Apparently too underrated

merrywater

OK, this isn't a masterpiece of the kind, however, it has atmosphere, something that is just as important as a good plot. Having stated that, everyone knows that I mean to say that the plot is bad. It is. The main offender is simply totally unbelievable: a middle-aged fisherman of an exceptionally good physique that accounts for his übermenschlich capability to survive (1) being run over by a fast moving BMW (2) being drowned (3) being dismembered and spectacularly thrown of a ship Hell ya, this guy's a cat man with his nine lives ready at stake when two couples of airhead teenagers meet up with him. He's simply Jason, Michael Myers and the Boogeyman all in one.

Anyway, IKWDLS is well-crafted, has decent portraying of the two of the female protagonists and their family, a reasonably thorough depiction of a fishing hamlet, good music, a solid base in the 90s adolescent subculture, and atmosphere.

The opening sequence is a beautiful sweeping footage of a seashore in the sunset followed by a number of suspenseful scenes that adds to the atmosphere that I'm talking about. The entry of the killer kind of destroys it, knowing that he will arise from that dead (and the bottom of the sea) quite soon.

The title unfortunately refers to the unbelievable nicely hand written short messages that the killer (after all he's gone through) miraculously succeeds to distribute to the protagonists. I especially dislike the part of 'Missy' (a misplaced cajun type of a woman that lives in the woodlands, a kind of in-breed that appears only in order to prolong the picture) standing in her backyard chopping chicken, and then reveals her brother's alleged suicide note (written by the killer previously to the pertinent plot) from a shed just behind her! Now, why would anyone be expected to accept that someone living in a freakingly huge house would keep such a sensitive document in such a place???

Another disturbingly stupid sequence is when Jennifer Love Hewitt's character discovers a body together with some crabs in the trunk of her car, runs to fetch her friends, and when they all return the trunk is as neat as ever, despite the mess that was in it just a moment ago. Simply, an unnecessary scene that doesn't add to the story a bit.

In spite of the partly severe arguments against this picture, I still like it enough to watch it from time to time, and get nostalgic about the carefree (?) 90s...

score 7/10

merrywater 12 April 2015

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3219065/