Review #41: I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

The #4 of the 90's "Fab 4" franchises to put the horror movie industry back into the spot light.

Cast/Notable Credits:
Jim Gillespie (Director): Venom

Jennifer Love Hewitt (Julie): I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Can’t Hardly Wait (1998), Garfield 1 (2004), & 2 (2006), Party of Five & Ghost Whisperer T.V. series (Pictured right)

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Helen)

Ryan Phillippe (Barry): Cruel Intentions (1999), Flags of Our Fathers (2006)

Freddie Prinze Jr. (Ray): I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Wingcommander (1999), Scooby Doo 1 (2002) & 2 (2004)

Public Service Announcement #1: Don't watch Wingcommander. Even if it's gonna show the next Star Wars trailer.

Bridgette Wilson (Elsa): Billy Madison (1995), House on Haunted Hill (1999), Extreme Ops (2002)

Anne Heche (Melissa): Six Days Seven Nights (1998), Psycho (1998)

Trailer:



Four recent North Carolina high school graduates (Julie, Ray, Helen, and Barry) spend their last summer together partying, having sex on the beach, driving drunk, and hitting a dude with their car while driving drunk on a deserted highway late at night.

Public Service Announcement #2: Don’t drink and drive.

So the mysterious dude lies “dead” on the side of the road while the four teens ponder what to do with him. They consider the elements of what’s going on. First of all, they’re all drunk, which means:

1. Drinking and driving is a crime…I think it’s called something like a D.U.I.

2. They’re all underage teenagers…which translates into…they shouldn’t be drinking in the first place.

Secondly, they just hit a man and possibly killed him with a car. If you factor in that they’re drunk and throw in a possible dead man…and you get…you’re screwed.

Ray is panicking because he was driving, while Barry whines because Ray was driving his brand new car and the cops won’t believe that he wasn’t driving, Helen stands there trying to fool herself and pretend nothing happened, and Julie is the sole voice of reason who givens into peer pressure. So what should they do?

A: Call the cops and see if they could save this person’s life
B: Go with Helen’s idea: Click your heels three times and pretend nothing happen and drive off
C: Check his wallet to see if he’s loaded and leave him for dead
D: Heave his body off a boat dock into the ocean and hope the ocean current takes him away so his body never returns

If you answered option:
A: Then you’re a good citizen and the movie would have ended quickly
B: Then you’re an idiot.
C: Then you could have a great career in crime, and I applaud you.
D: Then you either wrote or directed this movie.

Take a guess on what they did? The movie continues.

Public Service Announcement #3: Don't kill people.

So they heave the body off the dock into the ocean to cover their tracks. They make a pact with each other...”no one is ever to talk about this ever.” I mean EVER!

Summer ends and Julie leaves state for college, Barry takes off to college to begin a football career, Helen moves to New York to pursue an acting career and Ray…well…he stays in town and becomes a fisherman on a boat. Go Ray. Way to exert yourself.

Flash forward one year later:

Ray and Julie have broken up with each other, dido with Helen and Barry and they all hate one another. The once I'm-so-in-love-with-you-couples-let's-have-sex-and-many-many-children-with-each-other couples now can't stand one another. Gee, I didn't see that one coming.

Public Service Announcement #4: Don’t have sex until you’re married. (Do as I say, not as I do.)

Julie returns home for the summer from college and receives an anonymous letter stating, “I Know What You Did Last Summer”. Oh my god, some one knows. So Julie tracks down the other three to find out if they sent out the note. She discovers that Helen’s career failed and now works in her sister’s clothing store, Barry is still a spoiled rich prick who has returned home for the summer, and her sweet-sweet Ray is a winner and working as a fisherman on a boat.

All of them each received a note and they don’t have a clue on who sent the note. The rest of the film they are stalked by a mysterious trench coat wearing fisherman with a mean, big ass fishing hook.

Public Service Announcement #5: If you’re being stalked by a crazed maniac and you happened to oft a dude the year before, it’s in your best interest to head out of dodge.

They are each individually picked off one by one until the mysterious fisherman figure reveals himself at the end of the movie to Julie. Doesn't Jennifer Love HugeTits look like a girl that would do something like that? (Pictured below)


Villain:

I got to admit that the bad guy was pretty creepy and brutal. For the whole movie he concealed his identity with his face hidden underneath the hood of the trench coat. Through out the movie, he patiently stalked the victims and swung a mean ole' hook at his victims. Unfortunately he didn’t kill all that many. Bummer!

Cast:

It was a typical late 90’s horror movie cast, which included many actors from popular T.V. shows. It included one of my personal favorite actresses, Sarah Michelle Gellar (Pictured left). Buffy rules! On the other hand it did have her present day hubby, Freddie Prinze Jr. What does she see in him? Come to me, Sarah…pleeeasse! I know you love me.

The rest of the cast was fairly decent. The other piece of major eye candy was Jennifer Love HugeTits. She was the main lead, the damsel in distress turned into tough, kick *ss chick.

Her "love interest" in the movie was Freddie P., and he just walked around "all mopey and puppy eyed". Didn't work for me. Maybe the ladies, but not me. Ryan Phillipe was the "tough", prick football player in the film who alienated himself from the bunch after the heaving of the old man off the dock and into the ocean.

SFX/Gore:

On the death charts, the movie simmered with a low death total. BOO! There was a total of five deaths in the movie, which for a horror movie...isn't much.

Accompanying the small body count were state of the art special effects. But that didn't really mean much with the low body count outside of them being in the cheesy category.

My favorite death was the kid in the fish locker. Let's just say he went out brutally to the hands of the fish hook. By far the worst death in the movie was: *** Spoiler *** (Highlight to read) Buffy. Never Kill Buffy. The death itself wasn't even shown in it's entirety. BOO!

TNA:

Well, along with the casting of popular television shows you get the downside affect…no boobies. Boo! You’ve got Jennifer Love HugeTits, Bridgette Wilson (Pictured Right), and the lovely Buffy. D’ya think one of them is gonna show the goods. Yeah, didn’t think so. That’s where they HAVE to cast a random chick to show the twins. Any ways…there were 2 sex acts on the beach and a total of 5 hot chicks.

Public Service Announcement #6: If you want to see boobs, then skip out on late 1990 horror movies that star popular Dawson's Creek, Party of 5, Friends or Buffy the Vampire Slayer chicks.

T.Gun's Take:

Well it was an interesting revenge story to say the least. I’m not sure how many people would actually act the way the four did in the beginning after hitting the dude with the car. I guess people could do that, but what do I know, I don’t drive home drunk. Alcohol does impair judgment. I guess alcohol = stupidity.

It was the second of many late 90’s movies to use the who-is-the-killer-keep-you-guessing tactic. So when I watched it, that tactic didn't turn me off as it would with it's overuse in future movies. If you can't come up with a cool iconic killer, then make the audience guess several hundred times on who the real killer is. It seemed to work for about...two horror movies.

I liked this movie, mostly because of eye candy. Buffy and Jenny Love HugeTits. It could have been done a little bit better (show boobies and higher body count), but overall I was satisfied with it. At the time this came out during the late 90’s, I was just glad the horror movie industry was coming back to life.

Misc. Movie Trivia:
- Film opened on October 19, 1997 and made $72.2 million at the box office ($15.8 million opening weekend)
- Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jennifer Love Hewitt auditioned for opposite roles
- Was based off a novel by Lois Duncan who wrote about her daughter’s death in 1989
- No one would pick up the script until the success of Scream