I Know Who Killed Me is a 2007 American psychological thriller film directed by Chris Sivertson from a screenplay by Jeff Hammond. It stars Lindsay Lohan as a young woman who is abducted and tortured by a sadistic serial killer. After surviving the abduction, she insists that her identity is that of another woman. Julia Ormond, Neal McDonough, Brian Geraghty, Garcelle Beauvais, Spencer Garrett and Bonnie Aarons appear in supporting roles.
The film received intense negative media coverage during production and upon its release, as Lohan publicly struggled with addiction and other personal issues. Filming took place mostly in California, from December 2006 to March 2007. It was theatrically released in the United States by TriStar Pictures on July 27, 2007. It was promptly deemed a failure and called one of the worst films ever made, being the most awarded at the 28th Golden Raspberry Awards, winning seven of eight nominations. The film did, however, attain a more successful home video performance, having almost quadrupled its U.S. box office gross in estimated domestic DVD sales.
I Know Who Killed Me subsequently developed a cult following that has reexamined it as a modern giallo and several screenings of it have been put together by historic theaters and film festivals.
Plot The quiet suburb of New Salem is being terrorized by a serial killer who abducts and tortures young women, holding them captive for weeks before murdering them. Aubrey Fleming, a pianist and aspiring writer, appears to be his latest victim when she disappears during a night out with her friends. She is later seen bound and gagged on an operating table as her hands are exposed to dry ice. As the days tick by, the special FBI Task Force convened to track the killer begins to lose hope of finding her before it's too late.
Late one night, a driver discovers a young woman by the side of a deserted road, disheveled and seriously wounded, with one of her hands and legs amputated. The girl, who looks identical to Aubrey, is rushed to the hospital, where Aubrey's distraught parents, Susan and Daniel, wait by her side as she slips in and out of consciousness. When she is finally able to speak, she shocks everyone by claiming to be a down-on-her-luck stripper named Dakota Moss. Convinced Aubrey is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, her doctors, parents, and law enforcement officials can only wait for rest and therapy to restore her memory. But after returning to her parents' suburban home, she continues to insist she is not who they think she is.
An FBI psychologist believes Dakota to be a delusional persona of Aubrey, and the agents speculate that the persona functions to distance and protect Aubrey from the events that happened. Examining Aubrey's laptop, they discover a short story about a girl with an identical twin sister named Dakota. In addition, a DNA test confirms that Dakota is Aubrey. Nonetheless, Dakota explains away her injuries to the police, recollecting a series of bizarre events that happened before she arrived in town. She begins to suspect she may be Aubrey's identical twin sister and comes to believe her injuries are sympathetic resonance with her twin's wounds, manifesting in a stigmata-like fashion. However, Susan shows Dakota a video of her pregnancy ultrasound clearly revealing there was only one fetus in her womb. Dakota confronts Daniel, who eventually admits that his and Susan's child died shortly after birth and that he informally adopted Aubrey from Virginia Sue Moss (another character that appears in Aubrey's short story), a crack addict who bore twin daughters — one of whom was Dakota, who was left to be raised by her biological mother. Susan has remained unaware of this for all of Aubrey's life.
Confused and terrified, Dakota starts seeing visions of a menacing figure slowly butchering his captive. One of these visions leads her to a nearby cemetery. After investigating the grave of Aubrey's recently murdered friend, Jennifer Toland, Dakota finds a blue ribbon from a piano competition, with a message from Jennifer's (and Aubrey's) piano teacher, Douglas Norquist. She is followed by Daniel and declares, "I know who killed me."
The two go, without FBI backup, to Norquist's home to confront him. Daniel heads into the house alone, leaving a panicking Dakota in the car. Attempting to calm herself, Dakota calls out to her twin, Aubrey, who is buried, to keep breathing slowly, as their lives are linked together. Dakota enters the house, attacks Norquist in self-defense, and cuts off his hand. She finds Daniel on the verge of death, having been clearly overpowered by Norquist. Dakota is also overpowered and tied up. Confused, Norquist asks why she has returned and exclaims that he buried her (referencing an earlier vision Dakota had). Dakota frees herself, kills Norquist, and heads into the nearby woods, finding where he supposedly buried Aubrey alive. Using her prosthetic hand, she smashes the front of the glass coffin that Norquist buried Aubrey in, revealing her barely alive in a white dress. This seemingly verifies Dakota's version of events. Relieved to have found and rescued her long-lost twin, Dakota lies on the ground next to her.
Cast Lindsay Lohan as Aubrey Fleming / Dakota Moss Julia Ormond as Susan Fleming Neal McDonough as Daniel Fleming Brian Geraghty as Jerrod Pointer Garcelle Beauvais as Agent Julie Bascome Spencer Garrett as Agent Phil Lazarus Gregory Itzin as Dr. Greg Jameson Jessica Lee Rose as Marcia Megan Henning as Anya Bonnie Aarons as Fat Teena Kenya Moore as Jazmin Rodney Rowland as Kenny Scalfe Eddie Steeples as Saeed the prosthetic tech Thomas Tofel as Douglas Norquist
Production Before filming, Lohan took pole-dancing lessons to prepare for her role as a stripper, stating: "I've been in pole dancing lessons, S Factor by Sheila Kelley, every day for four hours. I have bruises all over." Filming dates took place between December 2006 and March 2007. Principal photography was mostly held in California. In the first week of production, filming was halted after Lohan was hospitalized, her representative saying "she was overheated and dehydrated." Production stayed halted soon after as Lohan underwent appendix surgery.
