I See You (2019) - Movie Review

What do you get when you take a washed up Helen Hunt add a bunch of fantastic genre actors and mix in a dueling meta narrative that involves a haunted house , a storybook serial killer, and the collapse of a marriage.

A fantastic modern twist on the haunted house trope.

Let’s discuss.

I gotta be honest.

Wait.

When am I not?

It’s neither here nor there. The first 30 minutes of this film are painful to get through. If you’re someone who needs an immediate hook, likable characters, or exposition dumps, this isn’t a movie for you. This is a slow burn thriller. I almost turned the film off at the twenty minute mark, but changed my mind. I am so glad I did, because that slow burn pays off huge.

But let’s start at the beginning.

I See You is a haunted house / serial killer thriller brought to us by writer Devon Graye and director Adam Randall. Yeah, I don’t have much to say about either of these guys other than they did a bang up job on the film. The script and direction is sharp, organic, and everything has purpose. Every movement of the camera is a hint, every verbal barb a clue, and as the film plays off all these little nods and winks leads to a big reveal. This is definitely a movie where you need to pay attention as the majority of the story is told through environmental storytelling. I knew exactly what was going on from about the twenty minute mark, but that’s not a negative. My brain isn’t normal. I am able to memorize a picture in a few seconds and reassemble it in my head. It’s a credit to the writer and director that the clues and hints were cohesive enough to make sense inside of the narrative. This allowed me to figure it all out without any major plotholes.

The film focuses on an upper middle-class family that’s coming apart at the seams. The matriarch of the family, Jackie Harper (Helen Hunt) is a psychiatrist who’s life is in crisis. She was caught cheating by her husband and neither he nor their son will allow her to forget it. While her husband has become distant, her son Connor (played by Judah Lewis) has become angry and violent. It’s a bad situation which only gets worse with the odd noises and events happening around them. Televisions are turning on and off, things are going missing, and there’s whispers in the dark. On top of that, Jackie’s detective husband Greg is dealing with the resurgence of a serial killer who’s supposedly been locked up for the last decade. Are these things linked? Is the serial killer haunting the town and in turn the family. Will Greg be able to catch the serial killer before he zeroes in on their family? Will Helen be able to pull the family together before the end? Find out in I See You.

This movie looks fantastic. It’s an indie that looks AAA. The camera work, visuals, lighting, etc. look fantastic. It’s a credit to the production that they chose to cut something else in the budget to make sure the film looks good. Lately, a lot of films are falling back on the standard def trope that started with the incredible Channel Zero. They use a lower definition recording to give the film grit, but also so they can free up budget for the terrible CGI they’re going to ruin the film with in the finale. I was pleasantly surprised that this film dodged that bullet.

Then again, this isn’t a film that had CGI on the menu.

This is a film that’s about the acting and the twist.

The acting is pretty solid, except…

Helen Hunt is the biggest name in this film. Part of that is due to her semi-retirement after winning an Oscar for As Good As It Gets and 7 Primetime Emmy awards for her run on Mad About You. More importantly, she starred in three of my favorite movies: Trancers, Trancers 2, and Girls Just Want to Have Fun. She’s had an incredible career and no one can take that away from her, but in this film she’s just not good. Judah Lewis is over the top in a few scenes and I thought it was odd, since the kid is incredibly talented, but then I saw it. He was desperately trying to pull something out of Hunt who seems to be sleep walking through the film. They filmmakers tried to cover this up by showing her taking prescription pills randomly in a scene, but they never explain or build on this. She’s just a plank of wood in most scenes and really, she’s just gone from the film at the midpoint. I was so relieved when we were done with her short part of the film, because it’s easily the worst part. She’s just miscast. The character feels like it was written for a younger woman and I hate to say this, but an attractive woman. Helen Hunt was a fox in her younger days, but in this film she’s almost unrecognizable. I don’t know if that due to not having plastic surgery or having too much, but if I hadn’t seen her name in the credits, I don’t think I’d have known it was her. It’s hard to believe she’s so alluring to lure in a lover and keep her husband.

Thank the fates for Judah Lewis and Jon Tenney!

