.gif)
Hide and Seek (2005 film)
Encyclopedia
Hide and Seek is a 2005 American horror film
starring Robert De Niro
, Famke Janssen
and Dakota Fanning
. It was directed by John Polson
. The film opened in the United States in January 2005 and was top of the box office. It did not reach the same level of critical success; it garnered mainly negative reviews, receiving only a 13% on Rotten Tomatoes
. The performances of the actors were highly praised however.
, Dr. David Callaway (Robert De Niro
), a psychologist working in New York City
, decides to move with his daughter Emily (Dakota Fanning
) to upstate New York
. There, Emily makes an apparently imaginary friend she calls "Charlie". Her friendship with Charlie begins to disturb David when he discovers their cat
dead in the bathtub, a victim of "Charlie". Meanwhile, David suffers from nightmares of the New Year's Eve party that occurred the night before his wife (Amy Irving
) died.
When a family friend, Katherine (Famke Janssen
), comes to visit David and Emily, Emily reveals that she and Charlie have a mutual desire to upset her father. Soon, they meet a man and a woman who are their neighbors. David is wary of their unusual interest in Emily. He later discovers that the reason for this is that the couple had a daughter who recently died from cancer and looks like Emily. Later, when David visits the woman, she nervously and ambiguously implies that her husband has begun abusing her in response to their child's death, emotionally and perhaps even physically.
David meets local woman Elizabeth (Elisabeth Shue
) and her niece, Amy, who is roughly the same age as Emily. Hoping to cultivate a new, healthy friendship for Emily, David sets up a playdate for her. Amy is anxious to become friends immediately, but the playdate is spoiled when Emily cuts up Amy's doll's face. After Amy runs out off, Emily tells David that she doesn't need any more friends.
Despite the unsuccessful playdate, David and Elizabeth hit it off. David invites her over to dinner one night, where Emily acts increasingly hostile towards her. Some time later, Elizabeth visits the house, hoping to make peace with Emily. When Emily tells her that she is playing hide-and-seek with Charlie, Elizabeth indulges her by pretending to look for Charlie. When she opens the closet, someone bursts out and pushes Elizabeth out a second-story window to her death. After the police discover her car crashed near David's house, David asks Emily what happened. Emily claims Charlie caused her death and then tells David the location of her body. A terrified David discovers Elizabeth's body in a bathtub full of blood. David asks Emily where Charlie is, and Emily tells him that Charlie has "just left" the house.
David, armed with a knife, goes outside, where he meets the neighbor who has become friends with Emily. David assumes that his neighbor is Charlie and begins to act aggressively. Becoming suspicious that David has killed his own daughter, the neighbor asks to see Emily, but David cuts the neighbor with his knife. The neighbor then calls the police.
Back in the house, David finds that, although he had seemingly been in his study many times (listening to his stereo and writing a journal), the boxes were actually never unpacked. With this, David realizes that he has split personality
and that Charlie is not imaginary at all, but that in fact Charlie is David himself. Whenever it appeared David was in his study, Charlie was actually in control. David also realizes that under his Charlie personality, he killed his wife and then made it appear to be a suicide. He also fully recalls the events of the New Year's Eve party the night before his wife's death. Immediately after the countdown to midnight, David noticed his wife slip away. He followed her and caught her kissing in a stairwell with another guest. Charlie was created as a way for David's rage to destroy his wife, something that David himself was too decent to do.
Once Charlie's identity and horrible deeds are realized, he completely consumes David's entire personality, leading him to murder the local sheriff
(Dylan Baker
), who came to investigate the previous altercation. Emily calls Katherine for help.
Katherine arrives and is pushed in the basement by Charlie. David (Charlie), determined to play a hideous game of hide-and-seek, starts counting; Emily dashes and hides. She tricks Charlie and manages to lock herself in her room. As Charlie tries to break in, she climbs out from the window and runs into the cave where she originally met Charlie. Meanwhile, Katherine takes the gun from the dead sheriff, breaks out of the basement, and finds Charlie looking for Emily in the cave. Charlie pretends to be David and attacks Katherine when she lowers her guard. Emily emerges from her hiding place, begging Charlie to let Katherine go; her distraction allows Katherine to shoot Charlie, killing him.
Sometime later, Emily is preparing for school in her new life with Katherine. But Emily's drawing of herself with Katherine has two heads, suggesting that she now also suffers from split personality
.
Another four were included on the DVD released in the USA:
An additional scene that was planned, but never filmed, involved David briefly regaining control of his body as he lay dying of his gunshot wound and embracing Emily as he died. The producers said it would have been a chance for David and Emily to finally reconcile, following their troubled relationship throughout the film.
According to the commentary, the directors, screenwriters, and producers chose the ending they did for the default DVD and domestic release because it gave the audience a relief at the end of the film. They felt the hospital room endings were too dark and suggested that Emily is being punished for things she did not do. After the Emily character is basically thrown into terror for the last 45 minutes of the film, they felt it was time to give her an emotional break, and the happy ending was chosen, though it is not necessarily 'happy' as she still draws a double head, implying that she suffers from split personality
.
