Hidden (2015) might be a film directed and written by the Duffer Brothers, who made the now globally famous Stranger Things, but it barely got a slice of the acclaim the Netflix show did.
However, this film is an excellent advertisement for the Duffer Brothers’ writing skills, and it shows why they have crafted one of the most successful shows of our time. But even though there are echoes of Stranger Things in Hidden, the 2010 horror film that will force you to change your perspective is more akin to A Quiet Place.
Hidden stars Andrea Riseborough and Alexander Skarsgård as Claire and Ray. They have a nine-year-old daughter Zoe, played by Emily Alyn Kind. The family lives in a nuclear bunker, and they live by a strict set of rules to save themselves from the clutches of the Breathers.
One of their significant rules is to always stay in control, and the other is not to make any noise or draw attention to themselves. However, things go wrong quickly due to a rat, which eventually reveals an apparent twist in the film.
In Hidden (2015), the ending twist is that Ray, Claire, and Zoe are the infected monsters. The creatures they call the Breathers are normal humans who the virus hasn’t infected.
These Breathers are also military soldiers whose job is to eliminate every infected person in the village of Kingsville, where the family lives. In the end, even though Ray dies, Claire and Zoe survive and find other infected people who have been hiding.
What Was the Point of the Movie Hidden?
Hidden deals with multiple themes, and even though it’s a horror film, it can quite comfortably be classified as a psychological thriller. The film’s main aim is to make audiences think about the perspective they have been presented with.
Viewers are given limited information regarding the main characters’ situation because the camera only tells what Claire, Ray, and Zoe know.
From their perspective, they are the ones who are hunted and persecuted by the Breathers. So they hid themselves in a bunker for about a year and rationed out their food to survive. However, the ending twist turns the entire movie on its head, and we realize that the family is the infected and a threat while the Breathers are actually normal human beings.
It shows that what we see might not be all there is, and we should always wait for more information before passing judgment. However, it’s interesting that the film doesn’t show the military to be the good guys.
In fact, it sympathizes with the infected family because Claire and Zoe lose their husband and father in the end. It also prompts viewers to ask questions about the virus that infected the family and why it was tested in their village.
Another central point the film wants to present is the family unit as the emotional core of the film. Claire and Ray do everything possible to keep Zoe safe and give her a semblance of everyday life. It’s similar to how Stranger Things or A Quiet Place uses parents and their love for the child as the driving force of the projects. As expected, it works here as well.
What Is the Twist at the End of Hidden?
In the film, Ray, Claire, and their daughter Zoe have survived for about a year by staying hidden from monsters they have termed Breathers. The three could barely save themselves by hiding in the bunker when the military began dropping explosives. The trio lives by strict rules to keep themselves hidden and safe from the monsters hunting them.
One is they must always be in control, and two is that they must stay hidden from the Breathers actively hunting them. But when they find a rat stealing from their already meager supplies, they accidentally set their shelter on fire while trying to locate the creature.
Claire and Ray leave the bunker to determine how bad the situation is, but when their daughter sees the Breathers, she freaks out, and her cries alert them to their location.
So the smoke, ash, and Zoe’s cries let the military hone in on their location. They try to escape through a vent but find Ray too big to fit in. So he stays back to fight off the Breathers while Claire and Zoe escape. The two run for it through the bombed town but find themselves at the checkpoint. They get captured, and eventually, their blood report confirms that they are infected.
Just as the military gets ready to shoot them, Claire starts acting erratically, and Ray shows up by pretending to be a Breather. A flashback shows that the fire infected everyone who came in its contact.
When Claire was about to shut the nuclear bunker door, her hand got cut too. She realized that her blood was tainted and they were already infected. It shows that the Breathers are ordinary humans who are in the military.
So it is the family we have been following for so long who are the superhuman monsters. As such, do Claire, Ray, and Zoe turn into monsters?
They don’t turn into zombies, but their emotions get dialed up when things get serious. As such, it shows why they were so focused on the rule of staying in control because if they don’t, they become thoughtless killing machines.
The family loses control when their lives are in danger and begin killing the Breathers/ Soldiers. They have super strength and are filled with maniacal anger in their new form. Ray gets killed during the battle, but Zoe and Claire are able to escape. However, Zoe almost kills her mother in her anger, but Claire calms her down. In the end, mother and daughter take shelter in a tunnel.
Then they hear Zoe’s friend, who takes them to the other infected people. As such, it implies that both of them have to live out the rest of their days in hiding. Otherwise, they might get hunted by the army.
What Is The Virus and Who Are The Breathers?
Hidden makes it clear that the Breathers are military soldiers. They wear respiratory masks designed to protect themselves from the infection present in the air. Ray, Claire, and Zoe call them Breathers to give them a separate identity so that rules can be established to prevent their intrusion. In reality, they are normal humans who haven’t been infected with the virus that fills its host with rage.
However, the film doesn’t give much information about what kind of virus infected the village of Kingsville, where the family lived. However, there’s speculation that the virus was made in a government facility and the village was used as a testing ground for it. When things went haywire, the military was ordered to kill everyone who came into contact with it.
As for why that particular village was chosen? It could be because its population was small, so it was the perfect testing village.
Who Sent the Tapes in Hidden?
No tapes are used in the film Hidden (2015) by the Duffer Brothers. The story is completely linear and doesn’t use any tapes to add to the narrative. Viewers see the action as it happens.
So what are your views on Hidden and its twist?
Could the ending twist have been better executed? Should the film have elaborated more upon the virus and what it actually did? Or does not knowing all the answers add to the fear factor?
Let us know in the comments below.
