I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

 

After the success of Scream in 1996, screenwriter Kevin Williamson became a hot name in Hollywood. In late 1997, he penned two box office hits that were released two months apart, I Know What You Did Last Summer (released on October 12, 1997) and Scream 2 (released on December 12, 1997).  I saw both movie in the theater with my friend Will and we felt a sense Deja vu while watching Scream 2 - there is a scene where the protagonist, Sidney, and her friend, Hallie, are trapped in the back of police car (after the killer has murdered the officers escorting them) and attempt an escape before the killer regains conscious. "Why does this scene look so familiar?" I asked Will.  Then we remembered that I Know What You Did Last Summer has a similar scene where Helen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is trapped in the back of police car, after the killer has murdered the officer escorting her, and she must escape before he catches up with her.  Kevin Williamson had plagiarized himself. Granted, Scream 2 ups the stakes.  A month later, Williamson would find success on television with the premiere of Dawson's Creek (I had a female classmate who was obsessed with the show and would constantly talk about how "realistic" It was).  It is interesting to note that in I Know What You Did Last Summer, the four principal characters (Julie, Helen, Barry, and Ray) go to Dawson's Beach to fornicate and engage in other debaucherous behavior.  Williamson was already looking ahead to the future.  

While the Scream movies are meta-slashers, the characters know they are in a horror movie, I Know What You Did Last Summer is a straightforward horror movie. It is Kevin Williamson's equivalent of a cinematic campfire story - there is even a scene where Ray is telling his friends a classic urban legend ("The Hook") over a bonfire. His friends dismiss his claims that "The Hook" is based off a true story, but their lives soon turn into the horror story that Ray was narrating. Like most campfire stories, there is an underlying message to I Know What You Did Last Summer - don't drink and drive. Our protagonists initially take this lesson to heart - they drove to Dawson's Beach in Barry's car, but he is so shitfaced that Ray ends up driving.  While Ray is focused on the road, Barry becomes belligerent in the back seat and ends up spilling his bottle of booze all over Ray, who gets temporarily distracted and ends up hitting a pedestrian. If Barry had not behaved like a rowdy douche nozzle, there is a good chance the four of the would have lived normal lives. The four of them debate on what to do with the body - Barry, Ray, and Helen manage to peer pressure Julie into going along with their plan of dumping the corpse into the ocean. After they have committed the deed, they make a pact to never talk about it again. 
Flash forward to a year later - Julie is on her summer break from college and reluctantly returns home - she immediately receives an anonymous note that reads, "I Know What You Did Last Summer." It turns out Helen, Barry, and Ray have also received similar letters, and they must figure out who is behind them before it is too late. 

It is apparent that Williamson's sympathies lie with his two female protagonists, Julie and Helen. Barry is an incredibly unlikable character - he has a violent temper, bullies the weak, and is dismissive towards Julie and Helen. Ray has the least amount of screentime of the four and barely registers as a character - he is assigned the thankless role of the red herring. Neither of them seems all that effected by the incident - Ray becomes a fisherman (like his father) and Barry continues to be a self-centered dipshit. 

Julie is the character we immediately sympathize with - after the accident, she wanted to go to the cops but was shot down by Ray and Barry. It is Barry and Helen who end up pushing the body into the ocean while Ray and Julie look on. This incident has haunted Julie throughout her freshman year of college - she spends most of her free time in her dorm, doesn't make any new friends (with the exception of her roommate), and struggles in her courses. It also has affected her physical appearance - she is extremely pale, has rings under her eyes, her hair is oily (due to a lack of washing) and she is very thin. She has also cut off all contact from her Helen, Barry, and Ray.  When Ray tries to have a heart to heart with Julie, she shoots him down by saying, "I don't blame you, but I don't want to know you, either." This makes sense - every time she sees Ray she is reminded of that horrible night.  

