See For Me (Movie Review)

Horror movies have a long tradition of telling stories about people with disabilities facing perilous situations, whether it’s in classics like Audrey Hepburn’s Oscar-nominated turn as a blind woman terrorized by crooks in Wait Until Dark or more recent fare like Hush or the A Quiet Place films, both of which are centered around deaf characters. See For Me takes the template set by Wait Until Dark and gives it a modern spin by making smart phone technology a central part of the story, but the most significant update is that the film goes beyond depiction of blindness and provides actual representation by casting a visually impaired actor (Skyler Davenport) in the lead role.

Davenport plays Sophie, a former Olympic hopeful skier who has recently lost her sight and is having a difficult time adjusting to her new situation. She makes money by house- and pet-sitting for wealthy folks in the snowy, secluded climes of upstate New York. She’s found a way to make these gigs even more lucrative by nicking expensive bottles out of their wine cellars, on the assumption that it would take them a while to notice it was missing, and most crucially, “nobody would suspect the poor little blind girl”. This is one of the best parts of Sophie’s characterization – instead of being portrayed as a saintly, put-upon character, she’s very stubborn and just as capable of being a jerk as anyone else.

On one of these cat-sitting gigs, the house is broken into by a trio of robbers who are determined to empty out the contents of a hidden safe. Out of desperation, Sophie turns to a new assistive app she has recently downloaded called See For Me that connects her to a volunteer who can see through her phone’s camera and give her details about her surroundings. On the other side of the app is Kelly (Jessica Parker Kennedy), a former Army combat engineer who serves as Sophie’s eyes as she attempts to hide from the robbers long enough for the police to arrive.

Sophie and Kelly make a compelling team, as Kelly, who has tactical skills honed by both her military training and by playing multiplayer games, barks orders that the strong-willed Sophie may or may not follow. Finding the commonality between assistive technology and gaming is a novel conceit and See For Me is at its best when the two women are working together to keep Sophie safe. The image of a visually impaired woman holding up a gun and a cell phone and depending on a person on the other side of a video call to aim is inherently thrilling and suspenseful.

The robbers are capably played by character actors like Kim Coates and Joe Pingue, but the home invasion side of the story is a little by-the-numbers and it builds to a third act that doesn’t quite deliver as much as everything that comes before it. Regardless, See For Me is a fun little thriller that does an admirable job of telling a gripping story about a type of person who typically doesn’t get to star in a horror movie.