I just watched this yesterday. Normally I complain about movies where the children don't talk and you spend hours just staring at their big heads and thinking, "JUST SAY SOMETHING!", but I think it was different just because it was a girl this time. Plus her silence made sense (traumatized).
Man, are Dakota Fanning's eyes blue. They stood out a lot with the dark hair. She looked pretty creepy.
Okay, so the ending . . . I was thinking it was the neighbor, but he got rid of him so easily and I was like, "Okay, so who IS Charlie?" and then they reveal it as . . . a split personality? C'mon! I rolled my eyes at that point. The plus side was that Robert Deniro makes a good villain. The ending in the cave was really creepy, especially with the music box playing and all the dismembered dolls floating in the water.
It was just a very sad movie. This little girl sees her dead mother--and then her dad goes crazy and is shot to death in front of her. Goodness, talk about the guy overreacting too--You know, I was just thinking the other day about how often a wife cheats on her husband and then he develops a split personality, kills her, and then tricks himself into thinking his daughter is killing people and makes best friends with his daughter but thinks it's an imaginary friend because he doesn't remember what his split personality does.
This reminded me a LOT of Godsend, except it was good and Godsend was horrible. I don't think I'd buy Hide and Seek, but I liked it. The drawings were creepy--It was really scary when David is reading Emily's diary and it's a little flip book of her mother committing suicide.
I liked how they repeated things in different ways during the movie. Like the scenes where someone tries to find Emily and says, "I could've sworn I saw a little girl named Emily come in here." With her mother it was sweet, when her father tried it was bittersweet and sad, and when Charlie did it, it was scary and creepy. I thought it was sad when David was making the face the mother made to cheer Emily up, but it was just reminding her of her mother. Then he tells her he loves her more than anything in the world, exactly like the mother did before she died.
They killed the cat and that was pretty sad. I was like, "Ick!" Nasty business. Plus they killed off the woman David was dating(?) and it was really sad because she was a likeable character.
Everyone in the town was kinda creepy if you ask me. His neighbors had problems.
Anyway, what did you all think?
Posted by mamamiasweetpeaches (Member # 1715) on :
I didnt see it. When it came out in theatres I prety mcuh knew I wasnt gonna see it so I peeked at Spoilers on some website..(I did that with GODSEND too). Why is Robert DeNiro making horror movies now...and bad ones at that???? After it's been out on video for a few weeks I'll probably get a used $5 copy off half.com
Posted by Ronnie (Member # 465) on :
i liked this movie. it wasn't typical ending or situation. i like dakota fanning's role. she played a traumatized child, very well. and i am glad that DeNiro is doing thrillers. he's always done a good job in those kinds of movies. now the role i couldn't stand him in was meet the fockers/meet the parents.
i like when movies don't explain every little thing within the movie...but that it leaves you to make your own determination of what was going on at that point.
i was also shocked about elizabeth shue's character (who's name was elizabeth in the movie) and how she was killed off. i thought that when she flew out the window, and next, david woke up, that it was all a dream. but at that moment, when elizabeth looked in the closet, i knew charlie was an adult, because she was looking up at someone as she flew backwards out the window.
the movie wasn't super, but good in the spooky way. Posted by ISIS (Member # 1780) on :
We rented it...well actually my husband went back to get it...the girl recognized him from last night...and said she'd give it to him free...I said from the sounds of some of the reviews...you'll be glad you didn't pay for it.
I am leaving to get my Aunt in about 1/2 an hour, and then we are going out to dinner...then we'll come back and watch it.
I skimmed over some of the spoliers Lupa wrote...cause I was not following it anyway...I forgot that Elizabeth Shue was in it.
I think Robert Deniro plays a good crazy lunatic- Cape Fear and Taxi Driver....but my actual favorite part he ever did was in Stanley and Iris with Jane Fonda...I think that is a great movie.
Posted by Sam Reservoir Dog Hain (Member # 3150) on :
I've heard from some people that this movie was surprisingly good. So It's one I might possibly buy sometime in the very near future after I get off my Quentin Tarantino kick.
Posted by Obscurus Lupa (Member # 2700) on :
Isis, reading the spoilers ruined the movie for you! But oh well.
Posted by ISIS (Member # 1780) on :
*****Spoliers and then some*******
I just watched it...it was ok, it wasn't unwatchable. But, one of the scariest things about it, is how unrecognizable Amy Irving was...holy cow...she looked nothing like she use to...I can picture her in Honeysuckle Rose and Micki and Maude...and she looks like she's about 70 years old now.
Elizabeth Shue was too young for Robert Deniro...she was a little too desperate...if on a first date with someone...their daughter says my mom killed herself...and I hope you don't end up like her...I think I'd RUN!! Boy...is Elizabeth Shue getting so old that they have to give her ...her own name-Elizabeth- for the movie, so she didn't forget who she was?
