[Movie] I see you (2019)

Don't watch trailers, don't read spoilers

For a movie like "I see you" the worst part would have been spoilers of any sort for me. Trailers usually tend to do that, because they might either show too much, or show best parts, which may backfire. I was lucky to find this movie from a review video that just mentioned it as a good movie, but had not spoiled a single thing. As a result I had a really bom time watching and enjoying it. It may not be the biggest production or thriller movie ever, but I loved how it was treated and shot. 

As someone who doesn't like to follow the guesswork while watching I was truly enjoying myself before things started to be explained in the middle of the movie. Because before that due to the operator's work, due to some elements that could not get a definite explanation, if it was real or not, the feeling of suspense and supernatural still lingered. The movie at times almost f with you, as if asking - was it really the son, or was it? It was. Or was it? So several things were having this obvious-not obvious multiple answer question. The thing is for smart people I think the movie was a piece of cake, some shots after rewatching were same to me - wow, they really put that right into the viewer's face, this is so blatant. But you can't see it and only watching later proves if you're right or wrong.

The "supernatural" element of it all is thanks to several shots in the movie. For example, in the opening scene the camera moves towards the crowd and few teens talking, a boy on a bike turns and leaves, and the viewer follows him on the road, on a remote road and later into the woods. Suddenly the boy is pulled back, off his bike's seat as if something invisible caught him, but because the shot and pull were done in a bit exaggerated way, it feels supernatural. Until we see a shot where police officers who search the woods found a strong snapped and wrapped around the tree, so you could then guess that it was real. The feeling of supernatural is also shown by the moving lighting and shadow as if crawling the house. It was actually nteresting. because it felt like something was happening in the house, but you couldn't see who did it, in the end it felt like things were done by a ghost.

This alternate between reality and suspense really brought me good feels. The second half of the movie really brought me into unexpected realm. If I were living in the US in one of those model houses that looked like a holiday card I'd be so paranoid that I'd join the housewives on Xanax. The unexpected turn of events, the unexpected truths behind the house, everything was good.

Oh yes, I'd really love to praise the operator's work and how they managed to find perfect atmosphere for the movie, I also would like to note the soundtrack that kept the tense atmosphere. I especially love the sound of the closing scene.

Now onto my thoughts, because to share them I need to spoiler the entire thing, but I's like to praise actors and for that I need to share for what I want to praise them.

!~/SPOILERS AHEAD/~!

As I mentioned the opening scene is the scene where we see the young boy being pulled off his bike in the woods. The scene doesn't have the perpetrator, the scene looks a bit supernatural, so it works, since you can't really tell if it happened and who did it and how. From the investigation later officers find an evidence, a basic swiss army knife with a green handle, which reminds them of an old case where the alleged perpetrator was caught. We might think - the case is not over. Either you caught the wrong guy or we have a copycat.

We switch to a family house. The wife of the family, Jackie, which is played by Helen Hunt is confronted by the bad attitude of her son. From the dialogue we assume that Jackie cheated on her husband. It's unknown with whom, but her son, Connor, as any teenager is very aggressive about the situation. The husband, Greg, is actually one of the police officers who investigate the current disappearance of the boy. Jackie tries to please and try to return some piece to the family, but Connor is aggressive and Greg is more or less neutral, but I'd say not showing his emotions would be a better description. The music that shows the house and interioir is really interesting and atmospheric.

The scene where Greg shows his emotions by throwing the phone and breaking the window leads to Greg seeing a cup on the roof. The cup has a cigarette butts, so Greg assumes that it is Connor who secretly smoked. Since we see only three ppl living, initially we assume the same.

Jackie who returns home finds entire silverware missing from the drawer, but also is scared by a repairer. When the rapairer left she asked who let him in, to which the guy praised her for such a polite daughter. But the thing is.. they don't have a daughter. The house is empty.

The searching team in the woods finds the snapped string that was wrapped around the tree, but also they found swiss knife with green handle. Thise knife was a token that was left around the places where other boys disappeared. Which meant either the guy who was convicted was the wrong guy or someone followed into steps of the previous kidnapper. 

Things in the house start to get weird at times. After failed dinner with Connor Jackie tried to turn off TV that would turn on by itself. She was distracted by her husband who returned. When Greg would go up you could see that another photo would disappear on the wall. Greg notice his son's hamster while in the bathroom, following the rodent he was pushed into a closet and "someone" would not let him out. Greg thought it was Connor. But suddenly the door was opened and Jackie asked him what was wrong. No one else in the room, the closet door was not blocked by anything. 

