‘Hide and Seek’ fades

For quite a ways into its game, “Hide and Seek” provides a surprisingly tense ride. Then it goes off the rails when it has to explain itself, as so many puzzlers do.

The association of Robert De Niro with a horror movie conjures up fetid memories of “Godsend,” but rest assured this one is a cut above that. So to speak.

De Niro plays a New York psychologist whose wife (Amy Irving) is discovered in the bathtub one night, her wrists slashed. He decides to move his eight-year-old daughter Emily (Dakota Fanning) to the country, for a change of scenery.

They move into a big old house that surely comes from the Amityville real estate listing. But the ghosts here are not in the house, but in Emily’s head. Why does she wander off into the woods alone? Why does her doll turn up in the garbage with its face smashed? And why is she always talking about her new friend, “Charlie,” who sounds like a bad sort?

Of course De Niro recognizes Charlie as an imaginary friend, invented to cope with the loss of the mother. Thing is, Charlie doesn’t seem to like Daddy very much, to the point of scrawling messages on the bathroom wall and doing something nasty to the family cat.

What’s good about this is the measured approach of director John Polson. We get just enough weirdness from the next-door neighbors, and the too-friendly local sheriff (Dylan Baker), to make us imagine all sort of possibilities for Charlie.

Meanwhile, a couple of potential replacements for Mommy steer into view. One is De Niro’s colleague, played by Famke Janssen. Another is the aunt (Elisabeth Shue, from “Leaving Las Vegas”) of a little playmate for Emily.

Big problem. “Charlie” doesn’t like them.

De Niro looks pained, as he generally has for the last dozen years or so. The real key to the movie is Dakota Fanning, the little girl from “I Am Sam” and “Man on Fire.” She has her hair dyed brown here, I suppose to increase the sense of depression, but otherwise she has the same uncanny self-possession she’s displayed in her other movies.

So the spooky kid thing works. Alas, screenwriter Ari Schlossberg leans a little too heavily on conventions, such as the music box (music boxes are always creepy in movies) and a little girl’s voice singing “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

And eventually an explanation is needed. These usually disappoint, but “Hide and Seek” deflates very rapidly when it reveals itself – and the movie has 20 minutes to go. It turns into the same old thing, after a rather promising beginning.

Dakota Fanning and Robert De Niro star in “Hide and Seek.”

“Hide and Seek” HH

Good start: Robert De Niro takes his daughter (the uncanny Dakota Fanning) into the country after the death of his wife – but the kid’s “imaginary friend” is soon making life miserable. A pretty decent start is upended by the eventual explanation of the mystery, and this one turns into the same old thing.

Rated: R rating is for violence, subject matter.

Now showing: tk

“Hide and Seek” HH

Good start: Robert De Niro takes his daughter (the uncanny Dakota Fanning) into the country after the death of his wife – but the kid’s “imaginary friend” is soon making life miserable. A pretty decent start is upended by the eventual explanation of the mystery, and this one turns into the same old thing.

Rated: R rating is for violence, subject matter.

Now showing: Everett 9, Grand, Marysville, Mountlake, Stanwood, Meridian, Metro, Oak Tree, Woodinville, Cascade, Oak Harbor Plaza.

Robert Horton