Editor’s Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on June 29, 2005, and we’re proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files.
A recent poll conducted by Entertainment Weekly revealed that deleted scenes are by far the most valued extras among DVD viewers. That’s something of a surprise, given that such material often reveals no more than the fact that the filmmakers were wise to delete it in the first place. In the case of Hide and Seek, there are three people who will no doubt be happy that the cut stuff now appears on Fox’s disc: deleted actors Brendan Sexton, Alicia Harding and Amber McDonald, whose single scenes were all trimmed from the final feature in the interest of pacing and emotional streamlining. There is a good vibe attendant to this kind of work being rescued from the cutting room floor and made visible, though in terms of the movie itself, these particular snippets overall don’t add much to the story or characterizations. Two exceptions are a creepy moment between McDonald’s babysitter and Dakota Fanning as the haunted young girl at the film’s center, and the revelation that the sheriff played by Dylan Baker has fears of his own.
Four alternate endings are collected separately on the DVD, which also offers the option of watching the feature with any one of them attached, in addition to the theatrical conclusion. One of these is similar to, but happier than, the existing fadeout, while the other three are variations on a completely different wrapup—and the second of those would, in this writer’s opinion, have been the most effective way to end the movie. The commentary over these segments by director John Polson, screenwriter Ari Schlossberg and editor Jeffrey Ford reveals that there was debate about just how dark to end the film, and that they understandably but disappointingly decided not to go too sad after all the emotional trauma Fanning’s character has already suffered. Elsewhere on the disc are “previsualizations” of extensions of the climactic sequence that also never made it into the movie—even though, again, the third of them perhaps should have.
The movie that’s left is an efficiently tense and straightforward, if none too surprising, psychological chiller. Fanning’s Emily, recovering from the suicide of her mother, begins conversing with an imaginary friend named Charlie after her psychiatrist father David (Robert De Niro) moves them from the city to a rural town. Charlie, it turns out, has a nasty streak, but his actions aren’t as creepy as the performance of Fanning, who has impressed as a target of bad people and aliens in Man on Fire and War of the Worlds and here delivers a calmly chilling turn as, not quite an evil child, but clearly one who harbors dark secrets that even David can’t draw out of her. At least, not until the eventual surprise twist, which is middling as such revelations go and leads to a final reel of action that, like the rest of the film, is well-crafted without having that extra spark of inspiration that would make it special.
Listening to Polson, Schlossberg and Ford’s commentary on the feature, however, you quickly get the impression that they’re all solid professionals who truly cared about the movie they were making. Having these three together, sharing their specific contributions to the storytelling process, is a big plus as they discuss pacing, character issues and conveying plot and personality points visually. They note the challenge of keeping the audience’s attention before Charlie “shows up,” as well as whether or not to go ambiguous about the reasons for one character’s madness. (“Just be bold and say he’s nuts!” Polson offers.) There is, not unexpectedly, a lot of attention given the talented Fanning, plus a few surprisingly funny stories about De Niro, particularly a prank the actor pulled on the director after a screening of Hide’s first edit.
The DVD’s 2.40:1 transfer is mostly pretty sharp, though it loses a bit of definition in occasional darker scenes, and the colors vary between warm and naturalistic and somewhat muted. The latter also applies to the sound design, which means that the 5.1 and DTS soundtracks, while detailed, don’t have the variety of punchy moments heard on the disc editions of other supernatural films. The supplement package is rounded out by a standard making-of segment with one big plus: It allows the remarkably self-possessed and articulate Fanning the opportunity to share her thoughts on the production, and working with De Niro. (We also get to see her applying her own fake blood for that deleted scene with the babysitter.) If there’s a disappointment in the Hide and Seek disc, it’s that these brief moments suggest that Fanning really should have taken part in the commentary as well.