Greg went to sleep in the guest room upstairs, while Jackie was woken up by noise, her son's laptop. Picking up clothes she noticed a fron mask underneath the bed (the same mask was on the poster). This night something/someone pulled the Greg's blanket.

Waiking up Greg noticed his underpants wet (he took meds at night btw). He pushed the sheats and everything into the washing machine. Being on the case, Greg and his partner decide to visit a young man, who was one of the victims, but the dialogue fails, since the man had a seizure. Greg tries to listen to testimony of that year, while viewers also see the image of two boys following the rails and playing around.

Today Jackie saw the man with who she cheated with, from short dialogue it feels like they had feelings way-way before (like first love story), but something hits the man and it's the same cup from the roof. Jackie thought it was Connor. She lets Todd in to deal with his head wound. Trying to call she hears music upstairs. Seeing Connor she assumes it was him who threw the cup, she promised she would drive him to school today, so they leave, Connor doesn't excuse himself, but it feels like he doesn't understand what she's talking about. But after Jackie returns she finds that Todd was murdered, he was hit in the head by something and his breatheless body was lying on the floor. She called Greg who returned and emotionally tried to explain what happened, she still thought it was Connor. She had no idea what to do. Greg took care of the body with Jackie and they drove into the woods. Jackie felt completely guilty about what happened. As a mother she also didn't want Connor to have problems. While Connor at home played games, clueless, but also was distracted by the noise, finding the missing silverware in the washing machine wrapped in sheets.

At this time when Connor returns he finds a question on his desktop - Do you know what is phrogging?

And here is where things start to unravel. This term was unknown to me and unexpected as a turn of events. This is why I say I'd be totally paranoid. Since phrogging is basically trespassing people's houses, staying in a silent corner for several days, maybe eating something and then leave. BUT. It's creepy, okay? because I never watched any trailers I was clueless that such things were possible and this part to me came by surprise. The previous supernatural atmosphere was surrounded in the idea that someone was in the house, but house also felt empty at the same time, but it came as such because of deliberate shots in the movie, like going around the house with no one, checking if there is something because of the noise and again - nothing. It felt weird and unexplained why something in the thriller movie would act like supernatural.

After Greg and Jackie return they find Connor in the bathtub, but also the same knife with green handle stuck in the soap bar. One drives Connor to hospital, while Greg goes around the house with a gun. He finds that upstairs where door leads to the roof there are many of the family's photos cut and stuck on the wall. greg hears a melody coming from downstairs. When he approaches the recorder a shadow appears behind him.

We turn back in time a bit. Two teens watch as the car drives away and both take a chance and slip in when the automatic door is not closed yet. One is Mindy and the other person is Alec. Both have a camera and walk around checking the huge house. To them this family is loaded. They search for a safe place where people rarely come, which they'll use as a sleeping base. Mindy on camera explains what is phrogging and their act of conduct. That they come, use safe place to stay for several days, may take from the family some food and leave. Alec should have been a new guy to phrogging so Mindy showed him around when she took him with her. But Alec's behavior was strange, almost on the verge of not caring to be found. Alec was the one who smoked and left the cup on the rooftop. Alec also walked around checking the entire family. He was the one who took the photo. They also heard the broken window in the morning and hid when Greg checked and noticed teh cup. Mindy hid her backpack in the basement. Also tried to make Alec not touch anything, even if he tried to imply - what would happen if you fuck with the family's head. Mindy was noticed by repairer, she also let him in, then hid. Alec used sleeping pills to make Mindy not wake up when he walked around at night. He was the one who pushed Greg into the closet, then hid under the bed. He acted absolutely abnormally. He was also the one who took the Greg's cover at night and it was him who peed on Greg, since Greg was under the influence of sleeping pills he never woke up, thinking it was a side-effect or something else. Alec's behavior began to reach the weird level. But we don't understand his motivation, almost thinking he's a sick guy in the head. But I must applaude to the actor who played Alec, being questioned he tried to act normal, but still there is some part of him that looks like he's holding a lot inside, which is about to break out. What it is? We don't know. The fallen cup hits the Todd's head. But the noise attracts Connor who had no idea what is happening outside at the moment. Mindy tells again and again that they grab their stuff and leave today. But her backpack is in the basement where currently Todd was staying at, while Jackie treated his wound. Not knowing it Mindy comes to the basement but hides when she notices unknown man. The melody of the recorder distracted Jackie, which was Alec's doing as well. When Mindy waited for the moment she witnessed how Greg hit Todd in the head and left with a baseball bat. He took some unknown bag and left. Mindy took the chance to grab her things and leave, but Jackie returned so she had to stay put. Witnessing that Greg acted as if he saw the scene for the first time and how Jackie blamed herself and said things about Connor. She wanted to find Alec but saw him doing something to Connor, wanting to run Alec accidentally pushed her and she fell and hit her head, being knocked out. After dealing with Connor and tieing him in the bathroom Alec wanted to leave using the residents' car, he put Mindy in the back and wanted to drive, but Jackie and Greg suddenly returned, which made Alec exit the car, but Mindy was left in the car and it was Greg's car.

