Hide and Seek (2005)
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A grieving father's move to upstate New York is haunted by his daughter's imaginary friend and his own fractured psyche.
The story
After discovering his wife's body, psychologist Dr. David Callaway moves to upstate New York with his daughter, Emily. The transition is marred when Emily begins interacting with an imaginary friend named 'Charlie.' David becomes increasingly disturbed when Emily claims Charlie is responsible for the death of their cat. As David attempts to facilitate a healthy social life for Emily by arranging playdates, the atmosphere grows tense. Emily's behavior becomes increasingly hostile toward outsiders, and David begins experiencing disturbing nightmares about the night his wife died, leading to a growing sense of dread within their new home.
- First release year
- 2005
- Runtime (minutes)
- 101
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- John Polson
- Writers
- Ari Schlossberg · writer
- Cast and characters
- Robert De Niro; Dakota Fanning; Famke Janssen; Elisabeth Shue; Amy Irving; Dylan Baker
- Genres
- psychological thriller; horror; mystery
- Themes
- dissociative identity disorder; grief; imaginary friends; rage
- Tone and mood
- psychological; tense; dark
- Premise and plot tags
- psychological thriller; horror; mystery; dissociative identity disorder; imaginary friends
- Content notes
- moderate horror and violence
- Reception
- The film received mixed reviews, with praise for the lead performances but criticism for its logic and derivative nature. It holds a 12% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 35/100 on Metacritic.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 3.9/10 · review count: 154; Metacritic · score: 35 · scale: 100 · review count: 34
- Awards and nominations
- MTV Movie Award · Best Frightened Performance · 2005 · win
- Production trivia
- Albert Hughes was initially signed to direct but left due to creative differences.; The film was released in two versions (international and domestic) with different endings.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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