I Know Who Killed Me

  • Review Date: November 26, 2007
  • R
  • Genre: Horror
  • 2007
 Review

Common Sense Media says

Awful Lindsay Lohan serial killer movie; beware!
greenON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
yellowPAUSE: Know your child; some content
may not be right for some kids.
redOFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
not for kidsNOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age.

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Quality
 
Sometimes media can be age appropriate but a real waste of time. Our star rating assesses the media's overall quality.

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Parents say

Kids say

What parents need to know

Parents need to know that this Lindsay Lohan movie is emphatically not for kids. She plays a stripper who becomes involved in a serial murder case, appearing not only in pole-dancing scenes and scenes where she drinks and smokes cigarettes, but also in very violent scenes. This imagery includes bloody dismemberment, bondage, fights, a chase in a dark house, a creepy basement with prosthetic legs hanging from the ceiling, and a couple of dead parents discovered by high-school-aged children. Sexual imagery includes pole-dancing, lap-dancing, and much writhing on stage, as well as a sex scene between Dakota and Jerrod (all close-ups, with moaning, as her "mother" overhears from the kitchen downstairs). The strippers and their clients smoke cigarettes and drink hard liquor. Language includes frequent use of "f--k."

  • Terrible throughout: serial killer tortures and dismembers his victims; stripper drinks, smokes, and has indiscriminate sex; "good" schoolgirl flirts with seedy-looking gardener; father lies to daughter and wife; cops are threatening and slow on the uptake.
  • Extreme violence and frequent discussion of violence: serial killer in the news dismembers victims (bloody, explicit images of fingers frozen in dry ice so they turn black, then cut off), Dakota appears without arm and leg (especially bloody in her nightmare version), Aubrey screams and cries while she's tortured (close-ups of her face), search party for missing Aubrey recalls TV news. Dakota discovers her mother's dead body (overdosed, grisly blue/black, with flies buzzing). Dakota's wounds-by-osmosis are displayed overtly (bloody and gaping), as are images she finds on the net illustrating a concept called "Stigmata Twins." Fight between Aubrey and serial killer includes slamming, hitting, falling, bondage, a hand sawed off, and a throat cut, all producing lots of blood.
  • Film opens with, then repeats periodically repeats images of Dakota dancing in strip club (usually close-up, in red light, slow motion, and lingerie, pole-dancing and writhing); she rubs a customer's cigarette along her thigh, then he smells it. Strip club scenes show other women's naked breasts and lap-dancing. Aubrey kisses her boyfriend, also flirting with lawn-man (he holds up branch to simulate an erection and she shows off her tightly-clad form). Discussions of sex include high school girls ("popping out babies"), science class ("female reproductive organs"), Aubrey and Jerrod ("Is that all I am to you?"), Dakota and Jerrod (she uses "f--k" in her conversation). Repeated shots of cleavage, discussion of condoms (as the basis of a ruse played on FBI agents).
  • Foul language includes at least 18 uses of "f--k," plus a few instances of "s--t," "hell," and "goddamn."
  • Lexus, Ask.com, Wikipedia.
  • Heavy smoking and drinking by Dakota, her strip club boss, and clients at the strip club. Dakota says she was "raised by a crack addict."

What's the story?

In I KNOW WHO KILLED ME, high school student (Lindsay Lohan) Aubrey finds her perfect suburban life in New Salem disrupted by a serial killer who preys on girls much like her. Under increasing pressure to be a success, maintains an admirable distance from her football star boyfriend Jerrod (Brian Geraghty) while also flirting with the lawn-man (whose salacious solicitation in the driveway is embarrassingly corny). Such effort to keep chaste is for naught, however, when Aubrey is snatched by the killer and tied up in his basement, where he proceeds to torture her mercilessly. She screams and groans a lot. Several worried-parents scenes later, Aubrey seems to reappear by the side of a road, minus an arm, a leg, and her memory. She insists that her name is Dakota, that she's a stripper who grew up with a crackhead mother, and that she has no idea how she was injured: Her limbs were "just gone." Aubrey's mom and dad don't believe this, and neither do a couple of FBI agents (Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon and Spencer Garrett) and a shrink (Gregory Itzin, who played President Logan in 24, and so looks immediately suspicious). But even when they badger her, Dakota resists righteously ("You're going to use me as bait unless I cooperate?"). Insisting she's right, she sets off on her own, pursuing hunches, tracking keywords on the Internet, and suddenly believing that she has a missing twin sister whose life she must save.


