I KNOW WHO KILLED ME — * — Lindsay Lohan, Julia Ormond, Neal McDonough; rated R (gore, violence, torture, profanity, sex, drugs, nudity, vulgarity); Carmike Ritz; Century South Salt Lake; Cinemark Jordan Landing; Megaplex Gateway and Jordan Commons

"I Know Who Killed Me" is painful to watch, and not just because it's another of those gruesome, "torture-porn" thrillers that have tried to repeat the inexplicable success of the gory "Saw" and "Hostel" movies.

What really pushes this gruesome and ridiculously overplotted film beyond the established limits of bad taste is the exploitation of its star, Lindsay Lohan.

No matter how you feel about the actress, watching this once-promising talent go slumming in this kind of material is grotesque — especially in light of her recent drunken-driving arrest and other self-destructive behavior.

In fact, that the studio even decided to release the film is nothing short of reprehensible.

Lohan stars as Aubrey Fleming, who's become the latest teen abducted by a serial killer. Somehow she manages to escape, though in doing so she's apparently lost one hand and part of a leg.

The detectives investigating the case (Garcelle Beauvais-Nihon and Spencer Garrett) are frustrated, because Audrey can't tell them what happened to her or give them a description of her kidnapper.

Even more bizarre is the fact that she claims she's not Aubrey. Instead, she says she's a stripper named Dakota Moss. That proves hurtful to Audrey's initially relieved parents (Julia Ormond and Neal McDonough).

Director Chris Sivertson and first-time screenwriter Jeffrey Hammond try to keep the audience guessing as to whether Audrey has retreated into some kind of delusional state, or whether she really does have a long-lost twin named Dakota.

But it's not worth the effort for the audience to figure it out. Also, the revelation of the killer is hardly a surprise and a further twist proves to be laughable.

"I Know Who Killed Me" is rated R for disturbingly graphic and gory violent imagery (scenes depicting amputations, stabbings and violence against women), scenes of torture, strong sexual language (profanity, slang and other sex talk), simulated sex and other sexual contact, drug references and usage (cocaine, barbiturates and painkillers), and some female nudity. Running time: 107 minutes.

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E-mail: jeff@desnews.com