Despite its technical and visual ingenuity, "Hideaway" is such an unpleasant ride that by the end it's easy to feel you've been cinematically violated.
Using razzle-dazzle computer imagery to evoke a sense of what it might be like to have a near-death - or an actual death - experience, director Brett Leonard brings some of the same imagination that he used with "The Lawnmower Man" to "Hideaway."But that imagination extends only to the afterlife visuals - the rest of the film is ho-hum serial-killer stuff of the kind we see all too often in the movies, punctuated by disgusting scenes of necks being sliced open (and at one point, an eye being poked out).
The film begins with our friendly neighborhood murderer (Jeremy Sisto) at home after a ritual killing (with religious overtones, of course), leaving his mother and sister dead. He climbs upstairs to his bedroom, which is filled with lighted candles and satanic knicknacks, and commits suicide with a dagger.
Then we see from his viewpoint a trip down Afterlife Lane, as his spiritual self travels through a colorful tunnel at warp speed and then confronts a bunch of red-devil spirits crying in the night. Just as suddenly, he is pulled back to rejoin the living.
After this sequence, we meet a loving but sad couple (Jeff Goldblum, Christine Lahti) that has lost a young daughter and is now having trouble communicating with another teenage daughter (Alicia Silverstone).
They are on vacation at their mountain cabin and feeling melancholy, so they decide to head home early, traveling down a mountain road at night. Meanwhile, a trucker is heading up that same road and falls asleep.
The ensuing accident leaves Goldblum dead, and from his viewpoint we see another trip down the afterlife highway. Fortunately for him, however, he is taken to an emergency room that just happens to have access to a doctor (Alfred Molina) who has developed "a special resuscitative program." Molina brings Goldblum back from the dead.
It doesn't take long, however, before Goldblum begins having "nightmares," during which he sees young women murdered - and feels as if he is doing the killing. Yes, he has become "psychically linked" with Sisto and both are seeing things through each other's eyes. And that, of course, eventually leads to Goldblum's family being endangered.
There are overtones of other, better respected horror yarns here, from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" to "The Silence of the Lambs," though the massive "sculpture" that includes the killer's victims and is built under an aging rollercoaster seems a bit much. (The film is also surprisingly sluggish in places, with a climactic showdown that goes on forever.)
But let's face it, given the amount of current interest in afterlife discussions, it's not a bad idea for a movie. (We know the movie is in New Age Land when Lahti picks up a copy of Betty Eadie's "Embracing the Light" for a closeup.)
But why does it have to be wrapped up with a serial killer plot?
Favorite dumb line: "Even as a child he was psychotic," says a key character, making a case for why Sisto was brought back to life.
"Hideaway" is rated R for considerable violence, some gore, a sex scene and a fair amount of profanity.