Writers: Antoine Thomas, Alana Smithy
Director: Antoine Thomas
Imagine your addiction coming to life
Hidden begins with a pre-credit infodump in which mad scientist Susan Carter (Dawn Ford) describes her research on curing addictions: using venom from a firefly she is trying to make addictions physically manifest so that they can be removed by surgery. However she’s beginning to wonder if the addictions might actually be able to take on an independent life of their own.
Jump forward ten years and after Carter’s death her estranged, alcoholic son Brian (Sean Clement) inherits her estate on her death. With a group of friends he goes to investigate her research centre… which turns out to be located in a large old monastery with a troubled past. As they investigate they discover the building’s secrets – and something discovers them.
Fairly obviously Hidden is scientific nonsense. The addiction motif is an interesting idea but not really developed in any meaningful way, which is a shame. So don’t expect anything allegorical or intellectually challenging. This is just another film in which a group of people get killed of one by one. The characters get trapped, split up at every opportunity and the whole thing ends with a final confrontation worthy of a 1970s Hammer film (which is not a compliment).
But despite all that I found it surprisingly enjoyable.
The thing about Hidden is that even though the story is negligible it’s done with a lot of style. Antoine Thomas – credited as ‘M.R.’ – creates some good atmosphere. Although I watched it in 2D, the film was shot in 3D and that shows in the choice of some shots, however in most cases the extended perspective actually works well in 2D to give a creepy atmosphere. Thomas also knows better than to descend into gore and cheap jump scares, until the end we see very little of whatever is in the building. Instead most of the deaths happen off screen.
Hidden is not a good film, it’s a trashy B movie. But it’s a classy trashy B movie.