Hide and Go Shriek might have a fantastic title for a horror movie but it is about as by-the-numbers as one can get making it both formulaic and slightly boring in execution. That is not to say it is not slightly enjoyable because it is, especially when the final act hits and things finally get going at a decent pace yet there were a few choices made that probably hampered the final product which is a touch disappointing.

The film finds a group of friends who have just graduated high school having nothing better to do than spend the night in a furniture store\warehouse owned by one of the gang’s fathers. If all they are looking to do is hook up, sure, it could be fun but it definitely does not seem all that exciting. Be that as it may, they do just that and soon enough, they get themselves in a bit of trouble as a killer is waiting inside though as to why said murderer is staking out a furniture store is never known. As they start to get picked off, the killer wears their clothes at times, either as a fetish or to lure the rest of the teens into a false sense of security until the end of the picture when the killer’s prison lover arrives on the scene making things even more complicated. It ends as one might expect though the director throws in a slight twist to cap it off, a scene that has become just as cliché as anything else in most slashers but still a decent send-off despite it all.

The biggest sin that the makers of this movie commit is filming most of it in darkness. One could say that it adds an authenticity to it all, what with it being a furniture store after hours, a place where the kids should not be and so they are keeping the lights out but it does make the film hard to watch. Almost from the beginning to the end it is all just a little too dim and it makes it hard to discern what is what at times. It does lend to the suspense a bit, never knowing exactly what is there in the darkness waiting or what is happening but it also takes a lot of air out of the tires as one is constantly trying to make things out. Making things just a touch worse than they already were was the script, the score and the acting. One had to know that there was a smaller budget than most just by the look of it all but some better writing might have made everything else palatable at the very least.

That being said, the kills were good and there was a fair amount of blood and gore to be had throughout and once the bodies started to fall, things got far more interesting. The killer was random, which was nice to see for while known killers are shocking in their own right, the unknown is far more frightening. What made it maddening even further was the introduction of a second perpetrator, a little unneeded but definitely made things a little more surprising and more than added to a bit of the chaotic confusion. All in all, Hide and Go Shriek cannot be completely called a win, but neither is it a loss.

2.5 out of 5