I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) Columbia/Horror-Thriller RT: 101 minutes Rated R (strong horror violence and language) Director: Jim Gillespie Screenplay: Kevin Williamson Music: John Debney Cinematography: Denis Crossan Release date: October 17, 1007 (US) Cast: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Freddie Prinze Jr., Johnny Galecki, Bridgette Wilson, Anne Heche, Muse Watson. Box Office: $72.5M (US)/$126M (World)
Rating: ***
The slasher (or “Dead Teenager”) film, thought to be all but extinct by 1990, came back with a hilarious vengeance with Wes Craven’s 1996 self-aware satire Scream. It was a brilliant goof on a genre defined by a specific set of rules and the idiotic characters who break them at every turn. It made a lot of money and opened the door for a revival of bloody horror movies populated by dim teens.
The first out of the gate was I Know What You Did Last Summer, a mostly effective, non-satirical horror-thriller written by Scream scribe Kevin Williamson. It was his involvement that got the studio in hot water. In order to build anticipation, Columbia included the tagline “From the creator of Scream” on the poster in the beginning stage of their marketing campaign. Miramax, the distributor of Scream, quickly filed a lawsuit claiming it to be misleading as it suggested Craven’s involvement. Williamson himself asked that it be removed as well. A federal judge subsequently ordered Columbia to remove the offending tagline from all advertising.
Loosely based on the 1973 novel by Lois Duncan, I Know What You Did Last Summer centers on four teens- brainy Julie (Hewitt, Party of Five), beauty queen Helen (Gellar, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), d-bag jock Barry (Phillippe, Cruel Intentions) and decent guy Ray (Prinze, She’s All That)- with a terrible secret. While drunkenly celebrating July 4, they accidentally hit a pedestrian while driving recklessly on a dark road. Believing him to be dead, they decide to cover up their misdeed by dumping the body in the ocean lest their futures be destroyed. The problem is the victim isn’t completely dead. They throw his body in the water anyway then make a vow never to speak of it again.
One year later, the secret has taken its toll on Julie, a pale shell of her former self. Wracked with guilt, she shut down emotionally after that fateful night. She comes home from college for the first time in a year only to be asked by her mother if she’s on drugs. Then she receives a letter that rocks her world. It’s a note consisting of seven words. Can you guess what they might be? Here’s a wee hint, look at the title. Understandably freaked, she decides to track down her former friends and warn them somebody knows what they did last summer.
The incident has affected the others as well. Helen, who was going to pursue an acting career in New York, is still in town working in the family store. Her ex Barry is still a giant a**hole. Julie’s ex Barry works as a fisherman. It soon becomes clear somebody is stalking them, but who?
While they try to solve the mystery, somebody in a slicker is offing people with a hook. Now you’d think that somebody dressed like that would stand out, right? Not in this case. The action takes place in a coastal fishing town in North Carolina. Lots of people wear rain slickers and there’s no shortage of hooks. Go to the dock and you’ll see lots of people wearing such attire.
I Know What You Did Last Summer is directed by Jim Gillespie making his feature film debut. His resume includes the DTV Sylvester Stallone actioner Eye See You (2002, aka D-Tox) and the 2005 horror Venom. It not only got the slasher genre going again, it also gave rise to horror movies (e.g. Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later, The Faculty) featuring actors from WB/CW teen dramas (e.g. Dawson’s Creek, 7th Heaven, etc.). It’s one of the better ones. Gillespie infuses it with plenty of suspense, throws in a few good jump-scares and splashes a little blood on it. And when I say little, I mean it. That’s the one thing I didn’t like about these late 90s horror movies. Where’s the gore? That, of course, is a rhetorical question. These films are really meant to be date movies. Scary enough that the girl will cling closer to the guy, but not gory enough to make her puke up her popcorn and Diet Coke all over him.
Hewitt delivers a surprisingly good performance as Julie, the one affected the most by the incident. She’s the only one who wanted to call the police when it happened, but she was outvoted not to mention intimidated by Barry the bully. She realistically portrays a girl consumed by guilt. She’s emotionally closed off and completely freaked out at the same time. The scene where she finally loses it (“WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, HUH? WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOOOOORRRR?!”) is cathartic for both her and the audience.
Phillippe is completely convincing as an arrogant, entitled sociopath who bullies his way through every situation. He’s the nightmare high school boyfriend who typically gets dumped shortly after graduation. Gellar is pretty good as the popular, pretty girl who always got by on her looks. Prinze does decently as Julie’s nice guy ex who still likes her even if she doesn’t want to be around him. A solid supporting cast includes Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory), Anne Heche (Volcano) and Bridgette Wilson (Billy Madison).
I Know What You Did Last Summer is a decent teen horror flick, but it would be been more interesting if Gillespie spent a little more time exploring how the incident affected all four principals. He treats it in too superficial a manner. We see that it made Julie an emotional wreck. What about the others? Obviously, it doesn’t matter much to Barry because he’s clearly a narcissist who cares only about himself. We gets hints of what it did to Helen (she can’t move on with her life) and Ray (he feels guilty), but it gets no deeper than that.
I Know What You Did Last Summer benefits from a cool soundtrack and great cinematography by Denis Crossan. The opening shot has the camera dramatically swooping high above a stormy sea and coming to rest on a lonely figure sitting on a cliff overlooking the water. It sets the exact right mood of dread and gloom. If there’s one thing this movie doesn’t lack, it’s atmosphere. It has a good story, replete with a twist or two, to go with it. Ultimately, it’s a fun ride for teens who, unlike the ones in Scream, haven’t seen too many horror movies.
