WHAT WE HIDE - Mark Reviews Movies

What We Hide, Gravitas Ventures

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | August 21, 2025

Their mother has died. What do her daughters do next? That's the question posed to a pair of sisters, mainly the older one, at the very start of What We Hide. Writer/director Dan Kay throws us right into the middle of this story, after the mother, who was addicted to heroin for many years, has chased high after high and neglected her daughters. The film starts with the girls finding her dead of an overdose, so any answers they might have wanted from the woman about why she did what she did in her life will never come.

The film itself, then, becomes as much about these girls, 15-year-old Spider (Mckenna) and her 10-year-old sister Jessie (Jojo Regina), wrestling with that uncertainty as it does the actual plot. Just as the mother's death is revealed immediately, so, too, is the inciting incident of that plot. Spider decides it would be best for her and her sister if the two hide their mother's body in an old trunk in the shed on the family's remote property.

Her reason for this is a simple one, born—as odd as it may sound, given how the deed treats a deceased family member—out of love. The family has come under scrutiny from Child Protective Services, because the mother didn't have a job, almost certainly showed potential signs of drug abuse, and also must have been routinely absent, in mind or body or both, from the lives of her daughters.

The only thing keeping the sisters together, ironically, was the fact that their mother was alive and surely did at least the bare minimum to keep that government agency at bay. If the mother's death was known, it would only be a matter of time before Spider and Jessie were put into the foster system. The likelihood that the two would stay together is so slim that it might as well be impossible.

Spider's plan is that of a child, because that is what she is, but a knowing, clever, and resourceful one, because that is what her life in this house has made her. There is no way the two girl will be able to hide their mother's death, as well as her body, from the world—a world that, to some degree, does care enough about the woman and her daughters to make sure they aren't dying alone in some isolated ranch house outside a small town. Spider sees that world as antagonistic against her and her sister, because that also must be what her life has taught her to believe.

At its very core, then, this is a deeply sad film—not simply because it is about a dead woman who couldn't bring herself to get help for whatever reasons she may have had, as well as the two daughters she has left behind to fend for themselves. It's also and mainly because of how deeply cynical this life has made a 15-year-old girl that she sees villains who want to do her and her sister harm everywhere. They do exist, to be sure, in this story, but from Spider's perspective, even those who could and would help her to the best of their abilities are the bad guys.

She does have a point, as Kay reveals throughout the film as the sisters try to keep everyone unaware that their mother is dead. Every system that could help them is broken, as shown by the overworked and unpaid Paul (Tamara Austin), the child services agent who's called away from Spider and Jessie's situation before she can figure out the obvious, and local Sheriff Ben (Jesse Williams), who has seen the offices of that government agency.

There are kids sleeping on the floor, waiting to be placed in homes or facilities that either are filled to capacity or don't exist. The Sheriff's main job at this moment in time is finding and trying to revive people who have overdosed, because any society that can't even be bothered to care for abused, neglected, or orphaned children isn't going to help drug addicts recover and stay sober.

Rightly, in other words, the film feels hopeless, even as it finds some optimism in the love Spider has for Jessie. It also finds it in the basic decency—although it's misunderstood by our young protagonist—of people like Ben, Paula, and assorted people around town who can tell something is very wrong for these two sisters.

One of the more affecting and haunting moments of this film comes from a worker (played by Shellita Boxie) at the local bus station. When Spider inquires about the price and if she can go anywhere she wants, the woman immediately starts asking if the girl is okay, needs help, and knows that there is help out there for her if she needs it. The sincerity almost comes as a surprise to Spider, who immediately switches back to the need to defend herself and Jessie from curious eyes. Grace's performance gets right to the heart of that tragic quality.

Still, there is a plot, which has the girls going on as if everything is normal, while lying to adults about what their mother is doing. They also have to deal with the mother's pseudo-boyfriend Reece (Dacre Montgomery), to whom the mother owes money. That character becomes the most obviously manufactured element of a story that would probably be better without such extraneous obstacles.

The narrative's real conflicts, as Spider's skepticism is challenged by the actions of others—including a boy, played by Forrest Goodluck, who likes her—and her resentment of her dead mother is countered by Jessie's unconditional love for the woman, are strong enough. Indeed, they're strong enough in What We Hide to make what might have been a contrived thriller into something a bit deeper.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products