I saw I See You...

Director Adam Randall/writer Devon Graye's I See You, a 2019 production now headlining on Netflix, is a mystery that intersects genres. 

On one level, I See You is a story of betrayal, with psychologist, Jackie Harper,  played by Helen Hunt, in a lamenting phase of having had an affair, while her husband, police detective, Greg,  played by Jon Tenney, investigates a missing boy near their residence. Their son, Connor, played by Judah Lewis, suffers the brunt of the twofold conundrum, though for the most part aims his angst at his mom for having torn the family apart. 

The missing-child insertion invades from the backdrop (featuring traits that distinguish an older case), as the family discovers odd, though subtle occurrences about their home, such as missing silverware and weird murmurings at night, thus implying a possible, supernatural cause, which therefore might also link to the lost child. That's the catch, you see. There may be something else at play here, which may or may not coincide with the Pennywise-pinched disappearance, but for the most part, the cause and effect remain elusive over the long haul.  

I See You's poster antagonist does eventually emerge (no surprise there), but it takes ample time for the hooded, frog-faced persona (a nod to vengeful Phibes #1?) to say hello, let alone offer an immediate motive. As the presence becomes more visible, other characters (some solid in stance and others hazy) appear, including Libe Barer's Mindy and Owen Teague's Alec, wise-ass kids who manifest for a possible, McGuffin throw. (Surely, they aren't so mischievous to keep these poor homeowners at wit's end forever and always, let alone kidnap and/or kill in the process, or are they?) 

Then, there's Sam Trammel's Todd, who has the blasted gall to visit the Harper home to resume his adulterous tryst. He ends up dead (serves him right), with Dr. Harper presuming her son did the deed, but did he? As with Mindy and Todd, Connor is a tad too obvious to blame, and so if he, too, is worthy of dismissal, who (or what) then pulls the strings? (It's time to place those whodunnit bets, folks!) 

There are times when I See You reminded me of other wavering, cinematic mysteries, such as Glenn Jordan/Robert Thomas/Peter Stone's One of My Wives is Missing; Philip Leacock/Richard Matheson's Dying Room Only, Jonathan Mostow/Sam Montgomery's Breakdown; Harold Becker/Aaron Sorkin/Scott Frank's Malice, William Brent Bell/Stacey Menear's The Boy, Buzz Kulik/Jack Vance/Andrew Peter Marin's Bad Ronald, David Smoeller's Crawlspace '86 and Zach Cregger's Barbarian, where situations bend in such a way that feel too tricky to piece, but in each instance, the guessing-game terror presses from the inside out. In that lies a nifty, melodramatic novelty, but again, it all comes down to explication, with the results of these sorts of endeavors sometimes succeeding and other times, faltering. Such is the risk of juxtaposing. 

For the most part, I See You does succeed, with its gradual tension forcing one to connect the dots. It performs much like a magic trick, offering a diverting sleight of hand that after the gimmick concludes, feels rudimentary, but in I See You's defense, no less clever for its delineated, "Well, I'll be darn" reveal. 

There's no doubt that I See You would have grossed better box-office bucks (not to mention more substantial exposure through word of mouth) if not for 2019's COVID panic. Now that it's streaming on Netflix, it's time to give the experiment a deserving chance. It holds enough admirable ambition (despite its excessive ambivalence) to warrant engagement.