Is it any good?

 

The film's banal premise that leads to an egregiously violent and incoherent plot. While much unkind fun has been made of Lohan's off-screen drama, Chris Sivertson's movie indicates that she's made at least one very bad professional decision too (this even though her performance in the film, playing two characters, is fine).

And as preposterous as the plot sounds, the film's structure is worse, at once clichhd and outrageous: flashbacks to Dakota's pole-dancing days are shot through a red filter and in slow motion; the FBI agents' dialogue is clumsy and obvious ("The cutting is about punishment," says one, stating the obvious, "but [the killer] doesn't like the dying part"); and cuts between one scene and another make little sense (Dakota and Aubrey's dad have a showdown in one moment, then set off on an ill-advised rescue mission in the next). While it's clear enough that the murderer is psychotic, the movie leaves you wondering about everyone else as well.


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What families can talk about

Families can talk about this film role as a choice for Lindsay Lohan, who is trying to make a transition from Disney films and kids' parts into more mature fare: How does this film help or hurt that transition? What sorts of movies should she be making? Does her party girl image overshadow her acting talents? Should young actors have to be role models?


This review was written by Cynthia Fuchs
Parent of 2, 6, 8, 12, 13, and 17 year old
April 29, 2011
 
Perfect for the whole family
They say words like Fu** in it but i would be fine if my kids said that they've all seen this movie and think it's perfect for children. My son Erkle thinks she's sooooo hot! best movie ever!!!

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Adult
April 9, 2008
 
I Know Who Killed Me (Iz A Brainteaser)
i think the movie is ok. Sure there are some (some-what) inaproprate scenes in it but the concept of the movie was good. I just did'nt understand what was up with the guy who was on the bus because when dakota was dreaming he was the angel in the dream. saying "there is always a half to everythin good and bad, love and hate,ect"

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Kid, 12 years old
February 16, 2009
 
Not the Lindsay Lohan Movie I Wanted to See
Okay, I love Lindsay Lohan and I got this movie in hopes that I would be able to see her in a new kind of role which she hasn't done before and I was right - But in a bad way. The story line is very good I think, but the movie was watered down by too much sex and far too much nudiy. The reasons younger kids should not see it is because of: Bloody images, dismemberment, female nudiy in many of the scenes, and strong language. I think I would have been able to enjoy it myself, but the way it turned out had far too much nudiy for me.

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Teen, 16 years old
April 9, 2008
 
i think under 12 13 14 +
i think its ok

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Kid, 13 years old
April 9, 2008
 
a stiped gory movie dicpiton torrcher porn

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Parent of 8 year old
August 18, 2009
 
The movie is just plain terrible. The acting isn't that good. The ending was also bad. It was like reading a book and then having the book snatched away and then being left to wonder, "Ok, what happened next?" I was disappointed. I usually like movies with Lindsey Lohan. But this is definitely the worst I've seen.

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Adult
April 9, 2008
 

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Adult
April 9, 2008
 
i liked it that girl was smoking hot in the movie

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This review was written by Cynthia Fuchs
Studio:Columbia Tristar
Director:Chris Sivertson
Cast:Julia Ormond, Lindsay Lohan, Neal McDonough
Genre:Horror
Run time:105 minutes
Theatrical release date:July 27, 2007
DVD release date:November 27, 2007
MPAA rating:R
MPAA explanation:grisly violence including torture and disturbing gory images, and for sexuality, nudity and language.

This review was written by Cynthia Fuchs
 

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ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids.
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