We’re speaking with Corey Davis, who co-directed I See You with Kristen Desantis the story. This is a shocking and provocative film about a stalker who spends a day… stalking. Thank you for taking our questions.
UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): First off, what made you want to make this film?
Corey Davis (CD): This film actually started off as a class project for my cinematography class. Kristen and I, in which we had the class together, had come up with this idea of telling a stalker story because in our class, we were required to shoot a video using foreground elements in our shots to create a sense of depth, and we felt as if a stalker storyline would be the best narrative to execute the goal of the assignment. Kristen and I had also worked on another project, The Man in Black, which was a western, about a month prior to working on this one, so us having that rapport with each other also made us want to continue working together with I See You.
(UM): Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
(CD): I am currently studying film at Clayton State University in Morrow, GA. I have always been into writing, directing, and producing. Ever since I was six years old, it has always been a passion of mine to tell thought provoking stories that will leave the audience with something to think about. As a night owl, I tend to stay up pretty late because my brain is always fishing for some creative ideas for new stories. I tend to feel more creative at night. I always thought that film would be a way for me to express certain messages about the world we live in such a way that I never could in person with anyone.
(UM): I found this film shocking in large part because of the inevitability of the ending. There was no twist, no surprise. And that inevitability made the film very powerful. Was that part of your intention?
(CD): Yes and no. To us, we intended for the ending to be ambiguous in a way that we could open it up to the audiences’ interpretation. Does the stalker finally get the woman? Does he “win” her? Or does he “let her go?” These are some of the questions that we wanted audiences to think about in terms of the film’s ending. But the inevitability comes in the moment when the male protagonist walks up those steps in the house, and the audience can then note that once those steps have been climbed, there is no coming back down and that something is bound to happen, but there is also that ambiguity of not knowing what that something will be or what will happen next.
(UM): In the ‘manifesto’ and the description that accompanied the film and suggested that the protagonist might be an incel, we come away thinking that the stalker is struggling with various issues. But we don’t see any evidence of that mental struggle in the film. The man is just a stalker doing his stalking. I also found this juxtaposition thought provoking. Is that sort of what you were trying to say? That what’s going on in the mind is invisible to outsiders?
(CD): Yes. That is actually the message I was trying to make. We wanted to kind of blur the lines between stalker and incel in a way to illustrate the main protagonist’s inner demons. From the very beginning, we know from the manifesto that he wants the woman for himself, but he cannot act on those wants, or needs for that matter. This is also illustrated in the scene where he spots another guy sitting on the bench at the park chatting with her, where he instantly becomes jealous of him. The main struggle that the stalker is facing is that he wants the woman for himself, and he feels as if he only deserves her and nobody else. His entitlement alone serves as a motivator in his “quest” to get the girl he wants.
(UM): Could you speak about the difference between a stalker and an incel?
(CD): To me, the difference between a stalker and an incel is that a stalker would just follow you around just to instill fear in your mind. The stalker has a “want” for you, but that want is not exercised too deeply to the point where the stalker wants something more. For example, a man’s ex-girlfriend could be a stalker because she sees that he has moved on to someone else, and she wants him to be unhappy. She does not want him to move on. So that woman could stalk him in order to instill fear in him in hopes that he would not move on. An incel, on the other hand, is someone who has a “need” for something. That person has been deprived of something (most times pertaining to something sexual), and he is willing to do anything to meet that need. Incels have stronger desires than stalkers because rather than wanting to accomplish something, they “need” to obtain something or someone, sometimes both. In this case, the stalker/incel in the film would be both because he wants to instill fear in the woman, but also needs to relieve his sexual deprivation to the woman he always dreamed of. He wants and needs the woman for his own sexual gain.
(UM): Do you think viewers should have any sympathy for the protagonist?
(CD): Personally, if someone were stalking me and wanted to have me all to herself, then I would be very uncomfortable with that, so in my personal opinion, the viewers do not have to feel sympathy for the protagonist.
(UM): Could you tell us what producing the film was like? Did anything interesting happen on set?
(CD): Producing the film with Kristen was a lot of fun. We all worked so well together, and everything was well-organized thanks to Kristen’s talent in producing. She even told me that she is interested in production management work, so producing it with me was a breeze for her, and for that, I am grateful that she was there to keep us organized because without her, this film would have been all over the place. One of the most interesting things that happened on set was that on our first day of shooting, we accidentally shot in auto focus with her camera, a Canon T7i, and it made our beginning shots a little overexposed, but luckily, we were able to reshoot it on the same day and fix the problem.
(UM): Could you tell us about any upcoming projects?
(CD): As far as upcoming projects go, Kristen and I have talked about possibly doing a follow-up to I See You, making this sort of an episodic storyline, but it is still open to interpretation as of now. And I am also working on doing a project involving an ex-boyfriend antagonizing his former lover while running away from the law. There are so many fresh ideas out for the future, but I am just doing one thing at a time.