I'm probably being generous giving "Hide and Seek" a B rating. It could be that I've sat through so many banal horror movies lately that I'm simply glad to watch one that's at least interesting most of the way through. Or it could be that Robert De Niro has starred in so many crappy movies in the past few years that this one shines in comparison (saying it's his best work since "Ronin" might be faint praise). Or maybe I was simply in the right mood for a by-the-numbers suspense thriller. "Hide and Seek" isn't a great movie (there's a strong argument to be made it isn't even a good one), but it's competently made and I had a pretty good time, even though the film falls apart in the third act. For it's DVD release, Fox has also thrown in some pretty good bonuses, including a unique way of presenting alternate endings.

After the apparent suicide of his wife, psychologist David Callaway (Robert De Niro) hopes to help his nine-year-old daughter, Emily (Dakota Fanning), cope with the tragedy by moving upstate to a country home. Understandably withdrawn, she is reluctant to make new friends, and spends a lot of time by herself. Later, she seems to discard all of her precious dolls, which initially encourages David, who feels Emily may finally be letting go of the past. That is, until he learns the dolls have been replaced by Charlie, her imaginary friend who appears hell-bent on making David miserable. At first, David is concerned that Emily is only struggling to cope with the death of her mother, and uses Charlie as a way to retreat further from reality. But when he awakes in the middle of the night to find threatening messages scrawled on the bathroom walls, he begins to worry that she's becoming psychotic. Despite the urgings from a fellow psychologist (Framke Janssen) to return Emily to the city for further psychiatric study, David elects to deal with Emily's problems himself. But soon, Charlie grows more violent...the family cat is killed (along with an even more threatening message), as is Elizabeth (Elisabeth Shue), whom David was on the verge of starting a relationship with. David is soon wondering if Charlie isn't real after all. This is great, if somewhat standard, modern horror fodder, with all the usual elements thrown in: a deliberately-paced first hour to set the mood, lots of tension and atmosphere, quiet moments suddenly disrupted by false scares & eerie music. It's all done very well, aided in no small part by great performances. De Niro doesn't really stretch himself here, but his performance is refreshingly low-key compared to much of the crap he's recently agreed to appear in (like "Meet the Fockers" & "Godson"); Dakota Fanning, however, is amazing, once again proving she's the best child actor to come along since Haley Joel Osment...face it, if you're ten-years-old AND you can steal a scene from the likes of Robert De Niro, you're a damn good actor. The film also offers a neat, and unexpected, plot twist during the climax. Sure, we expect some stunning revelation in movies of this genre, and "Hide and Seek" serves up a good one. The problem is that the movie doesn't know when to quit. If the film ended with it's big revelation, it would have solicited well-deserved chills from the audience. Instead, it goes on for another 20 minutes in order to give the yahoo crowd a big rousing finale. Kind of a shame, since "Hide and Seek" manages some terrific low-key horror moments earlier on...to tack on a big finish negates some of the dread the script previously tried so hard to establish (it'll also remind seasoned horror fans of the last reel of "The Shining," only that film truly earns its horrific finale). The final scene, which sort-of leaves the door open for a sequel, is especially stupid. But still, even with all the faults in the narrative, the movie chugs along at a decent pace and is generally entertaining, even when we're well-aware of being manipulated by standard Hollywood cliches.

The movie is presented in its original 2.40:1 aspect ratio. For the most part, the image is decent, though there's some noticeable edge enhancement present. Nothing here that'll knock your socks off, but the picture is pretty good. The same goes for the audio rendering. "Hide and Seek" is rendered in both 5.1 Dolby Surround & 5.1 DTS, but there isn't much difference between the two. Both offer moments where there's some creative use of balance, but the audio rendering is mostly perfunctory. The sound is adequate, but nothing spectacular.

Four alternate endings are included with this disc. Some are better than others, but what's really cool is you can select which ending you prefer to be included within the context of the movie, not simply isolated scenes. In essence, that means you can decide whether or not you want the film to end on a promising note, or one that instills dread. Of the endings, I preferred the ones that end the film with a dark tone, even if a few of them felt like the kind of ending you'd expect in a "Friday the 13th" movie. 14 deleted scenes are also included. Most of them are expendable, although a few help to better establish some of the supporting characters (especially Elisabeth Shue's). Also included is your standard 10-minute featurette about the making of the movie, in which several cast & crew members discuss why they think "Hide and Seek" is so great. Fanning is especially interesting, though the conspicuous absence of De Niro is a drawback. There are also three segments included, with optional commentary, that weren't entirely filmed, and storyboards have been substituted for those shots. Finally, a full length audio commentary is included, featuring director John Polson, editor Jeffrey Ford & screenwriter Ari Schlossberg. Their commentary is hit-or-miss; of course, there's ample praise for all of the performances, but they also offer a lot of info regarding discarded story ideas, and the details regarding the shooting of key scenes.

"Hide and Seek" isn't likely to be anyone's definition of the ultimate horror movie (especially since it isn't that scary), nor will it redefine the rules of the genre. But it's well-acted (especially by Fanning) and competently directed, enough so that most viewers will at least feel it's worth 101 minutes of their time. Worth a rental? Definitely. Worth buying? Depends on your love of this modern horror subgenre. Similar Movies: "The Shining"; "The Sixth Sense"