It’s not just a movie, it’s ‘Hidden’

Continuing on Tuesday’s night at SpIFF 2006 , let’s deal with the New Zealand film “Hidden.”

First of all, I spent a pleasant hour this morning with Kiel McNaughton , one of the members of the mostly unknown cast, all of whom came out of, as the film’s ongoing journal says , Auckland’s Performing Arts School.

McNaughton, who is of Maori, Scottish and Chinese ancestry, plays Mark in the film, one of two men (the other is Luke Alexander, as Carl) who seems to be vying for the affections of Brooke ( Hayley Halliday , that’s her in front there).

I’ll post a transcription of that interview just as soon as I can. It’s enough to say here that McNaughton is a pleasant, low-key guy who is nothing like the frightening character he plays in the film.

Anyway, “Hidden” is a film that relies on a gimmick. And when that gimmick is revealed, some people are bound to be disappointed. However, you have to give writer-director Tim McLachlin credit: Not only did he make a film that challenges you to keep up with it from the opening frames, but he did so for barely $7,000.

How’d he do that? As McNaughton said with a smile, “We even had to buy our own breakfasts.”

“Hidden” uses technique to establish its tone: There is, at first, barely any dialogue. We see only a group of young people, running, seemingly playing a grown-up game of hide-and-seek, but an overwhelming feeling of threat gradually grows. Then as things slow up, and the characters do engage in conversation, they do so with feeling of the bizarre – as if their whole world is at odds with the nature around them.

Characters get angry, fall asleep, scream out, cry at the drop of a Hobbit (sorry, that’s another New Zealand film) and, in general, act out in a creepy way whose cause only slowly, gradually, ultimately becomes clear.

Those people who can let the film work on them, who have the patience to stay with a film that is almost experimental cinema, will discover something unusual: a thinking man’s delving into the supernatural side of horror.

“Hidden” isn’t the next “Blair Witch Project.” It isn’t even the next “Evil Dead.” But it owes debts to both.

Not mention the work of Ambrose Pierce .

Below: Kiel McNaughton, one of the stars of the New Zealand film “Hidden,” came to SpIFF to represent the rest of the cast and crew.

Photo from “Hidden” press kit