate New York, enjoyed Ari Schlossberg’s clever script, and thought De Niro and Fanning gave characteristically fantastic central performances.

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Micheal Compton

Bowling Green Daily News

11/18/2019

Hide and Seek is a silly exercise on bad horror films that starts promisingly enough, but quickly erodes into a movie that has more laughs than thrills.

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Harry Haun

Film Journal International

03/01/2007

The movie starts out as one thing and suddenly jumps the tracks into something else. Then there's the question of credibility that this abrupt switch invites.

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Alex B

@AlexBioni Jul 12

Not every game is fun Hide and Seek has a solid mystery at its core. I genuinely had no idea where the story was going, and once the big reveal happens, everything clicks into place. The more you think about it afterward, the darker it becomes. The acting is good, even if it is not particularly memorable, and the dialogue feels like standard 2000s horror. The idea of exploring childhood trauma is interesting, but the movie pushes it to such an extreme that it loses some of its believability. The biggest issue is that the story feels thin. It mostly moves from one event to the next without adding many layers, which causes the pacing to drag. It is also not especially scary. The title drop at the end made me roll my eyes a little, but I still had a decent time with it. It is far from a hidden gem, but if you enjoy mystery driven thrillers, this one is easy enough to spend an evening with.

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Pedro A

@PedroAlao May 31

The weak plot, with underdeveloped characters, unconvincing contrivances and very cheap red herrings make this a rather shallow and forgettable movie.

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Lucas T

@Groovy Apr 18

Robert De Niro is great in this but the writing is so poor the plot just barely shambles it's self together.

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thiago s

@Thiagostone Oct 29

Filme fraco, o roteiro é fraco, as cenas são fracas, a história é fraca, o elenco é fraco, e ninguém ajuda a melhorar o filme, os personagens são fracos, e o filme deveria ter cenas bem melhores e relevantes, para fazer o filme ser bom

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hunter f

@RT83475555 Oct 5

I gotta say this movie is understand

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David T

@RT22716538 12/10/2024

Amazing horror, actually giving the creepy vibe and keeping you on your toes, don’t understand all the bad criticism, some used before tropes but not everything must be innovative and as far as horror/thriller goes this was amazing, and the acting is exceptional! A must watch if you like the genre

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John Polson

Director

Robert De Niro

Dr. Richard Goodman

Dakota Fanning

Emily Goodman

Famke Janssen

Dr. Katherine Carson

Elisabeth Shue

Elizabeth Young

Amy Irving

Alison Goodman

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Hide and Seek: Trailer 1

2:01

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Synopsis

Following the suicide of his wife (Amy Irving), psychologist David Callaway (Robert De Niro) decides to take his daughter, Emily (Dakota Fanning), away from New York City to a house in the country for a fresh start. Unfortunately, Emily is too grief-stricken to really appreciate her new surroundings, and she hasn't made any friends, save Charlie, who is imaginary. When Charlie begins to harbor resentment toward David, an already bad situation gets worse.

Director: John Polson
Producer: Barry Josephson, John P. Rogers
Screenwriter: Ari Schlossberg
Distributor: Fox, 20th Century Fox
Production Co: Fox 2000 Pictures, Josephson Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox
Rating: R (Violence|Frightening Sequences)
Genre: Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 28, 2005, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 1, 2013
Box Office (Gross USA): $51.1M
Runtime: 1h 40m
Sound Mix: Dolby SRD, Dolby SR, Surround
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)