There are many films that don’t get the reaction they deserve when they are first released, andI See Youis one of them. Despite being released in 2019,I See Youhas only recently drawn people’s attention. Of course, this is where social media played its role. The film is directed by Adam Randall, who managed to create a film that found its deserved reactions years after its initial release.
This late success provedI See Youto be a film that you should watch especially withits many plot twistsand the tension that is always lurking around the corner. It is a horror thriller film that stays true to both genres, as the over 90 minutes keep you on the edge of your seat waiting to know who exactly sees who.
I See Youstarts with the sudden and mysterious disappearance of a young boy named Justin Whitter, which spread terror in the hearts of the townsfolk. Some time passes and a new kidnapping happens, and again it is a young boy who disappeared. What is special aboutI See Youis that it makes you think the trouble is laying somewhere only to find it is right next to you. Your focus is on the disappearances of the boys and what this meant for other children around town when you should be looking somewhere else entirely.
The disappearances lead to the introduction of policeman Greg Harper, who is played by Jon Tenney, and his family. Harper becomes the detective following the case, but the disappearances are not the only mysteries we want to solve. We find that something wrong is happening at the Harper household and this is another mystery the audience doesn’t know an answer to. Randall is so good at creating all these mysteries that make you confused about where exactly you should focus, but no matter which mystery you choose to give your attention to, you won’t see the ending coming.
Between the Past and the Present
The abduction of the kidsfeels very familiar to Detective Spitzky, played by Gregory Alan Williams, who joins Greg in the investigation. The familiar part here is the fact that 15 years before these new disappearances, Spitzky had to investigate the disappearance of several boys who had similar age to Whitter. One of the mysteries in the film is that Spitzky had already caught the killer, named Cole Gordon, all these years ago. However, the new abductions share one detail that the previous killer used to do. That is leaving a green pocket knife at the crime scene.
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This makes the audience wonder how is that possible if the killer was in prison. Did they catch the wrong guy? All of these questions and more make Spitzky search for two boys who managed to escape the killer all these years ago hoping they would lead him to the truth. We then meet one of the boys named Tommy Braun, but he is traumatized to the point where Spitzky can’t even talk to him. While the other boy is not mentioned.
The Harper Home
The film then switches to the Harper home where Greg lives with his wife Jackie, played by Helen Hunt, and their son Connor, played by Judah Lewis. The Harper family is already facing a lot of problemssince Jackie had an affairthat neither Greg nor Connor can forgive her for, but this is not the only problem. As Greg keeps investigating the kidnappings, weird things start happening at the house.
Photos start to disappear, the TV is turned on by itself, and a repairman tells Jackie that her daughter let him in. The same Jackie who only had one son named Connor. Not only that but Greg is locked inside a closet, and we see a mysterious figure outside of it. Then their silverware start disappearing too. You would think that things won’t get worse, but they do especially when the man Jackie cheated with comes to visit her and a mug is thrown at his head. Of course, Jackie quickly believes that it was Connor who did it since he hated Todd, and he was the only one home that day. So she leaves Todd in the basement until she drives Connor to the school and when she returns, she finds him killed. So who would she suspect? Connor. Jackie decides to tell Greg, and together they go to bury the body in order to protect Connor.
The mystery inI See Youkeeps increasing, and the twists seem to never end; this is why people are still talking about it. While his parents are trying to hide the body, Connor, who doesn’t know this, receives a weird message on his computer asking him, “Do you know what phrogging is?” We see the same masked figure that was outside the closet appear behind Connor. Later when Greg and Jackie return, they find their son tied in the bathtub, and a green pocket knife is left next to him. The audience now believes that the killer is after the Harper family which would be believable since Greg is one of the main detectives, but what about the phrogging message?
The Other People at the Harper’s Home
Things get a lot weirder and scarier when we find out that all the mysterious events happening at the house were not because of something supernatural. They were happening because two strangers named Mindy, played by Libe Barer, and Alec, played by Owen Teague,are living there without the knowledge of the Harper; this is what phrogging means.
For some reason, Alec is the one who chose this house for him and Mindy to live in, and he doesn’t want to live there peacefully. Mindy, on the other hand, prefers to live secretly without drawing the owners’ attention to her existence. This new revelation adds to the horror of the film, and it makes the audience see the previous events in a new light. We now know that Alec was the mysterious figure outside the closet and that he was the one who threw the mug at Todd’s head, but why is he haunting the Harper’s who are supposed to be strangers to him?
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Another question is the possibility of Mindy and Alec being the ones who killed Todd, but another twist is introduced. Mindy actually witnessed the murder and, surprise, Greg was the one who killed Todd in a very violent and disturbing way. Poor Mindy didn’t even get a break as she ran to tell Alex what she saw only to find out that he was tying Connor and when she tries to stop him, he pushes her down the stairs making her unconscious. We still don’t know why Alec is doing all of this, and we are even more lost when he puts Mindy’s unconscious body in the back of Greg’s car.
The Mysterious Ending Explained
When Mindy wakes up she finds a lot of green pocket knives around her and by then she knows that she is inside the car of the killer. We know that he is Greg, and he is the one who abducted the kids. When Greg reaches his destination, he finds Mindy, who called the cops, and he kills her because she saw where he is hiding the kids and knows who he is. After he kills her, he goes back to kill Alec whom he now knows about his existence, but Alec kills him in their garage. Why did he do it?
Remember that at the beginning of the film we get to know that two kids escaped from the killer 15 years ago, but only one was found. Right after Alec kills Greg, Spitzky appears, and he shoots Alex but quickly discovers that he has seen him before. That’s right, Alec is the second boy who managed to escape, but why did he kill Greg and torment his family? He didit for revenge.
The audience sees Alec having flashbacks of him as a kid being kidnapped by none other than Greg which meant that he was the killer all along and that Cole Gordon, the man in prison, is actually innocent. This is also why Tommy freaks out when Greg and Spitzky went to talk to him; he remembered who Greg was. Such an ending makesI See Youdeserve this new wave of attention and admiration with all its plot twists and the questions you lose yourself into.
