I STILL SEE YOU
US, 2018, 98 minutes, Colour.
Bella Thorne, Richard Harmon, Dermot Mulroney, Amy Price- Francis, Shaun Benson, Louis Herthum, Thomas Elms.
Directed by Scott Spears.
A genre film. In fact, you combined two genres: there is the search for a serial killer; there is your science-fiction setting. No wasted time setting your pace. The introduction to Veronica (Bella Thorne), as a little girl, her parents – and then taken unawares by a shockwave and its devastating effect, more than a touch apocalyptic, on those who lived around Chicago. Then, instantly, 10 years later.
We discover that the apocalyptic was not quite as apocalyptic as we had imagined. We watch Veronica, Ronnie, a wilful and sometimes disturbed teenager, having breakfast with her parents, her father reading the paper at the table, a cup of coffee – his smile and his whispilly dissolving and disappearing. On her way to school, riding her bike, Ronnie sees neighbours watering the garden – and dissolving. She rides into an elderly lady who also dissolves. A group of students at school, chatting, also disappear. So, what is this science-fiction theme?
What is interesting is that the class that Ronnie attends, distracted, given by Mr Bittner, is about these characters who appear and disappear, remnants of their past existence, caught at a particular moment of their lives, to be repeated and repeated over and over again. The device of the screenplay is to tantalise us with the rules about “Rems�, the fact of their survival, a link between life and death and life, their not intervening in human lives or communicating with the living. Just appearing and disappearing. Well, not quite and this leads into the other genre, murders and a search for the murderer.
A mysterious character, Brian, appears when Ronnie is showering and writes “Run� in the steam on her mirror. And, she keeps seeing him, at sports events, and again in her bathroom. What emerges is that Brian is associated with the disappearance of a young woman. Ronnie, and her friend, Kirk, discover more and more, researching newspapers and stories, interviewing people associated with the young woman, discovering that they have been further deaths. And, here come the conventions, the birthdays of the victims occurring on February 29th – as, of course, we discover that this is Ronnie’s birthday and that she is under murderous threat.
Then more on the apocalyptic, Ronnie and Kirk going to Ground Zero of the explosion and shock, a dark abandoned area, the remains of the laboratories and underground tunnels, peopled with a fast for the shockwave, giving science-fiction fans plenty to think about in his explanation of the aims of the project, finding a door between life and death and the afterlife, but opening a far vaster connection than anticipated. The build-up is to melodrama.
Audiences with a more elitist sensibility are prone to poke fun at the inevitability and what they condemn as predictability of the conventions. Genre fans relish the conventions and how they are used and their variations. This film is more inventive concerning shockwaves, deaths, remnants and ghosts, threats and retribution than the average popular show.
1. The title? The remnants, the ghosts? The impact?
2. The settings, the area around Chicago, ordinary lives, homes, school, the roads? The contrast with the underground centre for the shock, the laboratories? Dark and sinister? The bridge in the underpass and the many fish appearances? The lake, the ice? The musical score?
3. The opening, Veronica and her father, the suddenness of the shockwave, the light, the transformation?
4. 10 years passing, Veronica the teenager with her mother, the introduction of the theme of the Rems, her father sitting at the table, dissolving, Ronnie and her way to school, the other apparitions? The teenagers at school and the disappearance? In class, Mr Bittner, the discussion of the Rems, laws, their appearance, not communicating? Ronnie and her project, the discussions with Mr Bittner, his offering advice?
5. Kirk, in class, her following him, the underpass, venturing in, the appearances of the fish? Their increasing? Her working with Kirk? In class, at home?
6. The shower, Brian and his appearance, his writing on the mirror, the threat, seeing him shoot himself, Ronnie seeing him at the sports event? The investigation, with Kirk and the newspapers, the information, the deaths, the murders, consulting the parents, the mystery? The search for the serial killer?
7. Ronnie and her mother, the bond, the mother going for the interview – and its being contrived to get away from the house?
8. Ronnie talking about her father, angry with him before he died? The scenes of her learning to skate? His appearance and smile?
9. The decision to visit the Ground Zero, the crowds, some dead, some alive, finding the doctor responsible for the experiment, his explanation, the aims, a doorway between life and death? The remnants? Ghosts? His killing himself?
10. The discovery that Brian was an assistant? The discovery of Mr Bittner, the photo?
11. February 29th, the birthday? Bittner and his daughter’s death, her being a remnant? Meeting her back, Ronnie is victim?
12. The buildup to the drama, the Panic Room, his going out, confronting Kirk, burying him? Ronnie, her escape, going to the lake, on the lake, Bittner and his attack, her premonitions with her dreams, under the water, surviving, Kirk and the branch, the vision of her father, saving her?
13. A variation on the science fiction theme, the touch of the apocalyptic, the murders and the killer, the blend of the genres? A different kind of science-fiction?
