I Saw What You Did

I hated the original- i thought it was cheesy and corny, and it wasnt scary at all! But this one came out when i was about nine years old, and it scared me half to death. i loved it, and i have been looking for it ever since i saw it, way back then. i always try to tell people about it, but no one i know has ever heard of it. but my sister and i loved it...

Perhaps more than any other coming-of-age angst film, this made-for-TV gem captures the fad-drenched arrogance and superciliousness of teenagers, pinpointing certain dangers that accompany such an attitude. It is the character of Lisa Harris (brilliantly portrayed by Tammy Lauren)that exudes this smart-ass front the best. Kim Fielding (Shawnee Smith) is putty in Lisa's hands as she is led down the road to perdition for the selfish motive of wanting a place for the night to rendezvous with her profligate boyfriend.

This nifty little film has it all, thrills, chills, suspense...you name it. Obviously much of the credit not only belongs to the superb cast, including the two Carradine brothers who play crazed brothers, but to the script by Cynthia Cidre, since both this TV flick and the earlier Joan Crawford "I Saw What You Did" (1965) are based on the same novel by Ursula Curtiss, not to slight the original William Castle production which itself is a fine addition to the horror genre. Yet this TV version goes beyond mere terror to a more thorough psychological analysis of what makes the main players tick. Even the smaller parts are more fleshed out than is usual for a TV show.

The plot is a familiar one by now. Two bored teenage girls, alone except for one's pesky little sister, decide to make prank phone calls. As expected, they accidentally reach a mad man in the midst of a murder. One bad move leads to another until the mad man is hot on the trail of one of the girls. But director Fred Walton, of "When a Stranger Calls" fame, keeps the show moving at a fast pace and though the ending is not that unusual it still comes as a surprise and as presented is extremely effective.

I had seen this 1988 made-for-TV remake of a 1960s feature--the earlier having featured Joan Crawford in one of her last film roles--in my last year of college and had pretty much forgotten it. Last night, however, I happened to catch it on the cable network Sleuth and was surprised at how effective it was. I think the low budget and bare bones script combine to give the film a stark feeling missing in most TV movies of the day. None of the performances is much above average, except for an all too brief turn by a young Jo Anderson as the distressed girlfriend of the male lead, but the ensemble merges its talents well enough to keep us at least interested. All in all, it kind of reminded me of those shoestring budget ABC movie-of-the-week gems from the early 70s where actresses like eventual Emmy winner Kay Lenz got their start. Good diversion from the ordinary, especially if you're not expecting much.

This is an 80's TV re-make of the late 50's Williamn Castle film "I Saw What You Did", and in some ways it is an improvement on the original. Yes, it is a little hard to believe that by the 80's teenage girls would be so naive and dimwitted that they'd fall in love with a guy they only spoke to once on the phone (while making crank calls)and then conspire to meet him (not knowing that he'd just killed his girlfriend). But if you can leave plausibility at the door, this movie is quite a bit of fun.

The young lead actress is Shawnee Smith in one of her first roles. She didn't appear in that many movies (her most famous was perhaps "The Blob", another 80's re-make of a 50's flick), but she always made an impression (especially if you were an adolescent male in the 80's), and she has mounted a comeback recently with the "Saw" franchise. The killer meanwhile is played by Robert Carradine, the most underrated of the Carradine brothers (his older brother, the late David Carradine, also appears in a supporting role as the character's--uh--older brother). Tammy Lauren plays Smith's more experienced, but alas no smarter, friend, but leaves little impression aside from her 80's-style damaged hair. A young Candace Cameron is just flat-out annoying as Smith's little sister (tragically, nobody kills her and stuffs her body in a trash compactor).

This was directed by none other than Fred Walton, a minor horror auteur responsible for the original "When a Stranger Calls", the fun 80's slasher spoof "April Fool's Day", and the belated but superior 90's sequel "When a Stranger Calls Back". He became a specialist of sorts in low-budget, phone-related thrillers, and though he was obviously hampered somewhat by the limitations of late 80's television here, he directs this as effectively, if not more effectively, than the late William Castle. It's probably easier to FIND the original Castle version these days than this one, but this is still worth checking out.

A remake of William Castle's 1965 film of the same name, I Saw What You Did is a tepid made-for-TV thriller that will most likely only be of interest to fans of horror babe Shawnee Smith, best known for the '88 remake of The Blob and the Saw franchise.

Smith plays goodie two-shoes high schooler Kim Fielding who invites friend Lisa Harris (Tammy Lauren) over to her house for the evening. With Kim's father away for the night, the girls (and Kim's younger sister Julia, played by Candace Cameron Bure) entertain themselves by making prank calls, picking people at random and telling them 'I saw what you did, and I know who you are'. Unfortunately, the man that Kim speaks to, Adrian Lancer (Robert Carradine), has just murdered his girlfriend and is understandably concerned about the mystery phone call.

It's a great premise but the script piles on the contrivances and improbability: in a really dumb move, the friends decide to pay a visit to Adrian because they like the sound of his voice (seriously, the guy could be in his 50s and weigh 350lbs, but they like his voice). And in an even more unlikely turn of events, Kim accidentally leaves her purse in his apartment, thus enabling him to find out where she lives. How girls this devoid of common sense made it as far as their teens is a mystery to me.

The ending is reasonably well handled, as the psycho -- a pyromaniac -- breaks into Kim's home and sets the place on fire, but this being a TV movie, director Fred Walton can only take matters so far, delivering zero gore (and no gratuitous shower scene).