O Esconderijo

I thought the movie was good. A little confusing but good. I personally thought Jeremy's character was great. Jeremy Sisto was the best actor out of the whole movie because he was so into it. I recommend people seeing it who are interested in what happens if you kill yourself or satanic worship. The special effects are good for that time but compared to now it looks funny. Please go rent it and see for yourself! ~*~Cassandra~*~

I haven't read Dean Koontz's novel, but most of this movie's faults can be traced back to predictable and simplistic script, which bears a strong resemblance to "The Eyes Of Laura Mars". Otherwise, this is an entertaining horror thriller, with trippy "tunnel vision" (literally) sequences, flashes of dark humor and the usual good performance by Jeff Goldblum. The "good vs. evil" climax does come off a bit cheesy, but that doesn't happen because the effects are not good; it happens because of the way in which they are employed. (**1/2)

A well-to-do couple in the Seattle area (Jeff Goldblum & Christine Lahti) is struggling with grief and the challenges of parenting a beautiful teenager (Alicia Silverstone). When the man seems to die in an accident he is resuscitated by a revolutionary doctor (Alfred Molina). Yet coming back from the afterlife has a peculiar effect as he starts to have visions of a local serial killer (Jeremy Sisto).

"Hideaway" (1995) is a psychological crime thriller with mystery/horror elements based on Dean R. Koontz' 1992 novel. Dean hated the end results and wanted his name removed from the credits, but the gist of his story is intact (I guess the devil is in the details, as they say). True, the movie changes Regina from a cool orphan into a typical spoiled teenager and omits elaboration on how Vassago (Sisto) becomes what he is, but so what? You can only fit so much of a book into 1 hour and 45 minutes; besides, enough detail is there if you read in between the lines.

The movie reminds me of a meshing of the future "Kiss the Girls" (1997) and "Bless the Child" (2000). It shares the tone and general locations of "Disturbing Behavior" (1998) with the story being influenced by flicks like "Body Parts" (1991) and "Eyes of Laura Mars" (1978). Obviously if you favor these kinds of flicks you'll probably like this one despite complaints by Koontz and fans of the book.

The storytelling is a little confusing in certain ways (for instance, if the killer dies in the opening sequence, how can he be alive & murdering people?). Yet everything is explained by the last act. Meanwhile the colorful CGI depicting the afterlife is quaint (being done in 1994) and reminiscent of the dubious effects in "Bless the Child," but that's okay because the afterlife should appear amorphous anyway.

Silverstone was about 18 during shooting and quite fetching, but she's not the focus; Goldblum and Sisto are. Speaking of Sisto, he looks & acts like Jim Morrison would if he was a psycho serial murderer. Meanwhile Lahti was 44 at the time and looks great.

The ending at the titular hideaway (in a defunct amusement park) is thoroughly comic booky, but the flick has effective atmosphere and delivers the goods if you can roll with it rather than against it.

The film was shot in Britannia Beach, British Columbia, which is 20 miles north of Vancouver. Vassago's hideaway was constructed in the abandoned Britannia Mine.

GRADE: B-/C+

It's true, Hideaway was absolutely slaughtered on release and is still systematically torn apart in the listings every time it's on TV, but - hey! - it's not that bad. Jeff Goldblum is always, er, 'interesting' to watch, and the same goes for Brett Leonard films (try as he might to cripple them with whatever bottom-of-the-barrel SFX company he keeps hiring - the effects here are practically carbon copies of those in The Lawnmower Man, and seeing as they're supposed to represent ethereal spiritual journeys rather than clunky virtual reality environments, it doesn't exactly work wonders). So yeah, for what it was, I enjoyed it. But of course I haven't read the book, so I don't have any outraged fanboy zeal to contend with...

HIDEAWAY opens with a double murder committed by a young, leering man named Jeremy (Jeremy Sisto), who immediately commits suicide in an occult / ritualistic fashion. We get to see Jeremy's apparent, cartoon afterlife, and it's not pretty!

The scene switches to the Harrison family- Hatch (Jeff Goldblum), Lindsey (Christine Lahti), and daughter Regina (Alicia Silverstone). Heading home after a vacation, they are involved in a terrible accident. Lindsey and Regina suffer minor injuries, but Hatch is critically wounded.

Brought back from death by Dr. Jonas (Alfred Molina), Hatch starts having nightmares about a series of murders. Not a believer in the supernatural, he looks for a logical explanation, especially when one of his dreams comes true! Things get even weirder from this point, with more murders and spooky goings on.

Goldblum spends the remainder of the movie running around wild-eyed, while Ms. Lahti weeps and screams a lot. As usual, Ms. Silverstone spends most of her screen time being pouty, but she's not in it much. As for Sisto, he tries hard to be eeevil, but can't quite shake his mop-headed, male model persona. Not even in sunglasses!

HIDEAWAY is barrels of fun to watch. Although the CGI sequences are less than spectacular, they were probably "state of the art" for a film such as this back in 1995...