Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

I Still See You Blu-ray Movie Review

Peeka-BOO!

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 13, 2018

One of the problems with films that have some kind of murder mystery is that there are always going to be smart aleck viewers (ahem) who parse the entrance of every character and wonder, “Why is he/she in the film?”. Making things even more perilous for screenwriters trying to keep big “reveals” at bay until the intended moment is the fact that some films have relatively small casts, and therefore relatively small pools of potential suspects. It’s interesting to note in this regard that according to one of the featurettes included on this Blu-ray as a supplement, the source novel from which this film was culled, Break My Heart 1000 Times by Daniel Waters, evidently identified the culprit fairly early on, and in fact part of the book was evidently written from the murderer’s point of view (this is all based on what I’m assuming is my correct understanding of what they talk about in this featurette, which admittedly I may not be, since this aspect is referred to almost kind of tangentially). Now the other interesting thing to note about I Still See You is that the whole serial killer aspect kind of crops up as a sidebar in the early going, with the first part of the film instead devoted to outlining a kind of post- Apocalyptic world outside of Chicago, where some kind of lab experiment went horribly wrong, leading to a huge calamity that has left spectral presences of victims known as “remnants”, which appear for moments here and there, replaying brief snippets of their erstwhile lives in what amounts to a tape loop.

The Event.

That’s how voiceover from Veronica Calder (Bella Thorne) refers to whatever calamity occurred in Chicago, in an opening vignette that offers Veronica, who goes by Ronnie, as a little girl watching the maelstrom unfold from her schoolroom window. The film segues forward ten years to find Ronnie a kind of “Goth lite” teenager living at home with her mother Anna (Amy Price-Francis) and father Robert (Shaun Benson). A seemingly normal if somewhat chaotic weekday morning is depicted, with Ronnie coming downstairs to have breakfast at the dining room table, where her father is ensconced reading the newspaper. The voiceover has already gone into at least a bit of information about the “remnants” who populate the world, and in a rather nice reveal (very minor spoiler warning), Ronnie’s father suddenly goes up in a poof of smoke as she sits at the table. He was killed in “The Event”, and returns sporadically for a few seconds at a time at the table, reading the paper.

It might be accurate if perhaps a bit cheeky to suggest that Ronnie has gotten her Sixth Sense on and sees dead people, but in this formulation, everyone sees dead people, in a plot point that arguably might have been developed a bit more metaphysically with regard to survivors learning to “live with death”. Unfortunately, I Still See You gives in to what I might term “anime syndrome” by introducing a whole host of concept and terms that seek to explain the phenomenon of the remnants. There are both brief “news reports” that are more or less pure exposition, and just for good measure one of the main characters in the film is Ronnie’s avuncular teacher August Bittner (Dermot Mulroney), who has assigned the class to write an essay about remnants, and who schools his charges in various “rules” regarding these spectral presences that have been discerned in the years after The Event. It’s just flat out silly, with a breed of disbelievers of these rules branded Truthers, including Ronnie’s “bad boy” classmate Kirk Lane (Richard Harmon). If you don’t already sense where at least some of this is going, you may actually be surprised when the “reveal” of a killer is made late in the film.

Alert readers who have made it this far into this review may well be wondering exactly what killer is being referenced, and that is one of the other structural mysteries of this story. There are in fact two simultaneously unfolding threads here, and I’m not certain Jason Fuchs’ adaptative screenplay has completely interwoven them. The killer aspect shows up when Ronnie sees the apparition of a young man in her bathroom. This guy, whose name she intuits is Brian (Thomas Elms), writes “run” on the steam of her bathroom mirror before disappearing in a poof of smoke, a message which is in direct violation of one of those aforementioned “rules”. But even within the context of the film, these “rules” seem completely random and in fact I’d argue they’re not even followed consistently. I’m still uncertain why there would even be remnants in Ronnie’s hometown, since it evidently escaped the maelstrom. And why are some remnants evidently where they died, but others aren’t? For example, what’s up with the girl who almost looks like she’s dressed in vintage fifties clothing who materializes in Mr. Bittner’s classroom? And why in fact is Brian in Ronnie’s bathroom?

Unfortunately, things only go from ridiculous to downright ludicrous once Ronnie predictably teams with Kirk to try to figure out what’s going on, a quest which kind of hilariously leads them to "go" into the "no go" zone of Chicago. It seems that Brian may in fact have been a serial killer and is now back in ghost form to make Ronnie his next victim, but even this plot point is then muddied with the ultimate “reveal” of what’s actually going on. For those keeping track, the main cast here is three people: damsel in distress Ronnie, Kirk, and Mr. Bittner. That means if this film subscribes to standard operating procedure and needs a (corporal human) villain, you have two choices. Take your pick, your odds of being right are 50%.

I Still See You Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I Still See You is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.38:1. Once again the IMDb doesn't offer much information, but I tracked down some press materials for the film where it's mentioned that cinematographer Simon Dennis utilized Arri Alexa cameras to digitally capture the imagery, and I'm assuming everything was finished at a 2K DI. This is a rather striking looking feature, though some of the central CGI depicting "The Event" is on the hokey side (thankfully, it's brief, and is offered in a kind of whirlwind montage where it's hard to make a lot out since the shots are so brief). The main effect of the remnants going up in poofs of smoke is quite effective, as are several scenes where Ronnie actually walks (or bikes) through some remnants. There's quite a bit of grading going on in various moments, with several scenes rather dark and almost burnt umber in appearance. Some other sequences are in almost The Shape of Water teal territory, and probably the majority of the film tends to be rather cool, emphasizing slate grays and pale blues. All of that said, rather nicely detail levels remain quite strong throughout the presentation. There are a few noticeably murky moments, including a long tunnel sequence with Ronnie and Kirk where spectral fish "swim" through.

I Still See You Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While I Still See You certainly has sci-fi elements, and there is The Event to contend with at various moments in the film, the sound design here tends to be a little reserved, at least for those looking for nonstop surround activity and floorboard shattering LFE. Immersion is subtle but consistent, including things like the background noise in school environments, or outdoors, including some nice ice skating sequences or some of the scenes between Ronnie and Kirk. There's some really good effects placement in a key scene when Ronnie and Kirk manage to get into the "no go" zone. Dialogue, effects and score are all rendered cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.

I Still See You Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Scott Speer and Actress Bella Thorne


• Remnants: Manifesting I Still See You (1080p; 26:11) is an above average EPK featuring good interviews, behind the scenes footage and snippets from the completed film.


• Break My Heart 1000 Times: Novel to Screen (1080p; 9:01) offers more good interviews, including with source novel writer Daniel Waters.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 28:15) have optional commentary by Scott Speer.

I Still See You Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm frankly still a bit confused about several elements in I Still See You, but for those willing to cut the film a little slack, there are some interesting ideas here, even if the central premise of the film ends up being kind of like the flip side of Flatliners. Performances are generally quite good, but the writing could have used some clarification. Stylistically, the film is often quite interesting, and technical merits are strong for those considering a purchase.