Hide And Seek

Hide And Seek

Like many of the less reputable cinematic offspring of Fatal Attraction, Hide And Seek (a.k.a. Cord) attempts to exploit an intense, widely held anxiety: In this case, it's the fear of being abducted, chained to a bed, and subjected to the frighteningly over-the-top histrionics of Jennifer Tilly and Vincent Gallo. An appropriately humiliated-looking Daryl Hannah stars as a well-to-do pregnant woman who is abducted by deranged fertility doctor Gallo and partner Tilly and forced to serve as a surrogate mother for their unborn child. If it were made for Lifetime, it might be called They Stole Her Baby, but no TV movie could be quite as creepy and exploitative as Hide And Seek, which is just as repellent as Gallo's overrated Buffalo 66 but nowhere near as artfully assembled. Director Sidney J. Furie's (Ladybugs, Iron Eagle 4) latest is bereft of suspense, but so full of embarrassing low points that it's impossible to single out just one. Who could choose between seeing Hannah force-fed against her will through a tube and watching Tilly yell at the grotesque doll baby she's attached to her stomach to simulate pregnancy? For that matter, who could choose between Gallo forcing a very-pregnant Hannah to run in front of his tractor as exercise and Tilly threatening to perform a makeshift caesarian on Hannah with a pair of sharp scissors? It all adds up to one of the most deeply unpleasant films in recent memory, ineptly executed schlock that's as fun to watch as videotaped footage of terrified real-life hostages blankly reiterating their captors' demands.

 
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