I Saw What You Did

I may be crazy... but I liked this movie!!

The basic plot is this: bored high school girls play pranks and meet cute and unusual musician who turns out to be a psychotic killer.

This is a low budget, made for TV movie at its best!!

Robert Carradine does an excellent job of portraying over-the-edge eccentric Adrian Lancer. Quite a nice change of pace from all that "Revenge of the Nerds" nonsense. He makes the story line at least somewhat plausible and shows you convincing traits that would make two high school girls interested in him. Nice touch of having David Carradine play Adrian's brother Stephen.

I was really impressed with performances by Tammy Lauren and Shawnee Smith as a prankster and a prep school do gooder. Plus, Candace Cameron is not nearly as annoying here as she was on Full House.

The movie is slow moving at times. I would imagine that they had a good hour long movie, but then they had to fill up two hours in a Monday night time slot. If you get the chance to see it -- wait -- I don't even know if you CAN rent this anywhere, other than from me, since for some reason I happen to still have it taped on VHS from ten years ago. However, if you come across it, give it a chance. I suppose in some ways it is similar to the recent grouping of movies loosely titled "I Saw What You Did and Who You Were Screaming With Two Summers Ago", except that it is more like a realistic documentary of "here is what happened in one evening", rather than larger-than-life killers in costume targeting anyone in town.

Don't expect too much, and you won't be disappointed.

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.

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.

Was this like really way worse than the original? I had this one on video beta so I'll probably never see it again unless it either comes on again or i find a beta that works. Anyway when i saw it I thought it was pretty cool, my friend and i saw it several times over cherry Kool-aid and popcorn. One Sunday afternoon the original came on but darn it I had to go out and missed it. Anyway if it happens to come on cable or tv again watch it, its a way to pass time. And I was scared to make prank calls after this movie.

I Saw What You Did (1988)

This actually a TV remake, The plot some-what the same but there a lot different from movies.

This was felt little more face paced the the older black and white movie but I didn't really find any of these movie that creepy at the whole.

First i just found some of the script in this movie was ever weak, Some lines in this movie don't make sense at all. I Know it TV movie, Come on.

The acting in this movie was not that good at all, I thought everyone acting in this movie very wooden from most of the cast.

I not sure what to think of that cheap ending at all if wanted to get scared of that it was wrong done and it didn't work, I found that last scenes really silly.

Not near as good as The original

As this was TV remake there are rumours of yet another remake of this.

4 out of 10