I SEE YOU

US, 2019, 98 minutes, Colour.
Helen Hunt, Jon Tenney, Judah Lewis, Owen Teague, Libe Barer, Gregory Alan Williams, Sam Trammell.
Directed by Adam Randall.

I See You (ICU – and the house being something of an intensive care unit?. Whether that was intended or not, this is rather intense material. It is the first screenplay of actor, Devon Graye, and the direction is by the Englishman, Adam Randall (iBoy). They can be pleased with their work.

The setting is Cleveland, Ohio. An initial sweeping aerial shot introduces us to the woods, the river, the town bridge, the streets, children lining up for ice cream, a young boy and his bike, partners in the woods – and then his suddenly flying off his bike and disappearing.

So, an arresting start. Then there is a transition to a very comfortable household, but tensions within, Helen Hunt is Jackie, wife and mother, but she has had an affair and has alienated her teenage son, Connor (Judah Lewis). The injured husband and father, Greg (Jon Tenney) works in the local police force and is part of the team investigating the boy’s disappearance. His co-officer has memories of similar abductions some years earlier.

So, on the way to a mystery, detection and solution.

Well, not exactly. A number of strange, often very small incidents, occur in the house. There is definitely something off-kilter. Perhaps the suggestion of supernatural influences. They effect each member of the family in different ways. But, there is a further complication when the wife’s former lover turns up, insistent, but suffers injury from an accident, hit on the head with a missing mug falling from the roof, of-kilter again. When he is later bludgeoned in the basement, the screenplay has a household mystery all of its own.

Then a completely sudden shift, an extraordinary unexpected twist. The film begins to focus on two teenagers, a young girl, Mindy (Libe Barer) doing a documentary video about home invasion, along with her scraggy, straggly cameraman, Alec (Owen Teague). Some more bizarre events, and the audience puzzling about the two.

Then the screenplay begins to come together, a number of other twists, so that the audience is on the alert as perspectives on events and characters change.

If you are going to make an offbeat thriller, hoping to put the audience off guard, tantalising their curiosity, then this is quite an effective way to do it.

1. The title? The ambiguity of “I�? (Playing on sound: ICU, intensive care unit)?

2. The Cleveland setting, the opening tracking over the woods, river, city bridge, streets? The different angles of photography? The atmosphere of the city, the children, queueing for ice cream, children’s interactions, Justin riding, the overview, the paths in the woods, the sudden thrust from his bike? The continuing mystery? The police investigation? The townspeople joining the search? The anguished mother? Memories of abductions in the past?

3. The atmospheric score, the range of instruments and tones?

4. The transfer of the action into the house, exteriors, the lavish and tidy interiors? The introduction to Jackie, preparing breakfast, the sullenness of Connor, blaming his mother, supportive of his father, his mother and the affair, the father and his alienation, on the couch? The boy going to school? The father and his status as a police officer? Invited into the search for the missing boy? Collaboration with fellow officers? The mother going to work?

5. The happenings in the household, so many things off-kilter, missing photographs, record player starting, interventions on the computer, television starting, the mug on the roof, the blanket pulled from the father…? His being locked in the cupboard? Mysterious? Hints of the supernatural?

6. The lover arriving in the house, Jackie rejecting him, his being hit on the head with the mug, the bleeding, Jackie taking Connor to school, returning to find the lover dead? His personality, his obsession?

7. The father, involved in the search for the boy, his theories? The detective, from the past, going to see one of the victims and his distraught state, the two boys from the past? The detective finding the wire?

8. The issue of the dead body, Jackie and her upset, finding Connor tied up in the bath, taking him to the hospital? The decision to dispose of the body, in the woods, digging the grave?

9. The mysteries, the mask under the bed, the final attack with the bat on Greg?

10. The sudden transition in the middle of the film? Mindy, her project, the house invasion, with Alec as the cameraman? His bizarre activities and attitudes? Tantalising, with the computer? Drugging Mindy? The explanation of the project? Hiding in the house, benefiting, Mindy not wanting to harm anyone? Alec and his attitude? Re-viewing the events in the first part of the film, the natural explanations of all mysterious events?

11. Mindy, her wanting to escape, hiding in in the basement, witnessing Greg murdering the lover? In the car with him? His threats? Finding the caravan, the attempt to free the boys? Greg’s smothering her with the plastic? Bringing her into the house, her seeming to be an intruder, the gun, the shots on the wall, shooting Mindi?

12. Alec and the confrontation with Greg? The attack, the fight, his shooting Greg? Audience realisation that he was the young boy, the past victim? His reason for being in the house? The flashback to the boys’ encounter with Greg?

13. The police, arriving, shooting Alec? Jackie and her bewilderment? – And the solving the mystery?

14. The initial suggestions of the supernatural, an abduction thriller and mystery, the impact of the twists and the solution?