Skjult

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

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.

Another horror/suspense Norwegian movie. Pretty much the opening sequence shows you events that make you think you have this movie all figured out, and believe me, you will be wrong. Skjult starts slowly and patiently evolving onto a dark, minimalist, very climatic film, which takes you in a descending ride to the characters' pasts and nightmares. And it all gets darker and wronger with every minute, and it's all bad, the story, the main character, his mother, his past and his present. Thumbs up to a very nice entertaining surprise. Finally when it has to resolve, (where many horror movies tend to slip), it resolves being consequent and sustaining the same atmosphere that has been developed throughout the entire film to wrap up a strong offer from northern Europe.

*Story and characters* The character in this particular movie is very silent. Read the plot, then it gets clear why. This Norwegian movie surprised me big time! The main actor plays his part very well. As well as the supporting roles are well worked out with exception of one. I do blame the actor for that (who plays Roy) he is a very obvious misfit actor to play his role.

Offcourse remind you, is subjective but still worth mentioning. The movie storyline is not to obvious until halfway the movie then you get the "clue" very easy. I like that, most really B-flick from the 1st min to the end is to predictable. This one is not, and if the clue is out the movie progresses as such. Meaning that the do not try to enhance the mystic around it no more.

So i would say the characters (mainly the main character) and the storyline are pretty good! *Hack and slash! or....* Thats what i love about this movie! It is not a obvious hack and slash movie. In the entire movie FEW ppl get killed and still managed to keep me at my seat. It is a real suspense horror/thriller movie, and thank god not a Jason Voorhees kind of ripoff! Excellent, and very enjoyable to watch. The langue Norwegian do not worry there is very low on dialog to begin with. But even then it is not a pest true out the movie.

*Overall* Great suspense thriller/horror. The did a excellent job and this movie is well worth a watch! It has the feel of seven good camera-work nothing cheesy i could detect about this movie. This is one of those, yeah indeed with a low budget you can make a kick-ass movie.

We got wave of Norway horror films coming lately to us and most of them are pretty interesting. The same case is with this one which is a decent combination of psychological horror mixed with serial killer thriller and mystery. Good combination which keeps you without the answer until the end, but maybe even after that, depending on how you comprehended the whole idea. But it certainly keeps you entertained most of the time with tense scenes, good acting and some beautiful camera shots of the night. If you ask me, this movie needs more thorough work on the plot axis and kind of balance between questions and answers in the film where questions prevail in much greater number than answers until the end. All in all, interesting chiller for your favorite horror hours.