Warner Bros. Pictures
Imagine a world that’s been turned upside-down by some catastrophic event, one that forces families to flee their homes, seeking a safe haven anywhere but there. Imagine you have no idea what’s going on or why your neighbors are getting out of town and you have nowhere to go. What would you do?
That’s the basic premise of the new thriller Hidden, which has arrived on DVD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. The film stars Alexander Skarsgård and Andrea Riseborough as Ray and Claire who, along with their seven-year-old daughter Zoe (Emily Alyn Lind), have been living in an old bomb shelter for the last 301 days.
They go about their lives as best as they can, feeding themselves with the rations that were still in the shelter. Unfortunately, a rat has gotten into the storage area and is eating its way through the cans, depleting their food supply much more rapidly than anticipated. But, why are they in the shelter in the first place? That’s a question that doesn’t get answered until the last twenty minutes of the movie.
Before then, we get a glimpse through a homemade periscope of the world above, one that looks like it suffered a possible nuclear holocaust. But, as the food supply dwindles, Ray and Claire are forced to venture outside. We are also made aware that the family is also hiding from what they call “Breathers.” When a candle in the shelter is knocked over and starts a fire, the family is terrified the Breathers will see the smoke. They do, leading up to a very tense and terrifying moment as we, and the family, only hear footsteps above the shelter and odd breathing sounds.
The tension comes to a head as the Breathers make their way into the shelter, only visible in the darkness by their yellow, glowing eyes, forcing the family to flee … but to what, or where? And what happens if they’re caught by the Breathers? Rest assured, the film does answer these questions in what can best be described as a Twilight Zone style ending.
Hidden is a taut and assured thriller from first-time feature film directors The Duffer Brothers, who have written episodes of Fox’s Wayward Pines and the upcoming series Stranger Things. The brothers have wisely used a very limited location for the bulk of the film, allowing them to focus on allowing the audience to identify with the family and their surroundings, building tension with what we don’t see, and making our hearts race as the Breathers begin to assault the shelter.
The family dynamic is an unusual one as well. Claire is the more aggressive, Type-A personality, the wife and mother who makes it her responsibility to keep her family fed and safe. Riseborough makes Claire strong but no overbearing, and you can relate to her frustrations with Ray as he tinkers away in another part of the shelter. Ray, on the other hand, is the doting father, the one who plays games with Zoe that takes her to a fantasy world that no longer exists. He nearly falls apart when the Breathers arrive … but there is a reason that none of them completely lose their cool until the life of Zoe is threatened.
The DVD version of the film looks excellent considering most of the film takes place in the dim, yellow lighting of the shelter. The sound is sharp and clear with dialog front and center, although there isn’t much use for the surrounds to kick in until the Breathers arrive which then immerses you into the action. Unfortunately, this is a bare bones edition with nothing in the way of extras. Which is a shame because there are reports that the original film ran 124 minutes, and this version runs 84 minutes, so it would have been nice to have seen some of the deleted scenes.
Overall, Hidden is a well-made, interesting thriller with terrific performances and an intriguing story, well worth a look if you’re in the mood for some suspense and originality.
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