Hide in the Light (2018)

"Hide In The Light" is your typical -young people go to an abandoned haunted place (in this case an orphanage) to get picked off by whatever one by one- and for what it was going for, this movie is actually quite fine. The Eric Robers makes a little cameo in this, shouldn't be the driving force to watch this though, because he's in it for about one minute only. But Jessie James is also a quite recognizable name by now. The acting here isn't great, but it works for the film and here and there there is really some fun to be had. My biggest gripe is the portrayal of the demon. Because it is not shown. Instead you get a CGI effect as if you'd be looking through a thick glass. Transparent, not scary at all and it looks just bad. 'Amanda' (KylieRae Condon) as the creepy kid was pretty good I must say. I liked her performance. This would almost be a good movie, if they wouldn't have used cheap effects like that. Even black smoke would have been much more convincing than what we've got here. Granted, when it comes to first time directors, Mikey McGregor is by far not the worst. But some more experience would have helped the film a lot! But all in all I liked it. And that already means something, because most of the films with that premise are films I didn't like. Yes, this was low budget as well, but I can appreciate the effort and as I already said, there were a few moments I really had fun with "Hide In The Light". The character building was also done quite well. Especially with so many characters the film managed to flesh out at least most of the important ones, which is rare with films of this particular sub-genre.

Decent watch at best, probably won't watch again, and can't recommend unless it is for a Bad Movie Night. I was so happy it wasn't the movie where they play flashlight in a graveyard and invite a ghost to play, but that momentum quickly faded. It's like "As Above, So Below" and "Pitch Black" had a rather boring baby movie. Don't get me wrong, the premise is good: girl is linked to a demon that hides in the dark, but can physically hunt down and rip people apart. Plenty of potential to hold up to either of the parents, and thank goodness they didn't do this as found footage. With the merry band of idiots, I don't think I liked any of them as characters, to throw as fodder to a demon I was expecting to be excited about it getting them, but I just didn't care at all. The effect work was amazingly good compared to the rest of the movie, so they definitely prioritized what they thought would be their pivotal moments on the spread sheet at least. Honestly, go watch "As Above, So Below" and then "Pitch Black", then the rest of the "Riddick" series, then you can come back and watch this.