Hidden (2015) - One of the slowest of burners

The premise of 'Hidden' could well be a stage play for the most part.  It's about a family - Mum, Dad and young daughter - who are hiding in an underground survival bunker, while some sort of 'apocalyptic' event takes place above them.

It's a sound enough base to set a story on and it plays it well.  In other words we really get to know the three characters and their wants, fears and motivations.  And we continue to get to know them.  In fact, most of the film is getting to know them.  At about the halfway mark we get a few flashbacks to before whatever happened happened.  But we still don't know what actually happened.

The three of them often talk of the 'breathers' - clearly a reference to whoever or whatever roams the world above them and how they must never come into contact with them.  I know the film-makers are trying to keep things mysterious by never really revealing who or what these 'breathers' are, but, after a while, it just kind of got annoying.  I wanted to know the threat level the human survivors were facing so I could better understand what they could and couldn't do.  For example, if slow moving zombies were above them, you could probably run past them if you were careful.  Whereas if it was vampires who could turn into bats and fly after you then you needed to be a lot more careful and so on.

It was only in the last fifteen minutes or so that you actually understand where everyone truly stands.  And it is a good 'final act.' However, you need to be warned that this is no wall-to-wall thrill ride.  It's a long, drawn out slow burner of a film which will make you wait and wonder for a pretty short and sweet pay-off.

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights