It's hard to believe that it's been 25 years since I Know What You Did Last Summer was first released to theatres. I was in High School at the time it came out putting me in a prime demographic for this film, released just as the teen slasher flick was having it's renaissance in the late 90's thanks to Scream. In fact, I am surprised I haven't covered this one on my blog yet, but I indeed have not.
In the small fishing village of Croaker, North Carolina, four friends, Julie James (played by Jennifer Love Hewett), Barry Cox (played by Ryan Phillipe), Helen Shivers (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Ray Bronson (played by Freddie Prinze, Jr.), are celebrating the Fourth of July alone on a secluded beach. They share ghost stories around a camp fire, specifically the urban legend of the escaped mental patient with a hook for a hand. While driving back to town, a drunken Barry distracts Ray, who is driving, causing them to accidentally hit a pedestrian. Panicking and fearing this could ruin their futures, they panic and decide to dump the body off a nearby dock. After, they make a pact to never tell anyone what happened that night. A year later, Julie returns from college. She is withdrawn and has been struggling with school. She has lost contact with the other three over the past year. However, she quickly tracks them down when she receives an anonymous note reading: I Know What You Did Last Summer. Initially, they suspect a former classmate, Max (played by Johnny Galecki), but it becomes clear it isn't him when a mystery assailant dressed in a fisherman slicker and hat starts tormenting each one of them to make them pay for their past misdeeds.
The film was directed by Jim Gillespie from a script by Kevin Williamson, and is very loosely based on a novel by Lois Duncan. I say that because aside from the initial premise and the characters, the movie and book bear little similarity to one another. The biggest change is that the movie is a full on slasher movie with an actual body count, with the Fisherman character stalking our characters with a large, sharp meat hook. This proved to be a controversial change, especially with Lois Duncan who hated the idea of her novel being turned into a cheap slasher flick. Except, the film actually works well mixing in elements of mystery and thriller elements while downplaying explicit gore (there is actually very little in the movie). The writing is sharp, as one would expect from Kevin Williamson, with witty dialogue and tight plotting as the four characters try to figure out the identity of their tormentor, especially as the attacks on them escalate. I appreciated the morality play aspect of the film as well, the way it turns the screws on these four that committed a crime and their past sins come back to haunt them a year later. Of course, this plot point prevents them from going to the police too so it falls to them to try and save themselves.
For the main cast, they assembled four of the then hottest up and coming actors. Jennifer Love Hewitt gives Julie the perfect mix of vulnerability and strength. Julie is the voice of reason for the group and Hewitt portrays that wonderfully. She even makes one of the silliest moments in the movie, when Julie stands in the middle of the road yelling to the unseen killer, "What are you waiting for?!", work so well it is kind of awesome. Sarah Michelle Gellar has a trickier role as Helen, since her character is a recently crowned beauty queen, has a bit of an ego and has some bitchier tendencies, yet Gellar is able to still make her character likable. She is at her best when she is investigating with Hewitt, trying to figure out the identity of not only their attacker but the person they hit that night. She also has one of the all time great chase scenes towards the end of the movie between her and the killer that ranks among the best in the genre. Ryan Phillipe's role as Barry is another tricky role as his character is snob, a hothead and reckless to a fault. In short, he's a bit of an asshole. Still, Phillipe brings enough charm to the character to keep him compelling even when he's not particularly likable. Freddie Prinze, Jr. does reasonably well as Ray, who has to play many of his scenes two ways, as both the friendly Ray, but also possibly as the one who is actually their mysterious tormentor as the film tries to make him a viable suspect, except I never really bought into it as a viewer myself. Anne Heche turns up for a couple scenes as a potential suspect Julie and Helen talk to in the film and she gives her performance a certain edge of menace and mystery that make her character memorable.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that this movie is actually 25 years old now. It was certainly popular when it came out, staying at #1 at the Box Office for three weeks. It spawned two sequels, neither of which were as good as this one (although I Still Know What You Did Last Summer does have it's moments). It also has a TV series remake on Amazon Prime that I never bothered to watch because everyone told me it was terrible. Still, on it's own, as I rewatched the movie again on 4K Blu-Ray, I feel like time has been kind to this one. It still works as a very entertaining horror thriller all these years later. What more can you ask for than that?
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