Jennifer Love Hewitt is well cast in the role of Julie; she brings such a vulnerability to the character that the audience immediately wants to protect her (well, at least the males in the audience. I can't speak for the females). It was also this movie that spawned websites devoted to Hewitt's ample cleavage. I was eighteen when this movie came out and I will admit that my attention was often focused on Hewitt's bouncing bosom - to the point that missed out on a few scares. "HUH? What just happened?" In 1997, Jennifer Love Hewitt was the IT girl for dudes my age. I know, I should be ashamed and I am... any ways, back to the review.  Julie is the intellectual one of the group - her first instinct is to unmask their stalker is and the only way to do that is by figuring out who David Egan (the guy they supposedly ran over) was. Julie is a good little two shoes at the beginning of the movie - when her nerdy classmate, Max, asks her out on a date, she is too polite to give him a full rejection and tries to give him a noncommittal answer (note to men who are reading this: if a woman responds to a question with "maybe," she means "no").  However, as the movie progresses, Julie gets tired of running from her problems and decides to face them head on, regardless of the consequences. She does make a critical mistake by doubting Ray and trusting a complete stranger, but she is much wiser person by the movie's end. 

In what was a novel idea at the time - she types David Egan's name into an online search engine and is able to pull up articles about the deceased David. She learns he was engaged to Suzie Willis, who is the daughter of Ben Willis (the man they really hit with their car and who is responsible for the threats on their lives).  Suzie was killed in a car accident and Ben blamed David for his daughter's death. He murdered David on the 4th of July and then was run over by Ray after having dumped David's body into the ocean. 

Helen is a tragic character - before the accident, her ambition was to move to New York and become an actress. She did move to New York, but she couldn't cut it in the big city and wound up back in her hometown (Southport).  She is now content with working fulltime in her father's department store; even though she is constantly hounded by her older sister, Elsa. She is the type of girl who turn heads in her small town (she is the reigning Southport beauty queen), but in New York City, she is just another face in the crowd and would have either been a waitress or a barista.  It was during this time that Sarah Michelle Gellar was starring in Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and she is cast against type as the slightly ditzy Helen (she also played on Ghostface's victims in Scream 2). However, it is actually Helen who drives most of the third act - as the reigning beauty queen she is obligated to ride on a float in 4th of July parade and crown the new beauty queen. Julie and Helen are hoping that her appearance in the parade will draw out the killer (who always wears a slicker) and then Barry can apprehend him. This plan, of course, fails and Barry is murdered in the balcony while watching the beauty contest. Helen doesn't make it either - she is only a few feet from safety when Ben Willis catches her. Like I said, Helen is the most tragic character in the movie - she begins the movie full of life and one incident (caused her dumbass boyfriend) ruins everything and, despite her best efforts, she fails to change her untimely fate. 

Though, if you go by the sequel, it seems like Julie is destined to spend the rest of her life fighting off the unkillable Ben Willis (the guy is constantly put through the ringer but always gets back up again. He is embodiment of the Chumbawamba song, "Tubthumping").  Though, if Ben Willis' main motivation is revenge, why does he murder Max and Elsa? The police officer makes sense as he is in Ben Willis' way, but he goes out of the way to murder Max and Elsa. Also, his plan requires a lot of foresight - what would he have done if Julie decided not to come home for summer break? It's also odd that he behaves less aggressively towards Ray than he does the other three. Also, how in the hell did he survive being hit by a car at a high speed and being weighed down in the ocean? He seems to be relatively unscathed by the accident - there is no noticeable limp and, other than a scar on his forehead, no disfigurements. Muse Watson, with his gravelly voice and imposing figure, is a great screen villain - it is shame that he has very little screen time (in both Last Summer movies). 

Roger Ebert very famously gave I Know What You Did Last Summer a one-star review - his biggest complaint seems to be that it was formulaic and lacked the cleverness of Scream. While Roger Ebert isn't wrong, he also ignores that it is a fairly well-made thriller - efficiently directed by Jim Gillespie, who manages to move things along at a fast pace. It also interesting to note that this was Gillespie's only major directing credit - the only other notable movie on his resume is the obscure Sylvester Stallone thriller, Eye See You.  I Know What You Did Last Summer is not a perfect horror movie, but I do have a soft spot for it - I watch it every couple of years, and it takes me back to 1997 when I was senior in high school, the Green Bay Packers were Super Bowl champs, and the world didn't seem too complicated.

Cast: Jennifer Love Hewitt (Julie James), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Helen Shivers), Ray Phillippe (Barry Cox), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Ray Bronson), Muse Watson (Ben Willis), Anne Heche (Melissa 'Missy' Egan), Bridgitte Wilson (Elsa Shivers), Johnny Galecki (Max Neurick), Deborah Hobart (Mrs. James), Stuart Greer (Officer), Jonathan Quint (David Egan).
Director: Jim Gillespie
Writer:  Kevin Williamson. Based off the Lois Duncan novel.
Running Time: 100 minutes.