Hide and Seek does what it sets out to do fairly skillfully. It builds up a sense of unease and the typical gotcha moments, with figures suddenly appearing from behind closed doors or through windows.

Without giving away the plot and big twist, they make you watch a story that tricks you until the very end.

In short, they mislead you.

The picture relies on its effects and performances with scary music. It's more fun to figure out the plot as you go along.

I enjoyed most of the film.

Robert DeNiro turns in a paycheck performance in Hide and Seek, a psychological/ supernatural thrill not, whose only assets the troubled Dakota Fanning.

This picture has problems from the get go and is aided by clumsy directing, a bad script, and a twist ending that is liable to have most of the audience yelling at the screen as the credits roll by.

For gullible movie viewers only.

Hide and Seek is a concocted mystery thriller that cheats.

The story is arranged in such a way as to reveal as little as possible.

The subject matter about the psychological abuse of a child is not handled in a serious and sensitive manner and is used as a plot device to enable a surprise climax that takes the wind out of this movie, leaving it heartless, disappointing, and dishonest.