I Can See You (2008) / The Viewer (2009 3D Short Film) (2008) Review

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"I Can See You" is a fascinating low-budget horror film by Graham Reznick. The three-man staff of a boutique ad firm leave their Brooklyn home base and head to a rural campsite to toss around ideas for a new campaign for a household cleaning product. What begins as a low-pressure brainstorming session becomes a horrifying nightmare where the borders between reality and imagination, sanity and madness, are re-drawn or erased completely. Director Reznick moves things along slowly at first, with few traditional moments of terror. He backloads the horror and makes the viewer wait for it by creating a feeling of unease, laying the groundwork for the fireworks in the final reel. I was reminded of several films -"The Hills Have Eyes," "The Evil Dead," and "Un Chien Andalou" -though "I Can See You" has a unique quirkiness all its own. Special features include a behind-the-scenes featurette, deleted scenes, and cast and crew audio commentaries. Also included is the 3-D short (yes, those glasses are included) "The Viewer," shot entirely from the perspective of an accused killer facing interrogation. Like "I Can See You," "The Viewer" evokes genre clichés only to subvert them.

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Graham Reznick's "I Can See You" is not the resurrection of the horror genre, as critics from the Village Voice have so grandstandingly claimed; it is, however, a fun tour de force into a psychic zone that many people will indeed have to watch a movie (this one?) to experience.

The linear plot really doesn't matter too much. Three "ad men"-the contemptible, snakey Doug (Duncan Skiles) , the..strange Richards, looking like an ad himself for a return to 70's apparel, and the robotic Kimble. Kimble is sorta like every person you've ever met in your life with no personality and, strangely enough, a girlfriend who has plenty (Neal Jonas).

The three go camping to brainstorm for new ideas to represent their moutwashing product. The whole thing is a bit incongrous: these three actors, obviously green, are art house hipsters trying to act like businessmen (not really though: it's barely concealed.) This adds, however, to the disorienting atmosphere which is at first darkly comical and then becomes sinister in a way which is difficult to articulate. If Luis Bunuel and David Lynch had collaborated on how a man's psyche can breakdown during stress, *perhaps* this would have emerged. Rebellion against the Daddy figure plays a big part in Richards' serious breakdown (the scene in the lake with hippie girl Sonia is perhaps the most effective).

The chief flaw with this noble endeavor is that it is TOO MUCH Lynch. I don't know if the gang had been smoking j's and repeatedly watching Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive repeatedly or not, but it sure seems that way sometimes. Coming with a set of three D goggles and an entertaining short "interrogation" film, this is well worth the watch if you'd enjoy the brain matter of every tweaked filmmakers smattered together with a sprinkle of acid here and there. I did.

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A group of guys from an advertising agency -including one young man who has been struggling to paint a portrait of his father, but can't properly visualize the man's face -are looking for inspiration for an ad campaign for a cleaning fluid. They decide to take a jaunt into the woods and come to a very bad end -although exactly what the nature of that end might be is eerily unclear. The first half of the film is basically all ominous, atmospheric set-up, aided considerably by the brilliantly creative sound design that is also integral to the film's nightmarishly bizarre second half. Horror fans with conventional tastes will likely hate this fascinating first feature from writer/director Graham Reznick (see the clueless one-star reviews below). In fact, you'll be more prone to enjoy I CAN SEE YOU if you can appreciate avant-garde filmmakers such as Kenneth Anger and Stan Brakhage at least as much as you enjoy John Carpenter or George Romero. The thing is, some viewers have an appreciation for cinema as a visual art form and some are just blind to it. To be engaged by a film like I CAN SEE YOU, you have to have an imagination to engage in the first place, and an inherent feel for the sort of dark poetry of the subconscious that's on display here. The DVD also features THE VIEWER, a terrific, award-winning 3D short film that plays with your head in an oddly dizzying way.

Honest reviews on I Can See You (2008) / The Viewer (2009 3D Short Film) (2008)

Crap. Director did great work with Stakeland, etc., not blaming.him, as the script was obviously stinky. This was a bucket of poo.

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This was another crappy movie that is just a total waste of time and electricity. I don't know how movies like this ever get financial backing.