Hidden is one of those movies that has a lot of promise, but doesn't deliver like it should.The movie starts off well, with a well shot sequence of the characters scrambling through the forest. The early movie also does a good job of presenting pieces of information through character dialogue that the viewer has to add together.Problems occur as the movie progresses. The pacing remains the same throughout the movie rather than picking up towards the movies climax, so the end product feels monotonous. None of the characters are particularly appealing. Elements go unexplained. The effects shots, although practical and done mainly through a variety of camera techniques, are overdone and cartoonish. The movie makes good use of a variety of shots and camera angles, but these are introduced almost immediately, there's nothing kept for the end of the movie to make it stand out. At one point almost all that can be heard is the sound of wind rushing over a microphone which, although it's supposed to add to the drama of the scene, is just distracting.Hidden is based around a good (although somewhat familiar) idea. The problem is in the execution. The fact that this is the first large-scale production for the director shows.

This is actually a very innovative little production and comprises a solid manifesto of one way to execute an action film. The 'making of' is a gift to filmmakers, particularly the examination of the camera rigs.Unfortunately all this skill and cleverness wasn't applied to a good story. For all that I liked about it, I couldn't endure the duration of the movie and wound up fast forwarding to the few cool bits, my favourite being the guy scaling the telegraph tower then crawling like a spider across thin air.Also well worth it just for the extras.

I really enjoyed Hidden for what it was - a no budget digital feature made on the back of writer/director and stuntman Tim McLachlan (who is one of New Zealands best stunt men and a Director with a bright future).You have to admit it's got some mean stunts! And I don't think a 13 year old could get those performances out of the actors! There was some choice acting by Hayley Halliday (played Brooke), Kiel McNaughton (played Mark) and Luke Peary (played Carl) and all the other actors were really easy to watch and likable.I'm curious as to weather people know just how hard it is to write a film, shoot it, edit it, and do post production all on your own because you have no budget?!Hidden won 4 awards at over seas festivals and was nominated for an award at the 2006 New Zealand Film Awards. And I can see why but I guess its a matter of taste - can't please everyone! I highly recommend renting it!

Hidden is one of the worst movies I have ever seen, and I've seen Battlefield Earth. This movie manages to straddle horror, daytime soap, the punchline to "The Sixth Sense", art house, and whatever genres have misconfigured cameras with too much white balance.The movie is set in bush tracks, kids camps, and trees, somewhere in New Zealand. People are being chased by something or other people. There are deep conversations. Sometimes people start shaking and pass out... unfortunately this effect did not extend to the audience and so people had to leave the theater to avoid the movie, which they did, in droves. Like a train of lemmings person by person got up and left. Sometimes group inertia would apply and people would leave in groups. I can't express how many walk outs this movie had but I'll continue doing so anyway: This movie has been widely reported as one of the most unpopular movies ever shown in Reading Cinemas NZ.Hidden is full of uncomfortably long and lingering shots of peoples faces. This gives you time to guess what's going on in their mind... certainly the plot or the narrative give you no clues. Perhaps they're wondering why they were given a script that told them to pretend as if they had finger guns and shoot at each other making "Peyaow!" bullet ricochet noises, a script that told them to crack jokes so bad they'd be rejected from chippy packets. Perhaps they're wondering how how this movie could possibly get them to where they want to be.There's no coherent story-telling going on here and each 5 minute story is never built upon. There's nothing that makes you care for the people. The characters are two dimensional and boring (for example there's a fat girl who was teased for being fat and that's her character). There are hints towards a Maori Taniwha but no reason given why other than that the character is Maori. New Zealanders might recognise some references to Cave Creek, but they'd be reading in to the storyline rather than being told it.A lack of budget isn't an excuse for a incoherent story, and movies like The Blair Witch Project have shown what small budgets can achieve. This movie isn't lacking special effects and 35mm film -- it's lacking story telling ability.On the positive side the movie does feature a girl with a great heaving bosom who runs up and down a track for a while in the movie. There is also a scene where someone runs up a tree against gravity. When a movie lacks plot, acting, and other appreciable qualities you have to take what you can get even if it is rather crass.I love New Zealand film. If WETA's Richard Taylor said the lavish quote that's adorned on all the movie posters then he was either intoxicated or motivated to encourage New Zealand film, not to give a fair opinion of the movie. Not saying negative things about a New Zealand movie has propelled this movie (and possibly "Spooked") to mainstream, not the movies quality.PS. the punchline is that they're all dead and ghosts. I ticked the "contains spoiler" check box so there's the spoiler. Now you don't have to see the movie. Good for you.