I Know What You Did Last Summer
3.5/4
Starring: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Ryan Phillipe, Anne Heche, Bridgette Wilson
Rated R for Strong Horror Violence and Language
All throughout my life, there was no movie I was dying to see more than "I Know What You Did Last Summer." I was constantly begging my parents to let me see it. Ask them if you don't believe me. Looking back, I'm glad they had the good sense to keep my fourth grade self from seeing a slasher movie, but there you have it. It's really not that hard to see why it appealed to me. The trailer was awesome, the poster looked seriously mysterious, and let's face it, that's a hell of a great title.
It's July in a fishing village on the east coast. Julie James (Hewitt) is celebrating her friend Helen Shivers (Gellar) as the new beauty queen. They and their two boyfriends, rich snob Barry Cox (Phillipe) and local boy Ray Bronson (Prinze, Jr.) are going out partying on the beach. On the way home drunk Barry (who at least has the good sense to let Ray drive...under protest, but there you have it) decides to stand in the sunroof and be an asshole. He splashes his liquor all over the car. That's he sees someone standing in the road, but when he shouts "Look out!" it's too late. The car smashes into a man who is now lying crumpled in the middle of the road. Unwilling to throw their futures away, these four friends reluctantly decide to throw the body off a pier. One year later, they realize that you can run from your past, but there are some secrets that just won't die.
There are a few things that push "I Know What You Did Last Summer" to the top echelon of slasher movies (more on the genre later). First is that it has a strong story with an interesting subtext. Whodunits are always interesting because they leave you hungering for answers. The film is based on a story by teen thriller guru Lois Duncan, and it's a good story. But there's something Duncan and screen scribe (whose script was put into production almost immediately after "Scream" became a massive hit) Kevin Williamson add to the production that beefs up the plot and makes the characters more identifiable. The story shows, without pretension or drawing out the story needlessly, how trauma and guilt can warp personalities and destroy relationships. Before the accident, these four were close friends with their own plans and dreams for the future. After the accident, none of these dreams have been realized and they avoid each other like the plague.
The performances help the film a lot. None of them are crying out for Oscar attention (in fact, they're not especially memorable). But they do succeed in getting us to identify with these people, and for a thriller to work, that's crucial. Leading the pack are Jennifer Love Hewitt, who makes Julie into a resourceful but guilt-ridden young woman, and Ryan Phillipe as the conceited boor Barry. They have their stiff moments, but they are effective. Less impressive are Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze, Jr. Neither one has much dramatic range, and it shows.
It's interesting to note that Lois Duncan disliked the movie intensely. Apart from the premise, almost nothing from the novel made it into the movie. Duncan especially hated the fact that they had turned her teen thriller into a slasher movie after her own daughter was murdered in 1989 (still unsolved). The latter is actually the film's problem. Kevin Williamson has changed the story's genre (not exactly a rare occurrence) in a way that is not particularly successful. The story and its characters are strong enough on their own that gratuitous violence (although it's not as violent and gory as some members of the genre) and chase sequences are unnecessary.
Not that that hurts the film too much. It's put together with skill by Jim Gillespie (whose later films were not particularly good, making me believe that the lion's share of the credit has to go to Duncan, and to a lesser extent, Williamson) and is consistently suspenseful and scary. The final scene is a tease, but still, where else can you find a whodunit where the heroine actually knows the killer's motives before she knows who the killer is?
Starring: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Ryan Phillipe, Anne Heche, Bridgette Wilson
Rated R for Strong Horror Violence and Language
All throughout my life, there was no movie I was dying to see more than "I Know What You Did Last Summer." I was constantly begging my parents to let me see it. Ask them if you don't believe me. Looking back, I'm glad they had the good sense to keep my fourth grade self from seeing a slasher movie, but there you have it. It's really not that hard to see why it appealed to me. The trailer was awesome, the poster looked seriously mysterious, and let's face it, that's a hell of a great title.
It's July in a fishing village on the east coast. Julie James (Hewitt) is celebrating her friend Helen Shivers (Gellar) as the new beauty queen. They and their two boyfriends, rich snob Barry Cox (Phillipe) and local boy Ray Bronson (Prinze, Jr.) are going out partying on the beach. On the way home drunk Barry (who at least has the good sense to let Ray drive...under protest, but there you have it) decides to stand in the sunroof and be an asshole. He splashes his liquor all over the car. That's he sees someone standing in the road, but when he shouts "Look out!" it's too late. The car smashes into a man who is now lying crumpled in the middle of the road. Unwilling to throw their futures away, these four friends reluctantly decide to throw the body off a pier. One year later, they realize that you can run from your past, but there are some secrets that just won't die.
There are a few things that push "I Know What You Did Last Summer" to the top echelon of slasher movies (more on the genre later). First is that it has a strong story with an interesting subtext. Whodunits are always interesting because they leave you hungering for answers. The film is based on a story by teen thriller guru Lois Duncan, and it's a good story. But there's something Duncan and screen scribe (whose script was put into production almost immediately after "Scream" became a massive hit) Kevin Williamson add to the production that beefs up the plot and makes the characters more identifiable. The story shows, without pretension or drawing out the story needlessly, how trauma and guilt can warp personalities and destroy relationships. Before the accident, these four were close friends with their own plans and dreams for the future. After the accident, none of these dreams have been realized and they avoid each other like the plague.
The performances help the film a lot. None of them are crying out for Oscar attention (in fact, they're not especially memorable). But they do succeed in getting us to identify with these people, and for a thriller to work, that's crucial. Leading the pack are Jennifer Love Hewitt, who makes Julie into a resourceful but guilt-ridden young woman, and Ryan Phillipe as the conceited boor Barry. They have their stiff moments, but they are effective. Less impressive are Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze, Jr. Neither one has much dramatic range, and it shows.
It's interesting to note that Lois Duncan disliked the movie intensely. Apart from the premise, almost nothing from the novel made it into the movie. Duncan especially hated the fact that they had turned her teen thriller into a slasher movie after her own daughter was murdered in 1989 (still unsolved). The latter is actually the film's problem. Kevin Williamson has changed the story's genre (not exactly a rare occurrence) in a way that is not particularly successful. The story and its characters are strong enough on their own that gratuitous violence (although it's not as violent and gory as some members of the genre) and chase sequences are unnecessary.
Not that that hurts the film too much. It's put together with skill by Jim Gillespie (whose later films were not particularly good, making me believe that the lion's share of the credit has to go to Duncan, and to a lesser extent, Williamson) and is consistently suspenseful and scary. The final scene is a tease, but still, where else can you find a whodunit where the heroine actually knows the killer's motives before she knows who the killer is?
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