I never finished the screenwriting advice book “Save the Cat,“ but what I did read contained a useful insight. The author advised that all great stories contain an element of irony. For instance, the Bruce Willis film “Die Hard“ could be thought of with the following question: what if a man cop dreading a meeting with his former wife, instead find himself in a far more precarious situation while trapped by terrorists in a high rise?
Basically, while fearing one situation, he finds himself in a far worse one. That’s irony, baby.
Reading that advice reminded me of a 1965 proto-slasher film I saw as a teenager. It could be summed up thusly: “What if two teenage girls prank-calling random phone numbers and saying ‘I saw what you did and I know who you are’ connect with a man who literally just murdered his wife?”
Why, that’s the most ironic premise of all!
As mentioned, I saw this years ago when I was growing up in Hawaii. There, a TV show on a UHF channel showed classic horror films, all introduced by a talking skull.
Let me fill in the premise. Our two teenage leads, Libby and Kit, play the prank, and then things escalate and they find themselves in real danger. Joan Crawford has a supporting role as a lover somewhat rejected by our killer.
It’s not a great film, and perhaps tame by today’s standards, but I was struck by how you could really see its influence on later films.
For example, a scene late in the film, when Libby is being stalked by the killer while also trying to find her missing younger sister, Tess, brought to mind Laurie Strode in “Halloween” trying to protect the young boy she is babysitting.
And the scenes of the killer, John Ireland, stalking around in the dark, bring to mind Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and any example of the lumbering villains of later slashers.
Libby, played by Andi Garrett, is an interesting character. Frankly, she’s sort of a bitch to her younger sister, and makes a lot of impetuous decisions driven by her horniness. I thought this would all set her up to be redeemed by her actions at the end. And that kind of happens, but not quite. The film was made in an era where they weren’t quite willing to give female characters the autonomy and bad ass-ery needed to save the day by themselves.
“I Saw What You Did” brought back memories for me. Viewers interested in exploring horror’s history might enjoy it.
