Hide (2025) Film Review – Short, Sharp, and Served Rare

Posted on by Liz Griffiths

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Cory Pratt’s Hide (2025) is a perfect mix of graphic imagery and careful restraint. In just a short runtime (less than 20 minutes), it manages to say more than many full-length feature films do, delivering tension, unease, and pointed social commentary without ever tipping into excess. The film shows just enough without feeling overly gratuitous or exploitative, inviting the viewer to fill in the blanks with their own dread and discomfort and flesh out the rest of the story and, indeed, the entire world of Hide in their own minds.

The film wastes no time in getting into the meat of the story. We meet a maintenance man with a gambling problem and a lot of debt, and then, without a lot of lead-up, we’re watching him break into the house of one of his customers in an attempt to burglarize the place to pay off his bookie. The premise of the entire film is brilliant in its simplicity; we don’t need a lot of setup or exposition, we just inherently know exactly what is going on. Until, suddenly, we don’t. When our morally grey maintenance man discovers that he’s not the only one in the house, the whole robbery goes off the rails, and we find ourselves actually rooting for him– the thief, the criminal, the man who we were clearly meant to dislike. And by the end, we’re left to question who the real villains (and the real victims) are.

What makes Hide especially effective is how its world feels fully realized in just a few short scenes. The entirety of the film takes place within roughly 16 minutes, spanning the inside of a truck, a kitchen/dining room, and a closet, yet the performances, pacing, and visual storytelling all hint at something bigger lurking beneath the surface. The easy conversation between characters feels effortless and draws us in. At the same time, the slightly unorthodox camera angles and sharp cuts bring the tension back to the surface by giving us the definite impression that we’re eavesdropping on something we were never meant to see. By the end, I found myself wishing it were a feature-length film—not because it felt incomplete, but because I wanted to stay in its unsettling, thought-provoking world a little longer. But most of all, I really wanted to know more about their “guest of honor,” and what led to his apparently voluntary involvement in their dinner party.

Hide is sharp, succinct, socially aware horror done right, and it’s honestly hard to really find fault in it at all. It manages to be unsettling, intelligent, and robust despite its short runtime and modest budget (it was largely funded via a GoFundMe campaign that raised under $15,000). It finds a good balance between the here-and-now and the dystopian, and brilliantly blurs the lines of morality. While it may not provide a ton of backstory or exposition, it tells the story in a way that packs a real punch and feels very well-rounded. Overall, it gives you everything you want from a horror film: tension, dread, unanswered questions, a strong story, and a feeling of unease that lasts long after the credits roll. And if you still need convincing to give Hide a watch: Director Cory Pratt claims that this film is based on a true story. Bon appetit!

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