Dialogue doesn’t help give it any nuance, nor do the performances, which are stuck in one-dimensional portrayals of anger or shame. 'I See You,' has a shaky dramatic foundation too, as Graye's script isn’t interested in exploring the affair, so much as using it for blunt conflict between the mother, father, and son. But it doesn’t build promise that Something Scary is happening, so much as pile on a very tedious atmosphere. 'I See You' loves to use these components to tease that a supernatural force might be lurking in the shadows, and then abruptly cut-like it does right before wielding its title card.

Randall has a comical bounty of drone shots that swoop around locations and sometimes look they’re going to crash into the Harper house Philipp Blaubach's score emphasizes the importance of every one of the script’s ominous visuals, and sounds like a steel mill in space. This is the work of director Adam Randall, who is more of a poor salesman with this script from Devon Graye than an inventive storyteller. But as loud and in-your-face as these developments are presented, they amount to a shabby collection of Blumhouse-lite scenes that would be a parody if it weren’t so dull. It’s a tense atmosphere, so much that when strange things start to happen they seem like diversions, like when Greg gets locked in a closet chasing the family hamster, or the silverware vanishes from the kitchen drawers. On a smaller scale, something even more scandalous is afoot-his wife Jackie ( Helen Hunt) has recently cheated on him, which comes up in numerous terse exchanges that she has with Greg or their moody teenage son, Conor ( Judah Lewis).

He soon joins the roster of other missing kids in a small town, where Detective Greg Harper ( Jon Tenney) is trying to piece clues together (like a green Swiss Army knife) before there are more disappearances. A boy, riding his bike through the woods, is yanked into thin air as if he had reached the end of a bungie cord. For its initial 40 plodding minutes, the clumsy thriller “I See You” works very hard to get your attention.

I See You by Frantiska Oliver