In Babak Anvari’s tense 2022 thriller “I Came By,” a graffiti artist’s attempt to expose an elite judge collapses into a grim cat-and-mouse chase—one that keeps twisting while showing how power can erase evidence and bend the law.
A graffiti tag reading “I Came By” appears in houses that never want to feel vulnerable. In 2022, on Netflix, that small act of defiance kicks off a deadly cat-and-mouse thriller that director Babak Anvari—fresh from Under the Shadows and Wounds—refuses to let settle into a comfortable groove.
“I Came By” arrives with a cold premise and an even colder momentum. It follows Toby (George MacKay. known for his role in 1917). a socially conscious graffiti artist who leaves his tag of “I Came By” in the houses of the elite. The idea isn’t just to mark territory. It’s to remind the people inside that they’re still trapped in a wider socioeconomic world—so that even the supposedly private location of those tags becomes ironically notorious in the newspapers.
Toby isn’t working alone. His partner. Jay (Percelle Ascott). is there in the early build-up as the two debate whether they should take one last job together—targeting Hector Blake. a judge known for his charitable work with immigrants. but condemned by Toby for owning illegal ivory antiques. Jay, though, is trying to change. As a soon-to-be father, he refuses to go through with it. He also believes owning ivory isn’t a despicable enough of an act to justify risking his life.
That refusal leaves Toby to creep into Hector’s mansion alone, where the film pivots from the kind of “we don’t know what happens behind closed doors” setup it initially feels like to something far more brutal. Toby discovers a terrible secret in the basement.
The movie is paced to make you wait for the twist, and then it punishes you for being ready. With Toby at the center. viewers gradually empathize with his crusade for social injustice—sometimes petty. sometimes pointed—and with his contentious relationship with his mother. Lizzie (Kelly MacDonald). But the story snaps away from any sense of safety when Toby returns to free a bound and bruised prisoner and. in what feels like a swift escalation rather than a slow reveal. the film ends Toby’s life with a solid blow to the back of his head. After that. the story keeps twisting and turning with a ruthless focus on who survives and who doesn’t. while Hector looms over it all with murderous intent masked by charitable optics.
The tension doesn’t come only from violence. It builds through realism—mundane beats that make the chaos feel anchored. When Toby disappears, Lizzie contacts Jay in hopes of finding him. That fails, and she ends up visiting the police station. MacDonald’s performance lands as heartfelt and desperate. Her frustration about not being taken seriously, and her concern for her son, hits hard. Their relationship may be framed as a typical teenage-mother dynamic. but there’s something unsettling in watching Lizzie find secret compartments in her son’s drawers. as she wonders if she ever truly knew him.
Once she reaches the station, the investigation is met with a familiar kind of disregard. Her complaints are dutifully filed, and then she’s dismissed with placating remarks rather than real concern. Detective Ella (Franc Ashman) does connect the missing person report to a strange 911 call from Hector’s house. but the office’s treatment of Lizzie stays cold—limited compassion. limited hope. It’s that reaction that pushes Lizzie into doing her own investigation. with resolve tightening as her worry takes over any logical caution.
As the case unfolds, Hector’s influence starts to feel less like coincidence and more like an outcome. When Ella meticulously searches Hector’s mansion. she finds no evidence of abduction or murder in Hector’s basement. even while stumbling across secret rooms. When she tries to arrest him over having these hidden compartments and accusations. Hector is released after a phone call to his dear friend in high places. The film leans into what that means: Hector has the foresight to sanitize and incinerate all evidence of his crime. and he can use his privilege as a “get out of jail for free card.”.
The plausibility of the plot can be debated, but the machinery of power the film suggests is hard to shake. The undercurrent is chilling: a well-organized system can look attentive while quietly protecting the powerful. Hector’s charities revolve around immigration. and his victims of choice are immigrants—an exaggeration. the film argues. of hypocrisy frequently seen in elite circles. Under that pressure. a realistic police investigation becomes a stage for how callous treatment and social injustice can steer people outside legality. with devastating consequences.
Even the performance that carries “I Came By” makes that gap impossible to ignore. Hugh Bonneville plays Hector Blake, and his portrayal shifts smoothly from daring charisma into something far darker. Bonneville would feel at home in this kind of high-class role after his major part in Downton Abbey as Robert Crawley. In “I Came By. ” Hector is naturally fiercely protective of his secrets and his reputation—traits that help him work freely—and his stately grandeur. borrowed from that sense of elite authority. gives him room to embed malevolence.
Hector’s threat is effective because he’s often painfully normal when he interacts with people. From news broadcasts where his charming smile and charitable words capture attention. to his conversations with police officers where he manages to placate their suspicions with an innocent eye. the film keeps forcing you to reconcile charisma with depravity. That contrast spikes during his monologue. when he tries to entrap another asylum seeker—starting with a story about his father abandoning him and his mother to pursue a relationship with someone who was an immigrant. What begins charming and wistful gradually devolves into unsettling spite. Bitter rage and sadism rise beneath the words. swelling through the room as Hector’s pomp turns into something like psychopathy conducted like music.
Bonnevile’s dominance reshapes what the rest of the cast is allowed to do. Toby becomes comparatively reduced—naive, one-dimensional—his social justice framed as a personality trait that stifles his insecurities. Yet that restraint also works as part of the film’s point: Toby’s tags and gestures feel suddenly fleeting and obsolete against the deep roots of the elite. With Hector’s shadow dominating the movie for so long. the film lands a bleak portrait of attempts to alleviate social inequalities. shadowed by how much power can blunt accountability.
The structure stays relentlessly mobile. The ensemble cast of “I Came By” shifts perspectives. and each character is out-manoeuvered and expelled by Hector. forcing another person to take over. The film strips away the comfort of a “hero” or “chosen one. ” emphasizing the pitiless reality of how many serial killers evade detection for so long. Characters become disposable, each drawing the viewer closer to Hector’s retribution before becoming his next victim. It gives the movie a chess-like feel: strategies and valiant impulses chip away at the barrier around Hector. but sacrifices are necessary. and the chain of protagonists keeps moving even when no one expects the end they meet.
Throughout. Hector remains standing—longer than you expect—because the film keeps returning to the advantages he can draw from: resources. cash backing. a vice-like grip on the law. and a capacity to cross lines without dire consequences. “I Came By” doesn’t lean on narrative punishment and reward. It treats the outcome as grimly unfair: wins and losses land where privilege dictates, not where morality might.
There’s even a detail that shows how the chase becomes symbolic. Early on, the film brings in three cats trying to hunt down the mouse. Tension strains around them as they fail to infiltrate the suave stronghold of wealth surrounding the mouse. By the time the cathartic final act arrives. the movie has built patience through pressure—until the ending arrives with a haunting question that lingers after all the lives lost: who is the real winner here?.
In the end, “I Came By” doesn’t just aim for unpredictability. It uses realism and its relentless turn-taking to paint privilege as a cover that can make evil easier to hide, harder to stop, and almost impossible to punish—until the cost gets too high to ignore.
“I Came By” was released August 31, 2022. It runs for 110 minutes and is directed by Babak Anvari, with writers Babak Anvari and Namsi Khan.
I Came By Netflix Babak Anvari Hugh Bonneville George MacKay Kelly MacDonald Percelle Ascott thriller serial killer social injustice Hector Blake Toby