Oh, Skjult, just when I thought I understood what was going on, you got all befuddling, and now I have no choice but to stay in this state of constant befuddlement.
Skjult or under its boring English name, Hidden is a Norwegian film about a man or two men, and one of their moms, but also maybe both their moms, a waterfall, a hotel, and a small town in Norway that for some reason hates victims. Confused yet, good, because I am, and I actually watched the film. See, there is a slowly revealed switcheroo between two boys at the beginning of the film. One was seen crawling out of the ground like a zombie, the other taking a pee in the woods as his parents are killed in a car crash. Yet, the circumstances of the boy crawling out of the ground will not be explained until later in the film, making the whole thing the wrong type of convoluted. Story-wise, it bothered me the most out of this film. Skjult actually had a solid horror thriller of a story that was only made worse by trying to make it more confusing to draw you off the scent. The secrets revealed in the film were kind of crazy in a "Damn, this stuff is messed up" way. But, since we don't know about them until near the very end, it becomes a movie that kind of makes sense if you watch it all, but for most of its run time, it feels like you're missing something as a viewer.
Skjult does do atmosphere and tone right though. That is why the confusing layout of the story is even sadder. There is a dark overtone and creepy atmosphere that works so well in this. Norway's backdrop of dark still forests and quiet smalltown landscapes make an eerie place for weird crimes to happen. The movie does very little to explain anything in a linear fashion which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I think in the case of the main character's life and childhood with his lunatic mom needed to be emphasized and been less of a mystery. She's still creepy and awful, and what she did is horrific, even if we know it right from the beginning. Her crimes don't become worse because they are revealed as a dark secret since everyone in town already seems to know them.
Overall, I think while interesting, but mostly confusing, Skjult is just too enamored with its own mystery to be bothered to explain itself to you the viewer. Which is a shame, because there was a lot of this movie that worked and kept you interested. One may say there was lot hidden under the surface...ha see what I did there?