Imaginary friends, murder, complete suspense. These are not words most would use to describe everyone’s favorite children’s game, Hide and Seek. However, that’s not the case for this new horror film, directed by John Polson. Starring Robert De Niro, Dakota Fanning, Elizabeth Shue and Famke Janssen, this movie will have you wanting to hide under your seat. David Callaway (De Niro) moves from the big city to the country after his wife’s suicide.David’s daughter, nineyear- old Emily, is taking her mothers death very hard, as they were very close. She tries to cope with this traumatic event by creating an imaginary friend whom she calls Charlie. David, a psychologist, knows this is a somewhat normal way for a child to cope with such a tragic loss. However, Emily seems to become more and more distant from her father and everyone else since Charlie came into the picture.
David meets a local woman, Elizabeth Young (Shue) whose niece, Amy, is the same age as Emily. David and Elizabeth try to make Emily and Amy become friends, but it doesn’t seem to work very well. Emily’s imaginary friend Charlie eventually starts to do more harm than good. People keep turning up murdered and the only thing young Emily can say is “Charlie did it, it was Charlie!!!”
Emily’s psychologist, who is also David’s friend, tells David that maybe he should send her back to the city so she can be evaluated. David says he will give it a few weeks and then see what happens. She reluctantly agrees. Things start to get worse and then there are many twists and turns that leave you guessing until the end.
This was one of the scariest movies I have seen in a while. Robert De Niro is excellent as always and the young Dakota Fanning has been one of my favorite young actresses. I would definitely recommend this movie, but make sure you have somewhere to hide afterwards!