Hideaway (1995)

One night, while driving home with his wife and daughter, Hatch (Jeff Goldblum) gets into a car accident which results in his temporary death. Enter Dr. Nyebern, who has developed a unique resuscitation technique that can revive the dead even after a prolonged period of time. After his revival, Hatch begins having visions of young girls being murdered. It turns out that he shares some sort of special link with the deranged killer (Jeremy Sisto), as they have both been to the other side. Unable to convince anyone of his warnings and knowledge, it's only up to Hatch to stop the killer, who may have a target in mind close to Hatch's heart.This film wasn't particularly exciting, scary or suspenseful. In fact, I scoffed at it from time to time. It was quite ridiculous, cheap, trashy, conventional, predictable, and laughable. The special effects were subpar and murky. The best and most inspired scene was during the first five minutes when the killer journeyed in agony towards hell, after committing an atrocious act and then committing suicide. At least that was something I had not seen too often before. The rest of the movie was merely another slasher film in disguise, no matter how high-gloss it seemed.By the end of the film, many questions and plot holes had arisen but were not addressed. Also, the science, law, and technicalities (e.g. maintaining a patient's confidentiality despite being a menace to others) brought up in the film were terribly erroneous. Much of the film was in bad taste. From time to time, the filmmakers treaded on thin ice by depicting questionable, unsavory, and objectionable acts and images. I also thought the film was going to make some point about spirituality, religion, hell, or heaven, but no such luck. Though some characters were not written well or underutilized of their full potentials, the acting was fine, especially Jeremy Sisto's risky performance as the despicable creep. However, I simply did not care for Goldblum's character and was not convinced of his suffering. Some of his actions, reactions, and dialogues were wayward and awkward. Sometimes he made mistakes when he should have known better and was slow to catch on with certain matters. His wife's role (Christine Lahti) was mostly limited and reduced to that of the long-suffering spouse. She was there mostly to lend support when needed, only becoming a more independent and stronger character near the end. Alicia Silverstone's daughter character was limited in scope as well; mainly serving as a plot gimmick for the killer to prey on.There are far better and scarier horror films out there, Hideaway is not one of them. One film that comes to mind is Lord of Illusions, which is more grotesque, violent, gory, and over-the-top, but effective nonetheless. It goes all the way with its unique, nightmarish, and sensational imagery, and knows no boundaries. Unlike Hideaway, it establishes no pretensions of the divine and evil, and engages us with interesting characters whom we care about.

***Spoilers may be contained within*** According to this movie's "trivia" section, the book's author, Dean R Koontz, was sorely disappointed in the movie adaptation and asked that his name be removed. He had every right to be peeved. I saw this in theatres when it was released and was soundly disappointed, too. The previews seemed kind of interesting but I have to admit I'm a Christine Lahti fan, even though her role in this is strictly "the wife". The story is that of a man, played by Jeff Goldblum, who, following a near-death experience, finds he is psychically linked with a serial killer, played by Jeremy Sisto, who decides to go after Goldblum's daughter (Alicia Silverstone). A cat-and-mouse thriller with sci-fi overtones. I've never read the Koontz book on which this is based. Goodness knows it can't be any worse. As lead, Goldblum is OK, I guess, though he's given this basic performance before. Lahti, unfortunately, is wasted in a part that could be played by just about ANY actress; it's a step up from "and how was YOUR day, dear?" but not much. Silverstone, charming in "Clueless", here is little more than an irritant, nearly making one rather root for the killer, but she can often be irritating in films, so I can't say if it's the fault of the part as written or the actress. As said villain, Jeremy Sisto has obviously watched every other psycho-on-the-loose movie and decided to "juice it up" a bit: he rolls his eyes, leers, laughs "maniacally", tries to seem intimidating by staring through lowered eyes. Every trick in the book is trotted out in his performance and for naught: he's about as terrifying as a computer geek. Sisto can, in other performances, be hammy, and he's no less so here: one nearly expects to see him studded with cloves and pineapple slices. Oh, it's not TOTALLY his fault, since the pedestrian script practically BEGS for overacting; I suppose if he DIDN'T chew the scenery, it might actually be less entertaining than it already IS. Beyond its psychic-link tricks, the film, in its less-than-chilling climax, throws in, seemingly out of nowhere, the twist that this is almost literally a battle between (of course) good and evil. This is revealed with a scene when Goldblum and Sisto are finally staring one another down, and a shot of red flames are visible in Sisto's eye; suddenly, in response, we see a flash of white-blue light in Goldblum's eye. A moment later, flames shoot and rise from Sisto's body, forming a fireball above him; blue-white rays of light pour forth from a kneeling Goldblum, forming a vaguely female form above him. The combination of film-school "special" effects (if they look cheesy on the SMALL screen, you can't IMAGINE how bad they were in the theatre!), this last-minute twist, and the inability to stretch one's suspension of disbelief any longer, is fatal. I heard several voices in the audience yell out, in unison, "Oh, COME ON!" From some of the reviews listed here, this movie has a fair number of supporters. I can only wonder just what version of this movie they saw.

While traveling on the road with his wife Lindsay (Christine Lahti) and his daughter Regina (Alicia Silverstone), Hatch Harrison (Jeff Goldblum) has a car accident, hitting a truck and falling with his wife in a river. He dies for more than two hours, but the specialist Dr. Jonas Nyebern (Alfred Molina) successfully brings him back to life. Hatch has some weird premonitions and becomes able to see through the eyes of the psychopath serial killer Vassago (Jeremy Sisto), a young man that killed his mother and his sister and committed suicide and was also brought back to life and now is killing young women and teenagers. When he foresees that Vassago is trying to capture his daughter, Hatch tries to find the criminal first, in spite of Lindsay, Regina and the detective in charge of the investigation believe that he needs psychiatric help."Hideaway" is another rip-off of "Eye of Laura Mars", I believe the first movie to explore the idea of a person connected to a serial killer through his eyes. "Hideaway" has a good cinematography and special affects, the cast is great and the sequence of the accident of Hatch and Lindsay is excellent. Although not being an original storyline, this attractive movie entertains. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "O Esconderijo" ("The Hiding Place")

I see the movie here in Monterrey and like too very much ...the movie offers an good approach about the moment of dead and the consequences of human acts, maybe no like to every body but have a good special effects and the director offer a different perspective of the God and Devil struggle.Hideaway offers a good suspense from the beginning and mix the lives of the actors very well, good photography and f/x, the movie have some nudity but no too strong.Hideway is a rare movie from Jeff Goldblum between Jurassic Park and Independence Day, have a good story with some of terror and classic thriller sequences.