Greg drove away, at the time Mindy was woken up, fortunately unnoticed, but she saw the bag and the baseball bat. But she also noticed was a green jersey that was said to be on a missing boy as well ass a bag full of swiss knives with green handles. At this moment it became apparent that the man on the case, the one who kidnapped and killed those boys was Greg himself. Though leaving everything in the bag really looked a bit too much, but let's skip it, shall we :) Mindy was really lucky being unnoticed, she tried to call for help but signal sucked. She also found the boys, but she was abducted by Greg. Poor Mindy, she passed out for the second time. Greg also saw her camera and knew she was one of those who stayed at his house and logically he wanted to create a scene of robbery and struggle, so he could use a gun against her and kill her as a witness. Poor Mindy lost her life being shot. She was completely innocent and tried to help. While in the garage Alec tried to figure out what to do he heard a shot. It made him take action, taking an axe and attacking Greg.

The time loop closes here. And we're back to the scene of Greg shutting the recorder and being attacked by a shadow with an axe. At first Greg had an upper hand knocking Alec out and while he thought about how to play a believable scene of a fight and even wounded himself to make it more real Alec managed to wake up and took the gun.

This scene I like the most is the next one, since Greg tried to talk shit and have an upper hand in the situation, despite the gun facing him, but Alec didn't want to listen to his shit and shot the guy down in the chest. 

When Greg's partner detective came in he saw Greg's body but also a young man with a gun standing, first reaction was to shoot, Alec was wounded in the shoulder, but he managed to call the detective by his name. And that one had a face as if remembering someone but having doubts.

In the closing shot, which I also like, it is followed only by the growing in volume music, where we see severals cenes of kids being saved, Connor coming back and seeing his house with police cars surrounded, Alec being taken away and a scene that was shown throughout the movie being played again, with two kids, one thin and one bigger running in the woods and playing on rails and a man meeting boys with a swiss knife with a green handle coming and talking to those two boys. So by this we realize, this scene had nothing to do with the story and witness that Greg listened to, it is the past of Alec. The Alec is pushed into a car, the camera zooms out and the movie ends here.

There is no explicit story behind Alec's past, we only know that victims of this maniac are young boys, so we can only assume that either Alec is the silent victim who had no idea what happened before and now came for revenge or he was a witness to something that he couldn't forget. Anyway, the actor who played Alec did a great job showing emotionally the desire to finish the guy, but he couldn't. Yet he was also broken, since Mindy happened to be an innocent victim to it all. Same was for Todd. In those short outbursts of irritation we realize that Greg has undergoing violence surging in his temper. But he's capable of instant decisions, like coming back for his bag on a short notice, but killing Todd while he passed by, later the blame fell on Jackie and Connor, while Greg used it to his advance. Connor absolutely had no idea, at least he was away like Jackie.

Some parts actually were a bit convenient, though some were played well. Like the scene where Alec wants to leave, he puts Mindy in the car, that's well-played, since she wakes up to find herself alone with Greg. But the fact that Greg decided to leave to his traveling trailer is convenience to me.

But I think that when you don't watch the trailer and no spoilers ahead of watching this movie comes as surprise. Since what would be the point. I personally liked the attention to details and the fact that some scenes had multiple explanations. For examle, it was Mindy who opened the door and repairer also said that they had a polite girl, but they have no girl in the house, so who opened the door. When Connor returned he denied, but we could also push it on Connor since he was acting angry with his mother, after all she considers her cheating as a betrayal of their family and ruin of their family. That's why I was overall impressed by this movie.

Again, it all depended that I never watched spoilers, especially I haven't watched the trailer, so my experience was far above. Because trailer actually showed Alec in the mask, his silhouette is blurry, but you know that someone IS in the house. Without watching the feeling of suspense stays present for longer.