We start off in a dark, dark forest, where a boy keeps running in fear. He’s deathly afraid of something or someone, and when he runs across a forest road he doesn’t see the trailer truck coming in high speed. Luckily, the truck misses him, but the driver lose control over the vehicle and it all triggers a chain of events when the truck crashes into another car. Then, we proceed forwards in time and over to Kai Koss, who has returned to his hometown to settle affairs after his mother’s recent death. It’s been 19 years since he set foot there because of his mother’s abusive ways, but he soon finds out that he can’t outrun his past. In his ancestral house, he starts getting visions of previous events and it messes him up to the point where he actually wants to burn the entire shithole of a house down. Some local police makes sure he won’t be able to do that, though. But this revisit to his old hometown doesn’t only bring back memories, people start dying too…and it seems like something has been waiting for Kai’s return.
Hidden (original title: Skjult) is a psychological horror film from Norway, written and directed by Pål Øie. It had a budget of 12.6 million NOK (approx. 1.2 million USD), and was filmed on several locations in Norway including Eidfjord in Hardanger, by Vøringsfossen (the 83rd highest waterfall in Norway). It received mostly lukewarm reviews, but got some international attention as one of the featured films of the After Dark Horrorfest in 2010.
Hidden often has a few lynchian vibes in it, being slightly dreamlike and nightmarish. The dark and brooding atmosphere is what holds the movie up, and they really found a creepy location for Kai’s old childhood home, a place that pretty much seemed just as tainted by degeneracy as the former owner. When we follow the protagonist in his mostly befuddled state, the movie makes it very clear that the intention is to confuse us on the same level as the character himself. The distinction between what’s real and what’s just in Kai’s mind, can appear a bit messy at times.
Overall, Hidden is perhaps a bit too clichéd, but on the whole it is an okay psychological horror slow-burner, focusing for the most part on atmospheric surroundings and a nightmare-vibe riddled with guilt, confusion and trauma. The cinematography is a highlight here, and you will most likely find it enjoyable if you like mystery horror of the slow and moody type.
The director, Pål Øie, had his first horror movie release with Villmark in 2003 (english title: Dark Woods), which was a fine horror thriller that unfortunately got a rather lackluster sequel in 2015. After that there wasn’t anything new in the horror department from this director, until recently when a new movie titled Kraken was announced. It’s going to be Norway’s first sea monster horror film. Hopefully it will be fun, with at least some grisly body counts and proper monster effects! Time will show, though.
Writer and director: Pål Øie
Country & year: Norway, 2009
Original title: Skjult
Actors: Kristoffer Joner, Cecilie A. Mosli, Bjarte Hjelmeland, Marko Iversen Kanic, Anders Danielsen Lie, Karin Park, Eivind Sander, Arthur Berning, Agnes Karin Haaskjold
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1347007/