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
starring Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
, Famke Janssen
Famke Janssen
Famke Beumer Janssen is a Dutch actress and former fashion model. She is known for playing the villainous Bond girl Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye and Jean Grey/Phoenix in the X-Men film series .- Early life and education :...
and Dakota Fanning
Dakota Fanning
Hannah Dakota Fanning , better known as Dakota Fanning, is an American actress. Fanning's breakthrough performance was in I Am Sam in 2001. As a child actress, she appeared in high-profile films such as Man on Fire, War of the Worlds, and Charlotte's Web...
. It was directed by John Polson
John Polson
John Polson is an Australian actor, director and founder of Tropfest. In February 2001, Polson attended the 12th Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in Hokkaidō, Japan where his film Siam Sunset won the Minami Toshiko Award...
. The film opened in the United States in January 2005 and was top of the box office. It did not reach the same level of critical success; it garnered mainly negative reviews, receiving only a 13% on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. The performances of the actors were highly praised however.
Plot summary
Following his discovery of the body of his wife in the bathtub after her suicideSuicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, Dr. David Callaway (Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
), a psychologist working in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, decides to move with his daughter Emily (Dakota Fanning
Dakota Fanning
Hannah Dakota Fanning , better known as Dakota Fanning, is an American actress. Fanning's breakthrough performance was in I Am Sam in 2001. As a child actress, she appeared in high-profile films such as Man on Fire, War of the Worlds, and Charlotte's Web...
) to upstate New York
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...
. There, Emily makes an apparently imaginary friend she calls "Charlie". Her friendship with Charlie begins to disturb David when he discovers their cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
dead in the bathtub, a victim of "Charlie". Meanwhile, David suffers from nightmares of the New Year's Eve party that occurred the night before his wife (Amy Irving
Amy Irving
Amy Davis Irving is an American actress, known for her roles in the films Crossing Delancey, The Fury, Carrie, and Yentl as well as acclaimed roles on Broadway and Off-Broadway. She has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, and has won an Obie award...
) died.
When a family friend, Katherine (Famke Janssen
Famke Janssen
Famke Beumer Janssen is a Dutch actress and former fashion model. She is known for playing the villainous Bond girl Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye and Jean Grey/Phoenix in the X-Men film series .- Early life and education :...
), comes to visit David and Emily, Emily reveals that she and Charlie have a mutual desire to upset her father. Soon, they meet a man and a woman who are their neighbors. David is wary of their unusual interest in Emily. He later discovers that the reason for this is that the couple had a daughter who recently died from cancer and looks like Emily. Later, when David visits the woman, she nervously and ambiguously implies that her husband has begun abusing her in response to their child's death, emotionally and perhaps even physically.
David meets local woman Elizabeth (Elisabeth Shue
Elisabeth Shue
Elisabeth Judson Shue is an American actress and producer, most famous for her roles in the films The Karate Kid, Adventures in Babysitting, Cocktail, Back to the Future Parts II and III and Leaving Las Vegas, for which she won five acting awards and was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden...
) and her niece, Amy, who is roughly the same age as Emily. Hoping to cultivate a new, healthy friendship for Emily, David sets up a playdate for her. Amy is anxious to become friends immediately, but the playdate is spoiled when Emily cuts up Amy's doll's face. After Amy runs out off, Emily tells David that she doesn't need any more friends.
Despite the unsuccessful playdate, David and Elizabeth hit it off. David invites her over to dinner one night, where Emily acts increasingly hostile towards her. Some time later, Elizabeth visits the house, hoping to make peace with Emily. When Emily tells her that she is playing hide-and-seek with Charlie, Elizabeth indulges her by pretending to look for Charlie. When she opens the closet, someone bursts out and pushes Elizabeth out a second-story window to her death. After the police discover her car crashed near David's house, David asks Emily what happened. Emily claims Charlie caused her death and then tells David the location of her body. A terrified David discovers Elizabeth's body in a bathtub full of blood. David asks Emily where Charlie is, and Emily tells him that Charlie has "just left" the house.
David, armed with a knife, goes outside, where he meets the neighbor who has become friends with Emily. David assumes that his neighbor is Charlie and begins to act aggressively. Becoming suspicious that David has killed his own daughter, the neighbor asks to see Emily, but David cuts the neighbor with his knife. The neighbor then calls the police.
Back in the house, David finds that, although he had seemingly been in his study many times (listening to his stereo and writing a journal), the boxes were actually never unpacked. With this, David realizes that he has split personality
Dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis and describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities , each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment....
and that Charlie is not imaginary at all, but that in fact Charlie is David himself. Whenever it appeared David was in his study, Charlie was actually in control. David also realizes that under his Charlie personality, he killed his wife and then made it appear to be a suicide. He also fully recalls the events of the New Year's Eve party the night before his wife's death. Immediately after the countdown to midnight, David noticed his wife slip away. He followed her and caught her kissing in a stairwell with another guest. Charlie was created as a way for David's rage to destroy his wife, something that David himself was too decent to do.
