Hide and Seek (2013)
I won't go as far as you in the dislike, but I agree it was a movie with a lot of problems. I thought there were some good harrowing moments, some scenes of sincere suspense, and a sense of mystery and impending peril, especially where the kids were concerned.
I agree with this. If this movie enveloped fear in me at all, it would have been the kids' part. Its my weakness and imagining such young kids witness those disturbing scenes surely brought the goosebumps in me. Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on anyone wearing a dark-tinted helmet while not on a motorbike.
How many times will person A clonk person B over the head and just leave them there to get up in a later scene and be a problem? And it went both ways. Bad Person clonks wife and leaves her there, still alive. Later, wife clonks Bad Person...and leaves them there to get up later and do more bad stuff.
These parts were really funny. Apparently when you knock one down with a glass, you let your guard down and walk slow to give room for that someone to recover and take on you. It was too much for me to bear but let's carry on.
You might think he'd, oh, I don't know...think to call the police??? Nah. Hell with that. Let's limp back to the other side of town and take on the killer by himself, after the killer has wreaked all sorts of havoc.
Because apparently the best thing to do when you're crippling because of a deep leg wound is NOT to call the police and chase and take on the killer yourself! And apparently parking lots and apartments in Korea is devoid of security guards and bystanders and just random people and everyone all went out just to accommodate and give time for the killing/chasing to happen so nobody was there to help!
And it must be a thing in Korea for motorcyclists to keep their helmets on at all times. Outdoors, indoors, in the elevator, at the playground watching your kid. Whether you are a killer or just some dude.
I read your and clayton's remarks on this before watching so I kinda expected it but man was it funny! The writer/director perhaps didn't think of any other subtle way to conceal the culprit's identity, like a big cap that covers the face, so why not take a gear that fully covers the face? You know, just to avoid being caught on the face contour aspect and the body shape perhaps? Just to close all doors for questioning on the killer's identity. Never mind that it looks so unrealistic.
Speaking of, it’s the height of unbelievability and improbability that the culprit was the.....well, the culprit. The physique alone is definitely a big question mark....not only that, but the killer only had an umbrella for a weapon...how did one with those qualities take on those gruesome murders?
-AHA! the father is OCD and takes pills; this means something! NOPE
--AHA! the father was the adopted kid and the pock-faced kid was the birth son! What a twist! What a turn! This means something! NOPE
--AHA! the father starts tearing up his house in a fit of rage! Something to watch out for later! NOPE
--AHA! there's a flashback. Now we know why the missing brother would hate the rest of his family and why they are estranged. Ok, so that means...nothing. It ends up meaning nothing at all.
--AHA! Those weird symbols! He finally figured out the code! It means...it means...what exactly? It tells who's in the house. Which means exactly NOTHING as to the motive of the killer or the discovery of same. Even the discovery that his own house (AHA! his own house!) has the same symbols tell you...nothing. It doesn't hint that the killer is targeting the family. You know what hints that the killer is targeting the family? The fact that the killer is banging on the door, terrifying the kids inside. You don't need weird symbols to figure that out. The killer is right there!
It's not fair to frame your movie as a thriller or a puzzle to figure out, if ALL the clues you lay in the first half are just tossed aside for the sake of "killer terrorizes family" scenes. Think about it, does anything in the last third of the move change if ALL of those scenes are omitted from the movie? Not one bit. The fact that there is a missing brother IS important, for a number of reasons, but none of how that is handled or any other of the above points end up relating to that at all.
Yes, this one is one of the film's weakest points. The ending looked like it was supposed to surprise the viewers and get that "Huwwwhhhhaaaatt?????" reaction. You know, when you fall from your chair and your eyeballs look like they're getting out of your eyes because you were so shocked at the big reveal. Sad to say, the viewers, instead of being surprised, was more puzzled. There are plot twists where you go "I didn't see that coming" but logical and makes sense, and there are some that are questionable. We were led on to believe it was some sort of sibling rivalry, then we were treated to the twist, but someone please shed light on why was the killer targeting that family in particular? Or that apartment for that matter? It looked like the director/writer made a last-ditch twist after all the first scenes they shot and they ran out of time so just put a shocking twist, never mind that it didn't connect to the first parts of the film at all.
Overall, I think I don't dislike the film. I also don't like it, either. I just think its so-so and meh.