I See You begins with its inspirations directly at the forefront. The opening overhead shot follows a trickling stream through the woods before showing us a manmade waterfall that a town center bridge crisscrosses. It’s Downtown USA, with a suitably upbeat, if slightly sinister score. An icecream truck delivers its sugary confections to a line of waiting children. Adults run, hike and bike at leisurely paces. It’s Americana with a capital A.

Which, we know from years upon years of watching TV like Twin Peaks and movies like Summer of 84, to name a recent one, is a lie. Something is inevitably awful underneath the cheery and idyllic façade of this Midwestern town, which becomes more pronounced as we follow ten-year-old Justin (Riley Caya). He leaves the town center and enters the forest, the camera angles changing to a swooping and zooming style while the music becomes more sinister.

Suddenly, he is thrown back off the bike from some mysterious force.

This mysterious cold open sets the tone for I See You, a twisty thriller that constantly surprises by keeping us on our toes. We’re quickly introduced to Jackie Harper (Helen Hunt), who’s staring into space in her kitchen. Her son, Connor (Judah Lewis) comes in and the daggers his eyes shoot at Jackie could kill. The father, meanwhile, wakes up on the couch after she leaves. Turns out Greg Harper (Jon Tenney) has been sleeping on the couch ever since it came to light that Jackie has had an affair.

While Greg scolds Connor for being mad at Jackie, he is pissed. He shows this by throwing his phone through a window. Greg, it turns out, is a cop and when he gets to work, he gets the lead for a missing person case for the boy we saw in the cold open.

When Greg and his partner Spitzky (Gregory Alan Williams) explore the crime scene, they discover a discarded green Swiss Army Knife. Spitzky is immediately set on edge because, fifteen years before, he worked a similar case involving missing boys and green Swiss Army Knives that put a man behind bars when two of his victims escaped. Either the wrong man is imprisoned or they have a copycat on their hands.

As Greg deals with this case, at home things are getting incredibly weird. First, their entire drawer of silverware disappears. While Jackie is in the kitchen, their TV turns on by itself, the press conference about the missing kid blaring from the speakers. And when she turns it off, it turns immediately back on, the volume increasing. Pretty soon it becomes increasingly obvious that things aren’t right in the Harper House. Something is haunting them.

Okay, so there’s a lot going on in I See You. We have a few competing storylines, as Greg investigates the mysterious disappearances that feel slightly tinged with the supernatural. Greg listens to the tapes of one of the surviving victims who talks about the “magic house” they were taken to that “disappears.” Then there’s the marital affair that’s putting stress on their entire family...and isn’t helped when her paramour Todd (Sam Trammell) shows up. Then there’s the mysterious presence in the house that seems like it’s trying to communicate with the family.

And would you believe that everything above is literally the first act?

What I love the most about I See You is how the second act sidesteps a potential second act slog by completely upending expectations. As I was watching the narrative continually add wrinkles and twists in the first act, I kept checking the time…not because I was bored but because I was confused how the script by Devon Graye would keep the tension and intrigue churning through the rest of the film. The first act is jam-packed with action and excitement that it didn’t feel tenable for another hour.

And that’s because the narrative takes a swerve. The results are far more interesting because of it. It also makes it difficult to discuss because I See You is the kind of film where the less you know, the better. I found myself genuinely surprised at the direction it goes and the way Graye’s script plays with expectations. In fact, at one point I audibly gasped at a particular revelation. I went in expecting a twisty story and it was still able to disarm me, partly because what I was watching was so fascinating that I missed a couple (in retrospect, obvious) clues.

Part of it is because the script grounds the horror in some typical, yet interesting, tropes. It becomes completely obvious that Greg and Jackie’s marriage has been on the rocks for awhile, her transgression was just the straw that broke the back. He came into the marriage with a chip on his shoulder; her parents didn’t like him and his job as a cop doesn’t provide for her. While Jackie tells him, “I don’t need you to provide for me” the alpha man in Greg obviously needs to be the caveman provider.

Additionally, we become so invested in the horror movie happening inside the Harper house that it’s easy to forget the missing kids outside of it. Director Adam Randall cheekily keeps reminding us, though, as an occasional missing person poster flutters in the wind, lost and forgotten because people are so enwrapped in their own internal struggles. By the time the third act comes around, Randall had me completely in the palm of his hand.

While a couple twists weren’t very surprising, the way Randall and Graye kept upsetting expectations kept me on the edge of my seat. It’s one of those movies where if you think back on it, it might not completely make sense. But man was it a fun watch. Highly recommended for fans of twisty thrillers.