Look, we all know that there’s probably not a murderer living in our basement. But that doesn’t stop us from imagining the worst when we hear a noisewhen we’re home alone, and horror movies thrive on that fact. Whether it’s something paranormal or just a person pushed to their limits, an effective horror movie can make you feel like the terrifying events on screen could happen to you, keeping you in fear even after the credits roll.I See Youis one of those movies thatkeeps you questioning not only what’s going to come nextin the movie, but also what’s going on in your own home.
Helen Huntstars as Jackie Harper, a woman whoseunraveling family life becomes even more complicatedby strange incidents in her home. A ghost or even a mental breakdown pales in comparison to the fact that these incidents are caused byactual strangers hiding inside her house’s walls. The premise is made even more horrifying because there are several documented cases of this happening in real life, enough to spawn a specific term, “phrogging,” and even a true-crime documentary series. And that’s only scratching the surface of the terror ofI See You.
Home Is No Longer a Sanctuary in ‘I See You’
I See Youis a triple-threat horror, as it moves from paranoia about ghosts to strangers, and, most unexpectedly, the people you love. The movie begins with Jackie trying tohold together her relationship with her husband, Greg (Jon Tenney), and their only son, Connor (JudahLewis), after she has an affair. To add to that stress,strange things keep happening around their home, such as silverware being taken and electronics turning on by themselves. Greg even gets locked in a closet, but apparently no one else is in the room. It all comes off as either something supernatural likeParanormal Activity, or Jackie having a mental breakdown. Not everyone believes in ghosts, of course, and there will at least be treatment available if Jackie is suffering from a mental health crisis, and that’s what makes the reality so much creepier: two young people, Mindy (Libe Barer) and Alec (Owen Teague), have secretly taken up residence inside the Harper house,an activity known as “phrogging.”
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Mindy explains that there are certain guidelines to follow to ensure a phrogger doesn’t get caught, but Alec, a newbie to phrogging, blatantly ignores these guidelines in order topsychologically mess with the Harper family. The mind-screw doesn’t stop with Alec, however; on top of making you paranoid about strangers living in your home,I See Youwill also make you question how well you know your actual loved ones. The Harpers' pre-existing personal dramaeventually comes to a violent and deadly head, casting suspicion on the behavior and motives of the entire family.Alec and Mindy suddenly find themselves in the audience’s position,watching horrible secrets come out that completely change their views – and ours – ofwhat’s happened in the movie so far.
“Phrogging” Is a Huge Part of ‘I See You’ – But What Exactly Is It?
The middle section ofI See Yourevolves around two homeless young people secretly living in the Harper home. Mindy is documenting her methods of phrogging (how exactly she plans to distribute her videos without incriminating herself is unclear) as if there are standard rules that only real phroggers know. While the prevalence of this activity may be exaggerated, there areseveral documented cases of people living in someone else’s home in secret, including a woman who discovered in 2017 thather ex-boyfriend had been living in her atticfor two weeks after being released from prison. In 2013, a group of college kids foundanother student secretly living in their basement. The stranger’s cousin had lived there the year before and the real estate company failed to change the locks. There are a lot more stories like these circulating online, but only a handful have verifiable sources like the ones above. There’s not much evidence that a whole community of phroggers exists; it’s usuallypeople who knew their targets personally or were in desperate need of shelter, similar to Mindy inI See You. That hasn’t stopped the spread of the term and the paranoia that it instills, most recently by the A&E seriesPhrogging: Hider in My House.
Regardless of their how or why, there are enough real cases of the phrogging phenomenon that it’s all too easy to imagine it happening in one’s own home.I See Youreally plays with that paranoia well, especially as the truth behind what’s really happening in the Harper household keeps unfolding into more and more sinister and unexpected horrors.
