Review of I've Been Waiting for You (1998) by Kaylee L — 29 Jan 2008

A teenage girl named Sarah (Sarah Chalke) and her mother move to a small town in Massachussettes from Los Angeles. Sarah is immediately shunned at school for her strange interests (palm reading, wicca, contacting spirits) and weird attire. Before long she discovers that she has moved into the home of a woman who was accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake. Soon after she hears this story, kids from her school are being attacked by a masked figure with blades on one hand. Together with her friend Charlie (Ben Foster) Sarah tries to search out the truth before it's too late.

Sadly I haven't read the novel that this is based on ("Gallows Hill" by: Lois Duncan) so I cannot compare the two. However, I can say that even for made-for-TV horror, this is pretty weak. It is promoted as a slasher flick but it only has one death - the rest are just attacked and scared before being let go. That bothered me.

I wasn't a big fan of the plot - it felt like something to it was missing. This felt like a combination of "Scream" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" in a watered down format. I knew who the killer was five minutes into the film because I'd know the voice of the actor/actress anywhere - but that's just me.

Still, the performances were decent with four out of the six main actors in the film going on to do better things. Sarah Chalke is best known for her role as Elliot on Scrubs; Ben Foster is making quite a name for himself in Hollywood right now with his role as the villain in the "3:10 to Yuma" remake; Soleil Moon Frye and Maggie Lawson both have found themselves on successful TV shows as well. I think they did well with what they had to work with, it just would have been better if the writers behind this project knew how to write a decent script.

Overall it's not a bad movie, but it's not really good either. I'd wait and catch it on Lifetime around Halloween if you're interested. Watch out for a crap twist ending as well.