HIDER IN THE HOUSE
Not bad, but what a lame title!
Man, that Mimi Rogers would be a real fox if it weren't for that freaky-shaped mouth.
Despite a ridiculous setup and an incredibly lame title, Hider In The House turned out to be considerably more interesting than I'd expected it to be. I guess life's full of surprises.
Gary Busey stars as a guy who's been in a cracker factory for the past eighteen years for burning his parents to death as a teen. He was badly abused as a kid, and often hid from his parents in the little nooks and crannies in the house (like under the sink). As an adult, he's judged to no longer be a danger to himself or anyone else, and let go. With nowhere really to stay, he decides to put some rudimentary carpentry knowledge to use, and moves into the attic of a yuppie couple's new home.
This is obviously a new home, because what this guy does is walls off the last four feet of the attic, making it look like a wall, when really there's a hidden door. He has a window and everything. Think about this for a second - this couple has a window on the outside of their house, but they don't notice that they don't have one on the inside. Uh-huh. About eighty minutes in, the mother instructs her kids to lock every window in the house - this raises hopes about them clueing in, but no dice.
Anyway, this guy starts thinking he'd make a better husband and father that the one in the house (Michael McKean, who I've never really been able to take seriously, although his Howard Stern impression is indistinguishable from the real thing), so he orchestrates his exodus, and starts to quietly insinuate himself in the family's life by, in varying senses, coming to each person's "rescue".
Busey is obviously playing a nut, but it's a sympathetic nut, and you feel bad for him no matter how much a loser he is. Rogers is good in her role, and the kids are okay. And it's interesting to see this guy slide into this family's life, while never actually having to leave their house.
It's nothing special overall, and could have benefited by a more plausible setup (even, say, him running around between the walls like in The People Under The Stairs), but it ain't bad.