I Can See You

This horror/mystery film, tagged by writer-director Graham Reznick as “a psychedelic campfire tale,” takes one of the oldest genre clichés—city slickers encountering something frightening when they venture into the woods—and adds psychological overtones through cinematic tricks such as superimpositions, weird sounds, and eye-catching dissolves. Brooklynites Doug (Duncan Skiles), Ben (Ben Dickinson), and Kimble (Christopher Ford) are partners in an upstart ad agency who go off on a weekend camping trip with Kimble's girlfriend, Sonia (Olivia Villanti), and a free-spirited character named Summer Day (Heather Robb). The intent is to take photos of the outdoors as part of an advertising campaign for an environmentally friendly cleaning product that supposedly produces amazing results on transparent surfaces. (Executive producer Larry Fessenden appears in brief infomercial-like inserts as Mickey Hauser, the product's weirdly ingratiating television spokesman.) But the photos come out strangely blurry, Doug and Summer go missing, and soon it's hard to distinguish between reality and hallucination, between reasonable fear and insanity. I Can See You isn't really frightening, but it is unnerving, with David Lynch's influence evident throughout. A low-budget potential cult film that introduces Reznick as a moviemaker of promise, this is a strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)