[Freya-dæg] Peeking into an old Jeff Goldblum Hideaway

{Image from Movie Screenshots}

Introduction
Plot Outline
The Good
The Bad
Judgment
Closing



Introduction

Hideaway is a movie that went the way of its featured musical acts: around in the 90s and now long since forgotten. But, it starred such 90s stars as Jeff Goldblum and gave Alicia Silverstone one of her early roles. And it's based on Dean Koontz's New York Times bestseller by the same name.

Given that sort of pedigree, let's see where the movie takes us.

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Plot Outline

Hideaway is the story of a father (Hatch Harrison, played by Jeff Goldblum) who is killed in an auto accident. But, despite being dead for over an hour Hatch is resuscitated - just as he's settling into the afterlife. Unfortunately, something follows him back into the physical world, and Hatch finds himself psychically linked to a crazed satanic serial killer known as Vassago. Eventually this serial killer sets his sights on Hatch's daughter Regina (Alicia Silverstone).

So, as Hatch struggles with the apparent madness brought on by the shock of his psychic connection, he also works through its repercussions with his family (his wife Lindsay is played by Christine Lahti) and ultimately strives to protect his daughter from a threat that only he can see coming.

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The Good

It's a hard sell, but this movie gets really good after the first hour. Around that time Hatch is fed up with his visions and becomes recklessly intent on gunning down this serial killer himself, since the police have proven ineffective. So, he does what any god-fearing American in the 90s would - he grabs a shotgun and drives around, following his visions to Vassago.

The action starts at about the 1:08:00 mark, and involves an awesome chase section in which all aspects of the movie's scenario finally come together. The section then ends around the 1:33:00 mark, some 10 minutes before the movie ends.

Thirty minutes before this chase section starts, the movie finally begins to explain things in a relatively clear way, drawing connections and covering plot holes. But it's also around this time that Hatch begins to do some very light Goldbluming. Not up to Jurassic Park levels, but it does begin and come back on and off throughout the rest of the movie.

For the 90s, the animation in the scenes of the afterlife are also fairly well done. The tunnel sequence and the "soul" animations are pretty smooth and look quite clean. If you're thinking that the animation's like that in the game Microcosm, you're way off.

And, although he might not have been a name on any theater marquis where this movie was playing, it also stars Kenneth Walsh as a hardboiled cop. His performance here isn't as madcap as his Windom Earle in Twin Peaks, but he's still fun to watch.

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The Bad

This movie is an unfortunate sufferer of Mistaken Suspense Syndrome. The first hour is spent slowly and awkwardly establishing the psychic link, the serial killer, and the impact of the link on Hatch's sense of self and home life. During this hour it also confuses itself for a melodrama as character's go from calm to furious in seconds, and relatively small incidents are made out to be bigger than necessary.

In fact, aside from that golden 25 minutes near the movie's end, the most action packed sequences of the film are tight zooms on circling and underlining.

{Two of the dramatic high points in the movie.}

Of course, as a horror film it's necessary to build suspense, but the entire movie is sandwiched between two cgi scenes that suggest that it's really about some kind of spiritual psychic battle between light and dark. Thus, suspense around the outcome of this battle isn't really built up at all but meandered around as if the writers didn't know how to fill the first two acts with interesting build up.

Audiences are prepared for the excellent pursuit of and clash with the serial killer when it comes at the movie's climax, but the hour spent establishing everything could be trimmed down to 30-40 minutes with ease.

After heaping so much praise on the movie's climax, it might seem odd to mention it as one of the movie's failings, but the climax could also be shortened. Right around the hour and thirty three minute mark, in fact - why so precise? Because that's when the 90s animation comes into full, crappy effect as a dark and light creature are animated into the real world to fight it out.

The CGI in the climax's end is so obvious that it completely destroys any suspension of disbelief you might've had going and changes the movie's tone so radically from searing psychological thriller to campy horror monster fight that the film implodes.

But, the final nail in Hideaway's coffin comes when, after the credits, Hatch and Lindsay are in bed and share a good laugh after Hatch dreams that they've resuscitated the serial killer. Because there's nothing like a good, lighthearted joke after living through a psychically and psychologically terrifying event, right?

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Judgment

Ultimately, Hideaway fails to offer coherent storytelling, suspense, or resolution except for those shining 25 minutes near it's end. If that was released as a short film, I would gladly say, Freya, raise this one up, but since it's trapped in an hour and forty seven minute long maggot-ridden corpse, you can, lady of the Valkyrie, leave this one to fester in its pit.

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Closing

Next week there'll be more in this space - Monday's update is the last in my four part series on freelance writing (I'll be considering it in light of teachers college acceptances), Wednesday's will be all about the newest news, and Friday's is set up to be another attempt to resuscitate a 'terrible' movie.

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