I've Been Waiting For You

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Directed by Christopher Leitch

Written by Duane Poole from a book by Lois Duncan

Starring Sarah Chalke, Soleil Moon Frye and Markie Post


This TV movie is based on a novel called ‘Gallow’s Hill’ written by Lois Duncan, who also wrote the novel ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’. Duncan, whose 18-year-old daughter Kaitlyn Arquette was found dead in her car with a gunshot wound to her head, apparently dislikes the film version of that novel, believing that it encourages such violence. The killer of her daughter has never been apprehended.

Christopher Leitch, the director here, wrote the screenplay for the mindless Dolph Lundgren / Jean-Claude Van Damme action film ‘Universal Soldier’, but most of his work has been as a director, mainly of TV movies and shows. His other work includes a remake of the 1973 Kate Jackson / Cheryl Ladd film ‘Satan’s School For Girls’, with Shannon Doherty and Julie Benz taking on the lead roles – plus a cameo appearance by Kate Jackson. If only it was available on DVD!

‘I’ve Been Waiting For You’ is a modern day story of witchcraft. It stars Sarah Chalke (after her days in ‘Roseanne’, but before ‘Scrubs) alongside Soleil Moon Frye. She had previously been one of the leads with Sarah Michelle Gellar in the aborted 1989 teen magazine show ‘Girl’s Talk’. Only the pilot episode was ever made, as far as I know. She subsequently featured in three seasons of ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch’. Markie Post, who I have long had a soft spot for, plays the mother of Sarah Chalke’s character.

As far as plot goes, ‘I’ve Been Waiting For You’ is basically a kind of variation of ‘I Married A Witch’ without the comedy. It doesn’t have any great artistic merit and the holes in the plot are the size of giant meteor craters, but it’s just great fun. I love witchcraft type stuff and the absence of distracting special effects, offal and buckets of fake blood makes for a pleasant change.

If nothing else, the film is worth watching for the hilarious sequence when the ‘witch’ chases an intended victim through the woods.



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