Hidden

(2009) **1/2

Having to write a review for an Afterdark Horrorfest film is proving to be a much harder then watching one of these films. Hidden looked promising, maybe the most promising of the 8 films but sadly it failed to deliver. The set up is a scary old house and this house is a doozy!

Scary shit is just waiting to happen here.

Kai Koss inherits this battered old house from his recently dead Mother. He returns to his home town to deal with the property and the disturbing memories of growing up there. When he first arrives at the house the scene is tense and genuinely scary. I'm telling you I was feeling good about this film. After his initial exploration of the house he drives to a small nearby hotel to stay for the night. He is greeted by a woman who remembers him and as it turns out is really the only person who is semi glad to see him back in town. Kai's controversial past left a whole town full of bitter people who wished he had never returned. When a teenage girl and her boyfriend disappear at Kai's newly acquired property on the very night of his return, it doesn't help to earn him any fans. The situation takes a sharp turn when Kai begins seeing Peter, a boy who fell into the waterfall and had been presumed dead for many years. Kai believes Peter is responsible for the missing teens. Since no one else in town has seen him, they are pointing their fingers at Kai. What develops is one big confusing mess of does he or doesn't he exist crap and a big fat disappointment for me.

Why is this...

...and this, never explained?

I was so looking forward to a creepy old haunted house with a nasty old lady ghost. This film is riddled with all the elements of horror but they failed to actually assemble them properly into a cohesive horror story. I have to wonder if some of these directors need serious coaching on what is actually scary. After this year's steaming pile of poop, Afterdark Horrorfest can kiss my ass next year. I'd rather watch a truckload of French horror-porn chased by a warehouse full of Troma, at least with those films I'd know what I was getting into.