[I Know How Many Runs You Scored Last Summer]
Plot:A cricket team are dismissed by a moustached serial killer with a razor sharp cricket glove and an arsenal of sharpened stumps. One by one the killer exacts revenge for the torment he endured 20 years earlier.

Cast:Az Jackson, Jai Koutrae, Stacey Edmonds, Phil Phillips, David Gambin, Ben Paul Owens, Aaron Scully, Alex Sideratos, James Winter, Sarah Linton, Brendan Arlington, Arianna Starr.

My Thoughts:Swing and a miss!

Review:Aussie horror has comeout swinging these past few years. But it's missed too many times to count. To be honest, Aussie horror has flopped more time than a goldfish taken out of it's bowl. It's latest failure, "I Know How Many Runs You Scored Last Summer". A slasher film where a masked-killer stalks cricket jocks wielding sharpened wooden sticks, a cricket paddle, and a cricket ball with nails in it. Sounds cool enough right? It sounded cool to me. I honestly expected something similar to "Shaun Of The Dead" in terms of overall look, and budget.

But this movie is one of the few that actually suffers from a way-too-indie look, and an outback setting. The aussie accents are also extremely annoying, not sure if it was because they were too heavy, or too poorly done, or all of the above. But I honestly couldn't stand them. Anyways, this movie moves like our slasher films here in the U.S.A. do. The set up is, a mad killer stalking a select group, the group of assholes, because they're cricket players and jocks, so yeah....assholes.

Two detectives, who you know will fail miserably, are assigned to the case. And the killers motive is vengeance for a cruel, mean, and cold-hearted deed done to him by said cricket jocks 20 years earlier. Got all that? It can't get anymore american than this. Of course, I think an american version of this movie would've ben atleast funnier. This movie tries to be funny, but fails, Tries to be humorous, but fails. It's just failure all around. The kills are bloody, and brutal. That's about the only positive this film has to go on.

But slasher movies, despite what people tell you, can't just survive on blood, guts, and death alone. They need atleast one likeable character to root for. This film had none. I was rooting for the one woman in the movie, because she seemed nice enough, and was a chick. But when you're relegated to rooting for one character who isn't the killer out of necessity, that's a bad sign about any film. The killers motive is also pretty lame. What was done to him 20 years earlier doesn't come close to being as bad as some of the stuff we've seen in our slasher movies, e.g. people being run over, and then dumped into a nearby lake while still alive.

So when he goes on a murder spree, it just seems so yawn worthy. There was one interesting thing about the killer though. He was a pretty good hand-to-hand fighter. And I guess since this is a film that scores so low with me, I can give them points for not making the killer so reliant on his weapons. Truth be told, the killer here in this film manages to subdue his victims via a physicla fight, before he gets to the stabbing, beating, slicing, or dicing. But some viewers might find this unbelievable considering the killers frail and thin frame.

And how he can overpower a group of guys who are in some cases three times bigger than he is. At any rate, that's about as positive as this movie gets. The death scenes aren't anything special either. They are graphic, but were missing that certain spark that they needed to really wow someone who's watching this 80 minute slasher flick. I didn't get any chills or thrills from these demises, and you also have to wonder in a few scenes, how cricket players can't outrun this guy.

I mean they spend most of their lives running around a field hitting a ball for crying out loud. There is a twist to this movie, but it's a double-edged sword. The twist has a little predictable in it, but also a little unpredictable in it as well. But it works none the less, and gives the films ending some much needed juice. In fact, I'd say the films final 10 minutes is when it really picks up, and manages to conclude things on a decent note. Still though, what came before it is so uninspiring that it just cannot be ignored.

Slasher movies are supposed to be thrilling, entertaining, suspenseful, and a real adrenaline-rush, or atleast a moderate one. "IKHMRYSLS" is none of these things. It's a slasher movie without the pizazz, the spark, the flare, the spice, which it needed to be efficiently entertaining. I'd recommend passing on it, unless you're a slasher nut and will enjoy anything with a stalk and kill premise.

Positives:The brutality was at a high level, and the final 10 minutes were productive.

Negatives:No likeable characters, very annoying and outright intolerable characters, a script which was too by-the-book and cliche, a killer who wasn't believable in motive or anything else really. And most importantly, the film didn't entertain or thrill one bit.

Overall:One and a half stars out of four.





( Talk about it in the Forums!)



( Back to the main page)