If someone is a psychologist...and an affair splits them in half and you start killing people...were you ever qualified to be actually giving advice to anyone ever??
What was up with the next door neighbors...and the other guy who put the key under the door...boy they were creepy...or did Robert Deniro just think they were...cause he was insane??
So...how did he actually kill the mother?? Did he smother her...or did he stab her and stick her in the bath tub...to make it look like suicide?? or both??
I want to know why 2 people...need a house the size of a small resort...and how did it get completely furnished with everything they needed on their first day...obviously his office wasn't what he had been thinking it was.
It was a little bit suspenseful...but it was not horribly scary, infact the beginning drug on and on, and I thought holy cow...this therapy isn't working...take her back to New York.
Dakota Fanning...she is a great little actress...that's what is so shocking...is how she talked and the emotion and stuff that she puts in to stuff...is better than all the adults around her.
[ 10. July 2005, 21:01: Message edited by: ISIS ]
Posted by Obscurus Lupa (Member # 2700) on :
I think the big plot twist, the fact that the dad was the villain, was the big reason to watch and it makes it kinda not as good if you already know it's gonna happen, Isis.
He didn't know he was a killer, so he wouldn't know he shouldn't be giving psychological advice to folks, y'know?
I think they made the whole town creepy to make you suspect everyone for a whodunnit type situation.
My guess is that he smothered his wife (which would explain the whole "smothering with a pillow" segment, right?) and then cut her wrists to make it look like suicide.
Ha, the house thing is pretty funny. I didn't even think about that--houses in movies are just so big and mansion-y.
Dakota Fanning is great, and I thought she did a terrific job with the movie.
What I didn't get about the movie . . . in the end, her picture has two heads. Judging by the four alternate endings, (a couple segments had her playing hide and seek, and finding her reflection in a mirror in her closet and saying, "There you are.") I'm guessing that it meant she developed split personalities too. But . . . why? I mean, split personalities aren't hereditary. I also didn't understand the asylum alternate ending. Was she just imagining that it was a nice room with a closet and mirror, or did they really dress it up like that, or what? If the latter is the case, I don't think asylums work that way.
[ 11. July 2005, 01:11: Message edited by: Obscurus Lupa ]
Posted by ISIS (Member # 1780) on :
I didn't watch the alternate endings...but my mom, and my Aunt and I said the same thing...why did they do the 2 headed picture...that is just to through a possible sequel in to the picture.
Yeah, I thought tha same thing about putting the creepy neighbors in to make you think it might be them...but geez....they didn't really give any kind of explaination other than the one couple loosing their child- who supposedly looked like her. But, they wouldn't have had anything to do with the mother's death...so you know that is what connected the whole thing together anyway.
We all said...we were sick of everyone saying "what a beautiful little girl"...she's so adorable.. NOT!!
It actually was not as bad as I thought it would be.
Posted by mamamiasweetpeaches (Member # 1715) on :
I always find myself watching movies and wondering "Why do they need such a big house???" when I watch horror movies...but you know what? theres just me and two other people and I'm sure if I won the lottery tomorrow I would buy a huge castle and then people would say it about me!
*QUESTION WITH SPOILER IN IT:
How did the little girl not know Charlie was her father...and if she did....why didn't she say anything???
Posted by ISIS (Member # 1780) on :
I think she did know the father was Charlie...the Dad called himself Charlie...I think she just didn't know how to tell him that he was crazy-plus she told him all the time she didn't like him anyway...and here's the part, before they left to go there...all he had done was kill the mother- which she didn't even know about. Charlie didn't appear until they got to that house...right?? And what was strange is what was he doing up until he actually killed the cat and Elizabeth Shue??? He just seemed to go bonkers...and I am not really sure what the reasoning was for him killing the other people. I mean I understand the motive of the wife...alot of people snap in a moment of rage...but what caused him to be snapping back and forth....to where he completely lost it...because he seemed to not have that problem while living in New York.
Posted by Obscurus Lupa (Member # 2700) on :
Well, we're to assume Charlie was created after David saw his wife cheating on him, and I think they moved soon after her death so there wasn't really a problem with Charlie because they hadn't been in their house in New York long after he was created.
And I think his split personality hated him because he was still in love with the wife, or something. Charlie wanted David miserable . . . that and he was crazy. I think split personalities qualifies you as crazy.
And I think Charlie scared Emily a lot, which is why she didn't say anything. I mean, how do you tell your dad that he's crazy? Plus I'm assuming while David doesn't remember what Charlie does, Charlie remembers what happens with David and could show up at any moment to do the same thing to Emily that he did to the cat or Elizabeth. I mean, Charlie was pretty scary, right? Especially to a girl that young.
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But oh well.
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