Changing perspectives is a storytelling tool that tons of writers use. I use it often in my books.
Flying Lesson, the Isle of God series, the Starlight Café series, and Monster in the House series all include changing perspectives. Often times I let points in the story overlap from chapter to chapter so you can see a different character’s point of view when describing something that happened. I love this device to really get inside a story.
I love stories in which a change of perspective changes everything about the story. Recently, I watched a movie that did exactly that. It’s 2019’s I see you, starring Helen Hunt and Jon Tenney. It was directed by Adam Randall and the screenplay writer is Devon Graye. It looks like this is Devon Graye’s only writing credit. I think it was really good and can’t wait until something else he’s written gets made.
I See You does an excellent job at building tension and then using a change in perspective to give the story a whole new meaning. If you haven’t seen it yet, go watch it. It’s on Amazon Prime. I’ll do my best not to spoil anything in this review.
The first half of the movie plays out like a ghost story. That’s why I watched it in the first place because I wanted to see the ghost story. It follows the life of a middle-class family who is in turmoil. The mother, Helen Hunt, is trying to mend her relationship with her husband and teenage son after having an affair with one of her psychiatry patients.
While she’s trying to mend her family strange things start happening in their house: silverware disappears, the family photos are all removed from the frames, people get locking in closets, and other creepy, ghostly incidents occur. As the backdrop to all of this her husband who is a police detective is investigating a string of missing children cases.
The story builds just the right about of tension. It’s supply creepy in a way that feels completely believable. This is the part of the movie that really sucked me in.
It captured the feeling I ultimately want to bring to my stories. How do you do that? I’m not assuming to be able to tell you the answer because I really don’t know. I’m experimenting with it these days. In time, I’ll figure it out.
I was originally going to put spoilers in this but I changed my mind because I really want you to see the movie and see what happens. I’m just going to say the second half of the movie is told from a different perspective that shows you what’s really going on in the house.
It demonstrates how a simple change of perspective can give you new insight into what’s really happening. Seeing the entire story starting from the beginning from a completely different point of view completely shifts the dynamic of the story. It brings up questions that you wouldn’t have considered before. And it does this all while continuing to ratchet up the tension.
I love the way it continues to have that spooky strange element from the first half of the movie but just in a different way.
If you haven’t seen it, I totally recommend you do. Check it out and let me know what you think.