Once Charlie's identity and horrible deeds are realized, he completely consumes David's entire personality, leading him to murder the local sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
(Dylan Baker
Dylan Baker
Dylan Baker is an American actor, known for playing supporting roles in both major studio and independent films.-Early life:...
), who came to investigate the previous altercation. Emily calls Katherine for help.
Katherine arrives and is pushed in the basement by Charlie. David (Charlie), determined to play a hideous game of hide-and-seek, starts counting; Emily dashes and hides. She tricks Charlie and manages to lock herself in her room. As Charlie tries to break in, she climbs out from the window and runs into the cave where she originally met Charlie. Meanwhile, Katherine takes the gun from the dead sheriff, breaks out of the basement, and finds Charlie looking for Emily in the cave. Charlie pretends to be David and attacks Katherine when she lowers her guard. Emily emerges from her hiding place, begging Charlie to let Katherine go; her distraction allows Katherine to shoot Charlie, killing him.
Sometime later, Emily is preparing for school in her new life with Katherine. But Emily's drawing of herself with Katherine has two heads, suggesting that she now also suffers from split personality
Dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis and describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities , each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment....
.
Endings
This film has five different endings. The US theatrical release had the following ending:- Preparing for school while living a new life with Katherine, Emily draws a picture of herself and Katherine, suggesting that everything is fine. But when the camera cuts back to Emily's drawing, Emily has two heads.
Another four were included on the DVD released in the USA:
- Ending #1: The same as the ending in the US theatre release, except that the drawing Emily makes of herself has only one head, suggesting that she is fine and does not suffer from the same disease that resulted in the death of both her parents.
- Ending #2 (this is the ending in the international theatrical version): Emily is shown seemingly in a new apartment bedroom, and Katherine's actions mirror that of her mother's at the beginning of the film. She reassures her love to Emily and begins to leave the room. Emily asks Katherine to leave the door open, but Katherine insists she cannot. As the door shuts, a protected window is visible on the door. The next cut is of Katherine locking the door from the outside, revealing this assumed apartment bedroom is actually a hospital room in a children's psychiatric ward.
- Ending #3: Same as above in the psychiatric ward. After Katherine shuts the door, Emily gets out of bed and does a Hide and Seek countdown. She nears the closet, opens, and smiles at her own reflection in the mirror.
- Ending #4: An ending similar to that in the psychiatric ward, but in this ending Emily is not in a ward but her new home, again playing Hide and Seek with her own reflection.
An additional scene that was planned, but never filmed, involved David briefly regaining control of his body as he lay dying of his gunshot wound and embracing Emily as he died. The producers said it would have been a chance for David and Emily to finally reconcile, following their troubled relationship throughout the film.
According to the commentary, the directors, screenwriters, and producers chose the ending they did for the default DVD and domestic release because it gave the audience a relief at the end of the film. They felt the hospital room endings were too dark and suggested that Emily is being punished for things she did not do. After the Emily character is basically thrown into terror for the last 45 minutes of the film, they felt it was time to give her an emotional break, and the happy ending was chosen, though it is not necessarily 'happy' as she still draws a double head, implying that she suffers from split personality
Dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis and describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities , each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment....
.
Main cast
- Robert De NiroRobert De NiroRobert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
as David Callaway / Charlie - Dakota FanningDakota FanningHannah Dakota Fanning , better known as Dakota Fanning, is an American actress. Fanning's breakthrough performance was in I Am Sam in 2001. As a child actress, she appeared in high-profile films such as Man on Fire, War of the Worlds, and Charlotte's Web...
as Emily Callaway - Famke JanssenFamke JanssenFamke Beumer Janssen is a Dutch actress and former fashion model. She is known for playing the villainous Bond girl Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye and Jean Grey/Phoenix in the X-Men film series .- Early life and education :...
as Katherine - Elisabeth ShueElisabeth ShueElisabeth Judson Shue is an American actress and producer, most famous for her roles in the films The Karate Kid, Adventures in Babysitting, Cocktail, Back to the Future Parts II and III and Leaving Las Vegas, for which she won five acting awards and was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden...
as Elizabeth - Amy IrvingAmy IrvingAmy Davis Irving is an American actress, known for her roles in the films Crossing Delancey, The Fury, Carrie, and Yentl as well as acclaimed roles on Broadway and Off-Broadway. She has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, and has won an Obie award...
as Allison Callaway - Melissa LeoMelissa LeoMelissa Chessington Leo , is an American actress. After appearing on several television shows and films in the late '80s, her breakthrough role came in 1993 as Det. Sgt. Kay Howard on the television series Homicide: Life on the Street for the show's first five seasons from 1993 – 1997...
as Laura - Josh FlitterJosh FlitterJoshua Alexander "Josh" Flitter is an American actor. He is known for playing Corky in Nancy Drew, Eddie in The Greatest Game Ever Played, and voiced Rudy in the 2008 animated film Horton Hears a Who!.-Life and career:...
as Little Boy (uncredited)
Box office
- US Gross Domestic Takings: US$ 51,100,486
- + Other International Takings: equivalent of $US71,544,334
- = Gross Worldwide Takings: $US122,644,820