StyleSk8r
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
loomis78-815-989034
The opening scene has a 12 year old boy named Kai coming out of what appears to be a grave in the woods. He causes an accident that kills another boy named Peter's parents. The film then jumps to a grown up Kai (Joner) who has inherited his mother's creepy house. His cruel Mother (Agnes Karin Haaskjold) abused Kai when he was young and his memories of her are rotten. He identifies her body at the morgue in a startling scene that has a great jump in it and heads to the house with two cans of gasoline to burn it down. Traumas from his past begin to haunt him and people around him begin to die. Kai becomes convinced it is Peter (Danielsen Lie) as a grown up that wants revenge for his dead parents. This Norwegian horror film has a very strong visual presence which creates some superb atmosphere. Writer/Director Pal Oie uses the Mother character for several unnerving and scary jumps not to mention some hair raising moments. The imagery and mood is odd and the shadowy lighting and cinematography definitely is effective. Even reading subtitles, this one will keep you interested and scared. The story does wander at times, including an ending that may leave you scratching your head, but Hidden is a horror film fans joy due to the fact it is actually scary.
Ben Larson
Those looking for a typical slasher film need look elsewhere. This is a horror/thriller that takes it time to catch you off guard.Kai (Kristoffer Joner) inherits a house after his mother's death. It is pretty decrepit. Perfect for a horror film. In it he finds a lot more than he bargained for. Me? I would have been outta there in 5 minutes! KK (Joner) is dealing with memories and replays from a past that holds secrets. Secrets about the abuse he suffered as a child, and secrets about things he did.It takes place not only in the house, but also in the woods, which really adds atmosphere.It is nice to see horror films that pace themselves and use startling effects and heavy atmosphere to thrill you instead of over-the-top Hollywood effects. Horror is becoming the domain of the Europeans, while Hollywood engages in torture porn.
Scarecrow-88
After a puzzling opening involving two young boys, in a wilderness near a highway, with a resulting car crash thanks in part to one of the children running across the road in front of an oncoming semi, Pål Øie's Skjult(Hidden) introduces us to Kai Koss, who has returned to his home after a 19 year absence because his mother has passed on. He wears the baggage of an obviously traumatic past on his weary face. There's an anger very present as we see him snap his mother's dead finger with pleasure, announcing to her that she will burn. He proceeds, two gasoline canisters in hand, with plans to set his wretched mother's house, which is falling apart and in ruin, on fire. Fortunate for the house, a female cop, Sara(Cecilie A Mosli), who once knew Kai, interferes before he can commence with such plans. Staying in a hotel near his home, it's not long until two teenagers come up missing, and he becomes a suspect since nothing was wrong until he returned. He doesn't make friends(Kai is not a people person)and as a search party works throughout the wilderness, Kai informs Sara that Peter is the one responsible for what is transpiring.The movie certainly implicates Kai for the murders committed in the film. He was at the house when the mortician's daughter and her boyfriend were rambling about inside. His hallucinations of his mother, and possibly Peter, the brother Kai believes never fell to his doom down the waterfall. His presence when two are searching through Kai's house for any clues regarding the two kids gone missing. The heart wrenching fact that Kai was tormented as a child, never to grow into a functional human being. Perhaps after failed foster care and adoptions, he had somehow integrated into society, Kai's return to the place which had left him a scarred and broken man certainly isn't good for the soul. He's anti-social, never able, it seems, to even crack a smile, miserable and haunted, Kristopher Loner's eyes alone tell all we need to know, if the burns on different parts of the body aren't enough. We see the secret room, hidden away in the basement of the house, the perfect place to torture someone and not get caught. This room itself is quite foreboding, a prison where no one can hear you scream. The ominous figure in a red hoody, ever present, yet photographed as if an apparition, it's hard not to ponder if this is Peter or a personality adopted by Kai's damaged psyche. The murders are definitely real, sharpened sticks stabbing into victims unaware of the killer just behind them..the question is whether Peter is real or just Kai masquerading as him, not knowing it is he who is actually the one killing folks.Exquisitely photographed by Sjur Aarthun, who has an effective way of capturing Loner's face and the atmospheric surroundings of the wilderness and Kai's mother's creepy house(which seems to represent the ugliness and sinister nature of it's former owner), methodically paced, and director Pål Øie gradually develops Kai's dilemma as signs of his guilt build against him. What I think is Skjult's greatest success if how we sympathize with the lead character because of what he had to endure as a child, understanding just why he's a tortured soul with little room to wiggle out of his inevitable plight..so few are able to escape from such experiences, evolving into a normal person without mental hang-ups. There's enough ambiguity present, questioning what is real and unreal in regards to certain occurrences involving Kai, what he sees, and who are affected by his return home. What is always certain is that Kai's fate seems destined to end in tragedy..he may've escaped from the room which kept him prisoner, but Kai was never really free.
Coventry
Pal Oie's second long-feature film is largely reminiscent to his 2003 effort "Dark Woods"; which regrettably also means that he makes the same mistakes and trips over the exact same obstacles. The filming locations and scenery are truly breathtaking and the thematic influences of ancient Norwegian folklore tales are very intriguing, but the story never really appears to develop itself and eventually drowns in its own atmosphere of mystery and complexity. Oie serves an attractive potpourri wholesome of dark family secrets, alleged schizophrenia and spiritual connection with nature, but everything remains rather vague and incoherent. The somewhat unworldly and introvert Kai Koss returns to his remote backwoods hometown because his old mother passed away and he's the sole heir to inherit the ramshackle parental mansion. Kai Koss isn't too keen to return because his mother abused him and regularly locked up him up in the basement, and the people he grew up with always considered him to be a social outcast. His homecoming coincides with the disappearance of a two young campers that were last seen in the woods surrounding Kai's house. The local vigilante squad naturally suspects him, but he himself is convinced that Peter is behind the strange occurrences. Peter was a young boy who witnessed his parents dying in a car crash and then fled into the woods. Kai senses that Peter still prowls around the area even though the police holds strong evidence that he fell into the waterfall and died. "Hidden" is the type of film that keeps you staring at the screen with interest simply because it's beautifully shot and masterfully stylish. So beautiful and so stylish, even, that you don't immediately notice the lack of development. Kristoffer Joner – also the lead in the aforementioned "Dark Woods" – is a terrific actor and Hordaland is most definitely a county in Norway that I will visit sooner or later, but "Hidden" is sadly little more than just another pseudo psychological horror portrait
