Tribeca 2021: See For Me
tribeca 2021People who like watching home invasion movies would usually expect them to include unnecessary violence, jump scares and perhaps a killer subplot. See for Me, on the other hand, has none of these. Instead of repeating the same burglary tropes over and over again, it combines the familiarities of the home-invasion sub-genre with the unpredictability of its interesting premise. It doesn't surpass every trope there is within its category, but it does sprinkle plenty of "oh, how will this turn out?" questions across its moderate runtime to keep audiences on their toes. Such is the mood and mentality of Randall Okita’s sophomore feature See for Me, which brings forward a home-invasion story that is guaranteed to please fans of solid suspense and murky lighting.
Skyler Davenport plays a blind, former skier Sophie with persisting conviction and aids in mining the story's nail-biting potential. After agreeing to cat-sit at Debra’s (Laura Vandervoort) secluded mansion in the mountains, she finds herself all alone in a house that seems to be in the middle of nowhere. At nighttime, she discovers that three thieves have invaded the house in search of a hidden safe. Sophie’s only defense is army veteran Kelly (Jessica Parker Kennedy) who plays first-person shooters online. Becoming her eyes through the See For Me phone app, Kelly helps Sophie defend herself against the invaders and survive, while playing out her ultimate fantasy like a real-life video game. On the way, Sophie learns some surprising truths about why exactly the thieves broke in.
Despite the seemingly ordinary premise, the tension does not let up from start to finish – and it's only 92 minutes, so doesn't outstay its welcome – as Sophie tries to outwit the invaders. The temptation might have been to take Sophie's disability and, like with Audrey Hepburn's blindness in Wait Until Dark, use it to her advantage somehow; but that does not transpire. It's actually Kelly’s help and her own sense of security that gives her some traction in what should be a one-sided battle. It is a lot like Fede Álvarez’s famous home-invasion thriller Don’t Breathe, except instead of invaders robbing a dangerous blind man, it’s an innocent blind girl being robbed by invaders. To call this movie a horror would be incorrect, because it offers far more thrills than actual scares. It's constantly engaging, and that has a lot to do with the terrific performances of both Skyler Davenport and Jessica Parker Kennedy.
See for Me ultimately proves to be an extremely entertaining and well-made thriller that is as fascinating as it is chilling. It doesn't break any new ground, but following 'Don’t Breathe' and 'Hush', 'Panic Room' continues to re-inspire the subtle, quiet corner of the genre and bodes well for the future of drama thrillers.