I See You (Movie Review)

PLOT: When 10-year-old Justin Whitter (Riley Caya) goes missing in the woods one day, the investigation points to a copycat killer from 15 years ago. As the lead detective Greg Harper (Jon Tenney) digs deeper into the case, him and his family are tormented by a series of seemingly supernatural phenomena.

REVIEW: Departing from the campy comic-book and videogame tableau of his two prior features – LEVEL UP and iBOY – director Adam Randall coyly ventures into inverted home-invasion terrain with the drolly duplicitous indie feature I SEE YOU, due in select theaters Friday, December 6th. With competing perspectives of the same events, a la RASHOMON, Randall and screenwriter Devon Graye amuse themselves by toying with audience expectations, setting up one set of anticipatory events in the first half, only to completely upend those expectations by presenting the same events from a different point of view in the second, thereby recalibrating the entire story by the time the credits roll. Part of this result feels like a cheat and a cheap way to recycle scenes to throw off audiences in order to ensure a “shocking” twist ending. But because so much of the movie up to that point is handled with expert aplomb, from the superb acting and resplendent cinematography to the unnerving score and underlying mystery, it’s easy to forgive the narrative gimmickry and salute Randall for submitting a knotty thought-stirring thriller. In simpler terms, I SEE YOU lands directly between DON’T BREATHE and BAD SAMARITAN as unique plot-heavy home-invasion yarns!

A gorgeous overhead shot tracks ten-year old Justin Whitter as he rides his bike through the Midwestern woods. Suddenly, he’s thrown off the bike by what seems to be an invisible force, but is later revealed to be due to a tripwire. This seems like a non-sequitur, as we then meet the unrelated Harper family. Jackie Harper (Helen Hunt) is a pill-popping housewife who recently got caught cheating on her husband, Greg, a detective assigned to Justin’s missing person case. Connor Harper (Judah Lewis), their son, resents Jackie for wrecking their home. Soon after Justin goes missing, strange occurrences take place at the Harper house. The TV turns on by itself, records play on their own, the silverware goes missing and ends up in the dryer, Greg wets the bed and gets locked in the closet, the pet hamster gets free from its cage, etc. But what does this have to do with Justin’s disappearance, if anything, and are these phenomena supernatural or something easier to explain?

Trust us, there’s no significant or even final spoiler to say it’s the latter. At the halfway point, the movie cleaves and recycles the same scenes already presented to us, just from a different perspective. A pair of “phroggers” named Alec (Owen Teague) and Mindy (Libe Barer), squatters who sneak into homes and stay there while the owners are present, are introduced. Mindy simply wants to subsist undetected, but Alec becomes so bored he wants to play tricks on the Harpers by moving things around their elegant abode. It’s here when the movie feels like it has only 45 minutes of actual story that needs to be retold from a different POV in order to stretch out to a requisite feature runtime. As a result of the RASHOMON effect, a sense of disappointment and impatience begins to take hold. But then, just when we expect to continue seeing the same events from a different angle, we get a rift in the formula in the form of an unforeseen third-act twist. This one we won’t betray, but it at least does finally tie together Justin’s involvement in a way that feels germane to the opening setup. I realize I’m speaking in vagaries here, but it’s only to retain the final plot-wrinkle for your own worthy self-discovery. Again, think along the lines of DON’T BREATHE and BAD SAMARITAN for further clues.

The mendacious plot manipulation aside, which has its own enthralling upsides and repetitive downturns, the movie is at its best when it continues to keep us guessing as to how Justin relates to the Harpers beyond Greg’s investigation. The film tightens an unshakable grip on its viewer by never letting on too much or too little in any given scene prior to the big reveal, which goes a long way in remaining entertaining from act one to three. The air of intrigue is too palpable to lose interest. Also, the performances by Hunt as the loopy pill-head grappling with grief, and Teague as the nihilistic Alec (doing his best Jonathan Brandis from the grave impression), are among the stronger aspects of making the story the most believable it can be. Add in the superlative textural touches of Philipp Blaubach’s lush cinematography and discordant score by an uncredited composer and you have all the ingredients of an ambitious, competently crafted and circuitous home-invasion thriller. Do wise and see I SEE YOU ASAP!