Hide and Seek (2021)

Plot of Hide and Seek: Noah Blackwell has recently taken over management of a property development company, an appointment which has made the news since he has an elder half-brother, Jacob, who has been living off the grid. Noah’s lawyer, Collin Carmichael locates Jacob’s squat which is in a former hotel, populated by doubtful people. Noah, who is somewhere on the autism spectrum, requiring obsessive order in his house, visits the squat despite advice not to do so, and begins to relate to the inhabitants although Jacob is never there. He seems to be being tracked by a figure wearing black clothing and a motorcycle helmet with a dark visor. We have seen this figure apparently kill a young woman in a room in the squat, and erroneously Noah is associated with the missing woman by violent inhabitants of the squat and is beaten up. There are also things wrong in his luxury apartment. What is the resolution?

Content: Noah’s wife is intent on having sex with him at one point but he is distracted. There is a bit of female nudity in a non-sexual context. I don’t think they even crack a bottle of wine. In the opening sequence we see a young woman bludgeoned to death by the black clad figure, whose activities are recorded on her video cam and are viewed by various people, but not the police apparently. The ex-hotel is a wreck and Noah spends time with a lady of Eastern heritage whose job is to care for an old bird who used to be a resident when the building was still a hotel. He hears noises in his apartment and after making a hole in a wall sees things inside. There are flashbacks to the death of his mother, who apparently slit her wrists in the bath. The black clad figure makes it to the apartment and tries to enter but is unsuccessful. We see Noah with plans attempting to put it all together.

A View: This film had a limited release and was almost immediately sent to video. The first, and even the second acts are interesting and make the film seem to be worth watching. I actually enjoyed Noah’s interaction with the squat manager who has smart dialogue, but oh dear! As it goes on the plot makes less and less sense until we are left at the end with a list of questions which are unanswered. I usually like to check out the Wikipedia synopsis just to make sure I’ve got it right, but there is none for this outing, so maybe what I have written here is the best you will get. If it encourages you to watch it, then good luck with that.

Fun Fact: It is often a bad sign when the same person writes and directs, and in this case also produces.

Fun Fact: It is often a bad sign when the same person writes and directs, and in this case also produces.