(Heads up, spoilers throughout this. I couldn’t review it fully without spoiling it sorry. If you do actually want to watch it without major spoilers, don’t read past the third picture)

My last post on the Horror Connoisseur… I had to choose what I am reviewing carefully. It had to be good. I scoured my list of things to watch, and nothing really stood out. I wound up picking a movie called “I See You” that came out in 2019. It seemed interesting enough. The thumbnail of the movie was the face of some weird creature. I am a big fan of creature related horror so it seemed like the right choice. The face was cool and creepy, and the fact that I didn’t recognize it made me more interested. I like to think I am particularly equipped to recognize things from myth and folklore. I have spent a lot of time researching myths, legends, and cryptozoology in general. It’s a fun little hobby of mine. I couldn’t even place a culture to the creature on the thumbnail.

That is because it wasn’t a creature. Just some dude in a mask. Not even a haunted mask or anything. I was honestly disappointed. The thumbnail, as well as one of the first scenes led me to believe this was going to be supernatural in some way. A kid is thrown off his bike by some mysterious invisible force in the middle of the woods. Then, the movie focuses on a family and their strange experiences with their house. Items disappear and reappear, weird sounds echo through the halls, all generally spooky stuff. The thing is, there is nothing supernatural about it.

What causes most of the weird happenings is two “phroggers.” Phrogging is sort of a trend where people “hop around from pad to pad” as the movie describes. Basically, you sneak into people’s houses and try to live there and not get caught. That creature from the thumbnail was actually just the mask of one of the characters who thought it was funny to bring a “frog” mask to their first phrogging attempt. This doesn’t really explain the invisible child-snatching force, though. Truth is, the movie never explains it. My guess is that they were trying to show the kid being taken without showing who the true culprit was.

It is creepy enough. Honestly, this was a very well-made movie, other than the music choices. It was interesting and complex and had some cool ideas. They just went a bit overboard with the scary sounds in the beginning. Nothing felt particularly scary because everything had scary sounds in the background. The one phrogger is well experienced and brings her friend along. He doesn’t get the “not getting caught” part and messes with the family. He takes it too far and you start feeling bad for the family. This entire time he was reminding me of a JD from Heathers type character. 

This gets me to what I disliked most about the movie. It builds up this idea that the phrogger is the “bad guy.” Honestly, you forget about the whole kidnapping situation going on. I can’t describe this next part without spoilers. Turns out, the one kidnapping little boys around town is actually the father of the family that is getting phrogged. Not only is he the father, he is also one of the police officers investigating the kidnappings. On top of all that, the phrog that was messing with him was actually a victim of this creepy cop that survived his first round of kidnappings. 

I just felt icky and deceived afterwards. No one wants to be tricked into feeling bad for a murderous pedophile cop. It just felt ‘real-life’ to actually enjoy this movie.

I would not suggest this movie at all. I hope this review saved you the trouble. It is a real shame, since the movie was actually well made.