Filming was soon then delayed even longer after the incision was infected and the filmmakers were waiting for a doctor's approval for Lohan to continue working. This all occurred around the same time Lohan admitted herself to the Wonderland Center rehabilitation facility for a 30-day stay. During the stay she continued shooting the film, returning to the facility at night.* Sivertson claimed that production "never lost any shooting days because of rehab," with Lohan declaring she drew from what she was personally experiencing to tackle some of the film's darker themes. Because of all the media attention Lohan was receiving, she could not even walk to her trailer without the paparazzi photographing her. Sometimes they would even end up in the background of some shots of the film.
Sivertson talked about his experience directing the film saying, "I was happy as hell to get my hands on the script. It's exactly the kind of thing I'm into. Stylistically I guess you could say the influence is Hitchcock filtered through De Palma and Lynch. There were echoes of some of my favorite movies in the script - stuff like Vertigo, Dressed to Kill, Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet," continuing that he wanted the movie "to play both as a dark psychological thriller and as a surreal fairy tale. I went for a very bright poppy look with saturated colors, particularly blues and reds." He concluded, "Love it or hate it, it's stuff that I wanted to see on the big screen and now I can. That makes me happy."
Sivertson stated about casting Lohan: "We needed someone who could play complete opposites... but not in a clichéd way. The movie really rests on Lindsay's shoulders." Likewise, producer Mancuso Jr.'s only concern in casting Lohan was whether the actress, best known for roles in family comedies and teen flicks, could continue making the transition and play more adult-oriented characters, admitting, "It was a risk, but it didn't scare me because I felt like she wouldn't do this unless she was willing to go for it."
Before the release, Lohan admitted to being apprehensive about taking on the role and people's reception: "Yeah, it kind of fucked my head up a little bit, just because it was so intense. Chris Sivertson is a fucking genius. We made a deal that I will do any film he wants me to do." After they enjoyed working together on the film, Lohan and Sivertson were in talks to team up for another horror movie titled Hippy, which did not materialize. She continued, "I don't think there has been a role for an actress like this movie was for me in so long. At first I was like 'I can't do this, I'm getting my leg cut off. I don't want to look like that in scenes, I want to look decent!' But that was just me being young and stupid," expressing her motive behind doing the movie wanting people to finally see her as an actress again, "I just pray people won't rip me apart for it, and be negative." In July 2007, Lohan was arrested for driving under the influence, which prevented her from doing promotion for the film, including its premiere event and a scheduled appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Potential director's cut In 2019, Sivertson revealed the existence of a three-and-a-half-hour-long director's cut, disclosing, "[...] To a lot of people it doesn't make sense. And there were a lot of plot scenes, especially a lot of investigative FBI stuff, that were just totally cut out of the movie. [...] I was more interested at the time with just the weirdness of it all."
Release Home media The DVD and Blu-ray versions were released on November 27, 2007 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The art cover of the DVD shows Lohan, in blue, pole-dancing, with the faces of her alter egos Aubrey Fleming and Dakota Moss on either side. Among the extras are alternate opening and ending scenes with the latter showing that the entire plot was actually written by the Aubrey character. Other extras include an extended version of Lohan's strip dance at the club and bloopers. By January, the DVD had grossed $11.99 million. The Region 2 DVD was released January 28, 2008, with different cover art showing a close-up of Lohan, in red, doing her pole-dance at the strip club. In the United States, the film has grossed over $28 million in estimated DVD sales. A Walmart exclusive Bonus Disc DVD was also included upon release, featuring two short documentaries with cast and crew interviews.
Soundtrack
The score for I Know Who Killed Me, composed by Joel McNeely, was released on July 24, 2007. It drew comparisons to the television mystery scores by Billy Goldenberg and received almost unanimously positive reviews from film music critics, with James Southall of Movie Wave saying the "unexpectedly classy score seems to go beyond the call of duty" and Clark Douglas of Movie Music UK rating it 5 stars and calling it "one of the year's best scores, a must-have for those who are willing to take a trip into a deep, dark, and sometimes terrifying musical world."
"Prelude for a Madman" "Duality" "Fairytale Theme" "A Daughter Is Dead" "End of Innocence/Aubrey Is Gone" "A Mother's Grief" "Search for Aubrey" "The Bus Stop" "Spontaneous Bleed" "Going Home" "Jennifer's Room" "Some People Get Cut" "Investigating Stigmata" "The Mirror" "The Graveyard" "I Know Who Killed Me" "The House" "Dad Dies" "Death of Norquist" "Prelude/Reunited" "Valse Brillante, Op. 34, No. 2 in A Minor"
Reception Box office