00:00Rethurning to a notable cinematic work from the late 80s, Hider in the House by director Matthew Patrick is not merely an ordinary horror-thriller film.
00:10Screenwriter Lem Dobbs skillfully drew inspiration from the television film Bad Ronald 1974 in exploring the theme of intrusion and voyeurism within the home itself.
00:22The film is a complex psychological study brilliantly portrayed by Gary Busey through the character Tom Sykes,
00:29a man who carries within himself profound contradictions between intellect, pure longing, rage, and emotional desperation.
00:38Gary Busey embodies Tom Sykes, a man with a traumatic past who grew up in a violent family environment,
00:45enduring years of abuse at the hands of his own parents.
00:48The film's opening scenes reveal to us the psychological foundation, the instability that affected Tom from childhood.
00:56Eventually, he burned his entire family alive.
01:00After 18 long years having spent his adult life in Burley State Mental Hospital,
01:05on his first day back he displayed abnormal rage toward a man in the hotel lobby.
01:10This serves as a sign foreshadowing Tom's uncontrollable emotional outbursts that would follow.
01:15The next part of the film unfolds immediately after, which is the event of Tom wandering and accidentally discovering a house under renovation.
01:25A place about to welcome a new family.
01:28A fleeting thought crosses Tom's mind, the image of slowly entering the house foreshadows his sinister intentions in the latter part of the film.
01:37The female character Julie Dreyer in the story is portrayed by Mimi Rogers.
01:43Julie and Phil Dreyer are moving to a new house with their two young children.
01:48While the Dreyer family is busy with repairs, Tom secretly sneaks into the attic and skillfully constructs a hidden space.
01:56His painful past with childhood traumas has fostered in Tom a longing for a perfect family.
02:02Upon witnessing Julie's beauty and gentleness, Tom gradually nurtures a dangerous delusion.
02:08He begins to imagine that he could replace Phil to become the husband and father in this family.
02:14From that attic, Tom can hear everything that happens in Julie's family.
02:18The moments when Tom peeks, eavesdrops, stares at Julie while she sleeps, when she bathes or swims, are very eerie.
02:26Giving us a chilling experience, as if there's a hidden intruder in our own home.
02:31Gary Busey's acting is truly a magnificent performance.
02:35Heider in the house blends many elements of horror, action and the psychological development of the character.
02:41Where we encounter numerous segments that create suspense, as well as the feeling of everyday human reality becoming disturbingly ordinary.
02:50Throughout the film's duration it constantly draws us into anticipating his next action.
02:54The plot is genuinely well constructed, and the character Tom seems tailor-made for Gary Busey, who brilliantly portrays a cunning predator, a man with a traumatic past and unstable psychology.
03:06An incident involving Julie's son Neil, a boy caught up in school bullying problems.
03:12Tom exploited this situation as a golden opportunity to infiltrate Julie's family life.
03:18Tom appeared unexpectedly, as if by design to rescue the boy.
03:22This was the first time Julie had direct contact with Tom.
03:26Someone she had absolutely no idea was living right inside her own house.
03:31The scenes where Tom silently observes Julie sleeping created an atmosphere of unease and haunting dread.
03:38Not stopping at passive observation alone, Tom discovered Phil's affair with another woman.
03:43He cleverly orchestrated for Julie to discover this betrayal, and gradually positioned himself as an alternative replacement for Phil in the future.
03:52Busy transforms from a mentally disturbed teenage character into a cunningly pitiable human being and quote, hide her in the house.
04:01The director focuses on Tom's personality, filled with deep-seated longings within his soul, harboring emotions but not receiving reciprocal expression or approval.
04:11During the filming of the movie, Gary Busey hired a psychologist to consult on making the character Tom as realistic as possible.
04:19As a Decider article states, Busey's performance is quote,
04:22That's thanks almost entirely to Busey, whose performance is so disconcertingly creepy that you feel like you can't take your eyes off of him lest you miss him doing something that makes your skin crawl.
04:33All of Tom's plans seemed convincing enough for Julie, but unfortunately, one's character and behavior often reveal a person's true nature.
04:42It was his clumsiness in teaching Neil's self-defense moves that shattered Tom's desires.
04:47The plan was perfect, until Julie truly recognized Tom's character.
04:52The dream became even more distant when Phil returned to the house, which certainly sealed the fate of Tom's hopes.
04:58One of the film's best scenes could be said to be the ending, when Julie discovers the attic in her own house.
05:05The film provides Gary Busey with a unique villain character.
05:08The two best scenes in the movie, as mentioned, are the scene where he teaches Neil martial arts self-defense,
05:14and the moment of breakdown when he tries to ask Julie out on a date, both terrifying and convincing.
05:20Additionally, Mimi Rogers' performance deserves mention as excellent.
05:25She portrays her character very authentically, with natural reactions without any hint of stiffness.
05:31Indeed, Mimi is beautiful and exudes the alluring charm of women from earlier decades.
05:36If not as overly serious as pure slasher thrillers,
05:40Hyder in the House is truly a good film, with beautiful and sharp imagery.
05:44The film vividly conveys the psychology of the character Tom,
05:48where the nurturing of violence is the product of psychological transformation in children that he had to carry into adulthood.
05:55In some aspect, Tom is also just a normal teenager, only haunted and deprived of love.
06:02The fact is that Hyder in the House was scheduled for release in 1,200 theaters in the United States in 1989.
06:10But unfortunately, due to financial circumstances, the film was delayed and did not become widely known to audiences.
06:18Later, the film was released on DVD and won a Saturn Award nomination in 1992 for Best Home Video.
06:25Despite its commercial failure, the film became a cult classic thanks to Gary's insane performance.
