Hide and Seek (2005)

Hide and Seek is a 2005 American horror film starring Robert De Niro, Famke Janssen and Dakota Fanning.

It was directed by John Polson. The film opened in the United States in January 2005 and was top of the box office.

It did not reach the same level of critical success; it garnered mainly negative reviews, receiving only a 13% on Rotten Tomatoes. The performances of the actors were highly praised however.

Plot
After the apparent suicide of mother Allison (Amy Irving), a psychologist man, Dr. David Callaway (Robert De Niro) and his daughter Emily (Dakota Fanning) whom he shares a troubled relationship, moves to a new home to hopefully have a fresh start.

David meets local woman Elizabeth (Elisabeth Shue) and her niece, Amy, who is roughly the same age as Emily.

Hoping to cultivate a new friendship for Emily, David sets up a play-date for her. The play-date is spoiled however when Emily cuts up the face of Amy's doll.

Despite the unsuccessful play-date, David and Elizabeth hit it off, though Emily acts in a hostile manner towards her as well.

A family friend, Dr. Katherine Carson (Famke Janssen) - herself a fellow psychologist, visits David and Emily to try to help David and talks to Emily about her obsession with Charlie, her only new (and imaginary) friend.

Over time, odd events start to happen in the house: among other things, late at night David finds angry messages written on the wall directed at David: in addition, the family cat is drowned in the tub.

He naturally assumes Emily is the culprit, but she frequently denies any participation, blaming it on Charlie.

Also when he looks at Emily's drawn pictures, they show the murders along with her and a black figure appearing to be Charlie although Emily doesn't say.

Later, Elizabeth visits again, hoping to make peace with Emily. When Emily says she is playing hide-and-seek with Charlie, Elizabeth indulges her by pretending to look for him.

However, someone pushes Elizabeth out the window to her death then finding her dead in a blood filled bathtub. When David asks Emily who did it, once more she blames Charlie, admitting Charlie "made her help him".

A distraught David, armed with a knife, goes outside, where he meets his neighbor. He assumes his neighbor is Charlie and cuts him with the knife, after which the suspicious neighbor calls the police.

Back in the house, David finds that, although he had seemingly been in his study many times, the boxes were actually never unpacked.

David realizes that he has a split personality and that Charlie is not imaginary at all: Charlie in reality is David. Whenever it appeared David was in his study, Charlie was actually in control.

David also realizes that under his Charlie personality, he murdered his wife and made it appear to be a suicide.

He also fully recalls the events of the party the night before his wife's murder, where he had caught his wife cheating on him, which triggered David's identity disorder.

As Charlie, David goes on a murder spree. He viciously bludgeons the local sheriff with a shovel and drags his body to the cellar.

Emily calls Katherine for help who arrives and is herself attacked by Charlie and thrown in the cellar with the sheriff. A terrified Emily manages to escape the house after learning that he killed her mother and knife-wielding Charlie seeking her out, and runs into the cave.

Katherine takes the gun from the mortally wounded sheriff and follows Charlie to the cave. Charlie pretends to be David, admits he, not Emily, is sick, then proceeds to viciously attack Katherine. As Charlie threatens Emily, Katherine manages to kill him after saying "Hide and seek".

Sometime later, Emily is preparing for school in her new life with Katherine. However, Emily's drawing of herself with Katherine has two heads, suggesting that she now also suffers from a split personality.

Main cast

 * Robert De Niro as Dr. David Callaway / Charlie
 * Dakota Fanning as Emily Callaway
 * Famke Janssen as Dr. Katherine Carson
 * Elisabeth Shue as Elizabeth Young
 * Dylan Baker as Sheriff Hafferty
 * Amy Irving as Allison Callaway
 * Melissa Leo as Laura, a neighbour
 * Robert John Burke as Steven, Laura's husband, a neighbour
 * Josh Flitter as Little Boy (uncredited)