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 Film was innovative in it's approach, anyone who knows anything about making films should be impressed with the quality of this film especially in accordance to it's budget. Regardless it was well crafted, the tension was clearly evident and the camera work was second to none. The NZ Film Industry needs more films and Directors with a fresh vision and skill as displayed by this project. There were some magic moments, one of them is up a tree, very interesting, good acting, good writing. I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys the Thriller genre or anyone who likes to be surprised by what someone can achieve independently.

This is coming from a NZ'er, so I've seen a fair bit of films from this country in my time, saying that, most of them have completely bored me, or irritated me. However, I was so very pleasantly surprised with Hidden, I was impressed with how good they managed to make the film on as I would suspect a low budget, of course having the scenery is a bonus.Another thing as well, most of the actors I had never heard of before, I think it might have been only two people from shortland street (wow!). Which in my opinion was very surprising. Both people acted very superficial and professional. I was astounded at the storyline, the whole plot kept me captivated because I had absolutely NO idea what was going on, the characters were special in one way or another, you got to understand them well and sympathize if they got hurt or died. Some even gave me the creeps, the guy with the sore lip especially confused me, when I saw him do the whole act around the tree part I was thinking "oh no, he's going to end up an alien, just like that movie where the woman loses her son and everything's a mystery and suddenly there's people jumping through ceilings." But I soon realized it was nothing like that, and it had a much more appealing twist to it. One thing that worried me was there was barely no communication with the group of campers, but in the end it didn't bother me because just their actions, the close-up's of the girls faces, the expressions, it was incredibly masterful and artistic. It was like a new kind of interaction.I loved this movie, the odd feeling of confusion it gave me at the end, that almost uncomfortable sensation, it's wonderful when a film makes you feel so much.Whoever compared this to the Blair witch project must have been on crack, and I am bewildered to the fact it has such a low rating. This is one of the best movies NZ has ever made.

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.