How does the old saying go? Diamonds a girl’s best friend? No? Well, how about giant invisible demon hell-hounds? Hide in the Light has a much used and familiar plot, but does it offer enough original twists to make it stand out amongst its peers?
There’s a knock at the door in the middle of the night. A new arrival at the old Orphanage, a young troubled girl, shrouded by a sheet as she is sensitive to the light. A priest welcomes her in, concerned for her state of mind he asks a nun to confine her to an attic room until she can be fully assessed. But as soon as young Amanda crosses the threshold, strange unnatural things start to occur. ‘Do you want to play a game?’ she asks her new attendant, but there is a sinister undertone to her words. The kind of game she wants to play doesn’t end well for anyone. When the residents of the orphanage start to disappear, the building is quickly shut down and boarded up. The Church wants nothing to do with the rumors that have begun to spread about a young girl and her demon that live there.
Mikey McGregor’s opening scene sets his first feature-length movie up wonderfully, and although similar ploys have been used relentlessly by filmmakers over the years, the beautifully ominous camera work of Gonzalo Digenio and Richard Albert’s eerie score convince me that this will be something special. So, I settled down with bated breath and fingers crossed.
Cut to 50 years later and the orphanage has remained abandoned all that time. The unpleasant stories all but faded into distant memory. Enter the Urban Explorers Club. A group of friends who get their kicks from late night ghost hunts in spooky abandoned buildings. And there you go, in a nutshell, is the film. Don’t get me wrong, I’m actually a sucker for these abandoned building, ghost hunt movies, I love them. And Hide in the Light, is a good example – very good in fact. However, it suffers from some rather annoying flaws which prevented it from being amazing.
This movie is full-on when it comes to edge-of-you-seat thrills. From the moment the first lights flicker, the tension builds very quickly. Doors mysteriously open by themselves, shadows move in the corner of your sight, a ghostly girl appears with a demonic voice and an invisible entity starts dragging people off into the darkness. However, I found that no sooner had the action reached a peak, then we transition into a sentimental heart to heart in front of a log fire, or some unnecessary chat about friendship and relationships. There is a ridiculous brother/sister falling out that carries on throughout the film and is a real distraction. Even as the film hurtles towards its bloody finale, and even amongst the mauled corpses of their closest friends, they continue to argue. ‘Why didn’t you tell me about your new girlfriend?’, ‘When were you going to tell me you were moving to a new house?’ Shut up already!!!! There’s a bloody demon hell-hound trying to freakin’ eat us all! Just stick a pin in it for God’s sake!
A good competent cast carries the movie well, I’m looking at you Sterling Jones (Lone Survivor 2013, NCIS 2003) and Alexis Boozer Sterling (Heist 2015, Emma Approved 2013). If you pay attention you may even get a brief glimpse of Eric Roberts (Runaway Train 1985, The Dark Knight 2008, The Expendables 2010) as Father Wes.
The movie yo-yo’s between high intensity and dull ponderous irrelevance to the extent that I began to get quite frustrated. However, despite its sins, the overall experience is a good one, and although I have moaned somewhat, this is still a very good movie and well worth a watch.
Here’s some free advice for all you Ghost Hunting novices out there – if whilst exploring an abandoned orphanage in the middle of the night and you happen to come across an attic room that has been padlocked from the outside and has an inverted cross on the door. Just walk away.
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