I Know Who Killed Me (2007)

Directed by: Chris Sivertson | 101 minutes | drama, horror, thriller, crime | Actors: Lindsay Lohan, Julia Ormond, Neal McDonough, Bonnie Aarons, Michael Adler, Garcelle Beauvais, Art Bell, Stacy Daniel, Michael Esparza, David Figlioli, Amy Fuehrer, Jane Galloway Heitz, Spencer Garrett, Brian Geraghty, Cornelia Guest, Megan Henning , Jesse Hlubik, Gregory Itzin, David A. Kimball, Theo Kypri, Paula Marshall, Brian McNamara, Kenya Moore, Jennifer O’Kain, Michael Papajohn, Colleen Porch, Jessica Rose, Rodney Rowland, Donovan Scott, Marc Senter, Will Shaffer, Raha Sheik, Eddie Steeples, Thomas Tofel, David Weisenberg, Jason Wilburn, Kaitlyn Lee, Shay Astar, Debra Christofferson, Leslie Cohen, Clint Johnson, Michelle Page, Dan Walters, Tracey Evans, Stacy Lynn Gabel, Paul Grace, Kent Kasper

Lindsay Lohan is venturing into the thriller/horror genre for the first time. The more light-hearted ‘Georgia Rule’ (2007) is followed by the dark ‘I Know Who Killed Me’ (2007). You can see her here pole dancing and stripping, yes, little girls grow up. Although it had been seen for a long time in all the gossip magazines in which Lohan has appeared. Previous films such as ‘Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen’ (2004) and ‘Mean Girls’ (2004) were very easy to digest, this film is certainly not.

It starts with flashing images of a strip club and then we find ourselves in a New Salem classroom where dark-haired Aubrey Fleming (Lohan) reads her work. She’s an imaginative writer and you wonder if the images shown might be playing in her head. School is going well, Aubrey is a normal teenager with a boyfriend and a lot of homework. But there is an ominous atmosphere and it becomes even more unpleasant when a student is found dead. Fingers and leg amputated, the work of a serial killer. Aubrey also seems to have become his victim, but suddenly she is found mutilated on the road. Once in the hospital, she claims to be someone other than Aubrey…

If ‘I Know Who Killed Me’ (2007) sounds like a B-movie, then you’re not wrong. The movie is confusing and mysterious, which could certainly work in its favor. Are we seeing Aubrey’s fantasies or could there be some truth in it? But then there must be a punch line or short explanation somewhere. Something that makes everything or at least a lot fall into place. However, a lot of questions remain unanswered, such as the backgrounds of the serial killer and Aubrey. This is not the reward the viewer deserves.

For the twist that the makers added at the end, they should have planted the seeds better during the film. M. Night Shyamalan is the master of this, in ‘The Sixth Sense’ (1999) and ‘The Village’ (2004). There is a clear build-up in those films towards a perhaps unexpected ending. Here things rattle on all sides, while there is a lot of potential in the story. You don’t get much wiser from ‘I Know Who Killed Me’, you are at most shocked by the gruesome images, especially when Aubrey is in the hands of the serial killer. And the roles they’ve given actors like Julia Ormond from ‘Legends of the Fall’ (1994) and Neal McDonough from the TV series ‘Medical Investigation’ (2004) are scant. What they get to do, however, touches you and Lohan also acts quite nicely. She gets to indulge in a darker role as a smoking stripper. After all the sweet roles, she may not be that convincing in this capacity. But that doesn’t matter the least. A bad script kills this movie. There is no need for a serial killer to be involved.