Hideout

When I sat down to watch the 2021 horror mystery "Hideout", it was without knowing a single thing about this movie from writer and director Kris Roselli, aside from it being a horror movie. I have to say that I was initially drawn to the movie given its cover. And, of course, it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen also helped to win me over.

Let me just say right away that "Hideout" is a slow paced horror movie without much of anything overly thrilling or exciting really happening. Sure, there were moments where the excitement was amped up, but it was just simply not enough to make up for the painfully slow narrative and lack of interesting contents to the storyline. So writer Kris Roselli wasn't really delivering a wholesome horror movie here.

The acting performances in the movie were adequate. They weren't exactly overly convincing some of the times, if not actually bordering on being dubious. And that sort of rendered the movie with a low budget and amateurish feel to it, for better or worse. I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list, and that is something I enjoy in movies. So at least that was working in favor of "Hideout".

Visually then "Hideout" was fair enough. There wasn't an abundance of special effects. But whatever effects were there came off as being passable and actually adequate enough to serve their purpose. Watchable, yes, but not innovative or bedazzling.

For a horror movie then "Hideout" was a walk in the park. There was nothing scary about this movie actually, unless you consider the insanely slow pacing of the story to be scary.

My rating of "Hideout" lands on a generous four out of ten stars. While "Hideout" was watchable, it is not a movie that I would recommend horror fans to rush out and watch. Nor is it a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time.

Not the best movie, but interesting enough to keep one watching til the end. Not a 10, but nothing below a 3 either.

It serves to waste some time, not that different from big budget movies.

I write this being purely objective. Also, rating it for what it is, and Indie film on a budget.

The filmography and perspective created by the director were spot on. It was very easy to see his intent for the film. The acting wasn't the best, but also not terrible. The length of the film could have been a bit shorter. I believe getting the story into a tidy 90-100 minutes would have been achievable without compromising the integrity of the film.

As an entry level film, it was good and the actors/actress's as well as the director will only improve from here! Hope to see more from Kris in the future.

It held me to the end and that's more than I can say for a lot of horror pics these days. Sure, the plot is familiar, I've watched a couple over the years with almost exactly the same setup, but the actors give it their all, the direction is crisp and efficient and on the whole it's an enjoyable watch. In short, to paraphrase Pope, 'May this put money in your purse For I assure you I've seen worse'.

Robbers show up at a house to hideout from the police, only to find they may have chosen the wrong place for safety. For the majority of the film, we see the visitors slowly unravel in their own way. They are panicked, with intermittent sessions of calm, triggered by one person telling the other to chill.

We have no idea what is going to happen or why the house was a bad idea for about 60%-75% of the film. While we see some weird things happen, only subtle clues are sprinkled throughout to help us understand what's happening or going to happen. Since nothing major is revealed until close to the end, we are left in suspense.

"Hideout" is somewhat of a slow burn, but not too slow that you'll lose interest. At the same time, they could've edited thirty minutes out and not lose anything significant. Kyle is the key to noticing something is awry (if you're observant).

The creepy sound audio at times was too loud. The setting was simple, and they didn't keep the entire film dark like so many horror films do.

It's an easy-to-watch film, nothing phenomenal or mind-blowing, but not terrible either. Save it for a day you want to watch a slower movie that's low in action with limited gore.