Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Bereamic Awesome Movie

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Leofwine_draca A TV movie remake of the 1965 William Castle movie of the same name, this is a low-key and subtle film which makes a pleasing change from all the gory slashers and monster-of-the-week flicks which were doing the rounds at the time. The film is fairly slow-paced and set over the course of one fateful night, and benefits from realistically drawn characters and a highly effective score which adds to the tension. In particular, Robert Carradine's killer is not just a clear-cut unstoppable evil type, instead he's portrayed as a flawed man with a psychological defect, so the crimes he commits are not really his fault after all.The biggest flaw with I SAW WHAT YOU DID is the contrived plot, which is over complicated where it should be straightforward. This is especially true in the set-up, in which Kim and Lisa visit Adrian's house, thinking that he might be a prospective boyfriend, and Kim just happens to leave her handbag there so he can follow her to her home. I'll bet the original Castle film wasn't this unbelievable. The horror isn't graphic and the film is bloodless with the exception of a couple of supernatural "visions" that Carradine has which are shoe-horned into the plot to bolster the horror content, and consist of a woman in bad zombie makeup and that clichéd shot of hands pushing out from the inside of a wall.Taking the lead role of the teenage victim is Shawnee Smith, who is saddled with an unappealing character and is frankly poor - and was much better in THE BLOB. At least her friend Lisa - played by Tammy Lauren (WISHMASTER) - has spirit and is a more interesting character. Robert Carradine is effective as the multi-layered villain (and arsonist, giving a fun angle to the action) of the piece whilst his brother David is on hand to lend a touch of class to the proceedings as a minor investigative character. The suitably fiery climax also provides a fitting ending to the film's diluted horrors, and then there's another twist that I didn't see coming to finish off..

Coventry I assumed this was an 80's remake of the modest William Castle sleeper with the same title that came out in 1965, but apparently both movies are just based on one and the same novel by Ursula Curtiss. So, "I Saw What You Did" isn't really a remake, but merely a re-imagining. Or simply another version, if you wish. It's a fun little movie with a very simplistic but effective plot, fresh young actresses' faces and the two coolest Carradine brothers starring as actual brothers. There are some big differences between this version and the aforementioned William Castle film, but the most rudimentary plot concept naturally remained the same. Two teenage girls, whilst babysitting the younger sister of one of them, are bored senseless and decide to entertain themselves by making prank calls to randomly selected names in the phone book. They arrive at the name Adrian Lancer, but he just killed his girlfriend because she didn't want to marry him. When the girls stupidly make up a prank like "I saw what you did and I know who you are", Adrian naturally assumes that somebody witnessed the murder and goes even further out of his mind. Meanwhile the girls stupidly begin to fantasize about Adrian's voice and bizarre music and can't resist driving over to his house to catch a glimpse… "I Saw What You Did" is fun and charming, but also unmemorable, mainly because there's very few action. I personally prefer the Castle version, because there John Ireland depicts the psychopath and there's a terrific sub plot involving the creepy Joan Crawford as his sickly amorous neighbor. In this film, that particular sub plot gets replaced by Adrian Lancer's brother showing up to help keeping his violent tendencies under control. The film is competently directed by Fred Walton. That guy must really like telephone-terror, as he also made the more or less genre classic "When a Stranger Calls". I guess the absolute best thing about watching "I Saw What You Did" now is how it catapults you straight back to the glorious eighties! The girls (Shawnee Smith and Tammy Lauren) are genuine 80's beauties, with typical dress code and hair styles, and back then it was still possible to make a horror movie about ordinary old-fashioned telephones instead of gadgets like mobile phones, Skype, Caller-ID or IPods.

The_Void This film is a remake of the 1965 William Castle classic of the same title. It was made for TV, although that's not such a big problem on paper as the plot is very simple and there's not a lot of room for bloodshed anyway. The film also features a distinctly eighties style, which firmly puts the story in the time in which the film was made. Unfortunately, however, the focus of the film is spread thinly over a lot of different areas and as a result; the central plot suffers as its not fleshed out very well and the characters suffer too as we never really get to know anything about them. The plot focuses on two kids babysitting a younger one. They're bored and decide to get some kicks by making prank phone calls. The game soon gets round to "I know what you did", which involves phoning someone and simply saying that phrase. Unfortunately, however, they decide to call a Mr Adrian Lancer, a disturbed man that happens to have just murdered his wife...The original film featured the same basic plot, so to call this one unlikely and the original not would be unfair. However, the fact that the original is so much better handled means that this version really struggles to get the plot across. The big coincidence of the girls' game and the murder isn't glossed over with any kind of gimmick which makes it stand out like a sore thumb. Furthermore, the girls themselves have very little character and Robert Carradine looks bored in his role as the murderer and so doesn't bring forward any tension or suspense. The plot is played rather straight for most of the film, which means things rather just drone on and it gets tiresome quickly. Tammy Lauren stands out in her role, though that's only because of her awful eighties haircut, while Shawnee Smith is mostly incognito. It soon becomes clear that the film isn't going to present any surprises and indeed the ending is rather typical. We do finish off with a final twist that is both nonsensical and redundant. Overall, I highly recommend giving the original a look if you want a fun lightweight thriller; but don't bother tracking this version down.

Gator66 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.