I will watch any film Judah Lewis is in. This kid is the future Jeffery Dales in the adaptation of my Killing Heart novel series. My people will call his people in some alternate reality where people purchase and read my books. Seriously though, this kid is gold. The Babysitter, Summer of ‘84, The Babysitter: Killer Queen, and the Christmas Chronicles. All solid films anchored around this growing star. He reminds me of a young River Phoenix.

and then there’s Jon Tenney. This guy, this fuckin’ guy. You need a solid performance? Need an actor who can convincingly turn face or heel? Need to add some class to a production, but can’t afford Paul Giamatti or J.K. Simmons? Jon Tenney is the man for you. He’s one of the most prolifically successful male television actors in American history. He can be seen in successful series like True Detective, Major Crimes, The Closer, and Scandal. He’s fantastic in this film as a man on the edge. His multifaceted portrayal of the dejected husband is the standout performance of the film.

I can’t say much more before wading into the…

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

P

O

O

L

I gotta be honest. I don’t really want to spoil this film. It was such a fun reveal and triple twist that I’m just not feeling revealing everything.

I will say that the haunted house being revealed to be a pair of phroggers was amazing. I’ve always loved the story of Theodore Edward Coneys, aka The Denver Spiderman. It’s a story of a man who got the short end of every stick. Cast out of society he lived rough for years until one day he walked into a house and crawled up into the attic. There he stayed for months living off scraps of food from the family’s kitchen without the family being aware. It was a great gig until he was found out and had to murder the home owner to keep his secret. There's a great episode of The Casual Criminalist on it, check it out on Youtube.

Our phroggers are led by Libe Barer. She’s an incredible actress who started as a Disney star. Well, star would be a stretch. She was a recurring character on ICarly if I recall. I first saw her on the incredible Amazon show Sneaky Pete. I love her face. It’s so unique compared to all the other girls in Hollywood trying to be Scarlet Johansson. Barer is brunette with pronounced eyebrows and a rubber face. These are good things. She looks like a real person and her face is incredibly expressive. When she feels something, you know it without her saying a word. Her character is a nice person who jumps from attic to attic because it’s better than sleeping on the streets. She is the only likable person in this movie. Which should have told me how bad things would go for her.

Bummer.

Anyways, I loved the initial twist and the second half of the film. It’s night and day better than the painfully cringe first chunk. The main change being going from Helen Hunt’s zombie act to Libe Barer’s heartfelt performance.

The second and third twists were insanely predictable, but no less fun. It was fairly obvious that Alec was the second survivor of the unnamed serial killer. His bizarre behavior and obvious malice towards Greg including urinating on him seemed far too sexual for a random encounter. Normally sexual offenders target younger victims, so there had to be something else behind Alec’s creepy invasions.

But I had an issue with Alec’s character and a missed opportunity. While Greg being the killer is fantastic and Tenney plays it fantastically, Alec’s actions don’t make sense. Yes, tormenting Greg inside his own house would make sense. I mean the horror enacted by Greg on numerous young children is awful. He’s basically Freddy Krueger in an Airstream.

Gross right?

Where my issue comes up is Alec goes from pranks to kidnapping Greg’s son and apparently attempting to torture rape him. I know why they put this in the film. They try to explain it with Greg’s final words. He was abused so he became a child killer and we’re supposed to believe the same of Alec, but that’s just not what happens. Yes, most pedophiles were abused in their childhoods, but not all victims become abusers and far less become torture rapists. Especially a kid like Alec, who in the modern day would have been given free psychiatric counseling as a minor victim in the US.

Is it possible that he would grow up to be a pedophile?

Absolutely.

Would he replicate the actions of a horrific serial killer?

Statistically, not a chance.

It really turns the audience off of Alec. I would have been rooting for him in the final scenes wholeheartedly if not for this odd choice. A better idea would have been Alec kidnapping the son and taking him to the Airstream to reveal that his father is a horrible monster. That would have been the best revenge and the revenge that would have fit in the story. Alec would have been a true hero instead of a character whose motivations are a disjointed mess.

Even with these issues, I really like this film.

It’s original.

Watch this movie if you like home invasion thrillers with a serial killer flare and don’t mind a wooden log credited as Helen Hunt being on screen for a short while.

Jokes aside, support this film. We need more fresh ideas on screen.

I See You is exclusively streaming on Amazon Prime Video.