Scary movies pump up the adrenaline and transport audiences into a realm of fear and paranoia. I swear that while I was watching the thriller “Hide and Seek,” I had a flash of déjà vu.

The film stars Robert DeNiro as David Callaway, a widowed father who struggles to cope with his wife’s ghastly suicide and his traumatized daughter, Emily (Dakota Fanning).

Granted the plots are completely different, it was hard not to be distracted by the movie’s similarity to last summer’s equally spooky “Godsend”: Robert DiNiro – check, haunted and creepy but cute kid – check, spooky house set in the woods – check, and overall movie with an obvious and mind-numbingly bad story and plot – check.

David decides to move his daughter to upstate New York hoping that it will help give her a new start and new memories apart from her mother’s recent death. David is a psychologist and believes he can cure his daughter with therapy while still being a father who is there for her.

But Emily has other ideas. She refuses to confide in David and turns to her imaginary friend Charlie for comfort.

Her moods range from depressed – when David tries to cheer her up; defiant and jealous when a divorced Elizabeth (Elisabeth Shue) takes an interest in him; to destructively devious – when creepy messages appear mimicking her mother’s suicide.

Emily blames Charlie for the escalating mischief, while David is left to try to protect his family from the entity after them. Charlie can be a host of people: the grieving neighbor whose daughter died of cancer, the creepy house dealer who delivers skeleton keys to the house at 2 a.m. or something more sinister and paranormal.

A plot twist is thrown in too early when Charlie is revealed. The movie drags like the bodies left in Charlie’s wake, making anyone watching more excited when the movie finishes than when discovering who the bad guy is.

While “Hide and Seek” doesn’t wander off into genetic cloning, it borders the hypothetical sci-fi stuff left for B-movies. It is another movie starring DeNiro in a disappointing horror flick. It is also a further testament to a mighty actor’s career flailing. DeNiro is amazing, as always, and it’s a shame the movie isn’t as good as him.

Fanning is just as good as DeNiro and part of the reason the film has such a box-office draw. While she overreaches her performance as the problem child, she delivers with developing acting skills that reveal a promising future. At almost 10 years old, she is an excellent young actress but can’t save “Hide and Seek.”

Better leave hiding and seeking to the pros and skip this movie.