I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

1997
Directed by Jim Gillespie
Starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Ryan Phillippe

I've been on a big '90s kick lately, and there is definitely no movie that represents the late-'90s horror boom for me than I Know What You Did Last Summer.  Sure, Scream came a few months before it, and horror scholars write all kinds of...uh...scholarly (read: long-winded and boring) essays about it, but this flick was mine, baby.  Not in the least bit because of Jennifer Love Hewitt and the amazing clothes that the flick's wardrobe people managed to stuff her in for the vast duration of the running time, I probably watched this movie a good 25 times during its initial run on HBO, and I can still go back and revisit it every so often.

Like Scream, the movie was scripted by Kevin Williamson, and was massively successful.  Even better, it's based on a novel...one that I sought out back when this movie was new, and one that I found infinitely less interesting than what I got in the movie.  If I remember correctly, the body count in the book is criminally low, and might have even been zero.  Suffice to say, I've never felt compelled to go back and check.  I've read more than a few comments from people online who napalm Kevin Williamson, and a lot of the points are justified, but his updating of an admittedly dated suspense novel from 1973 is a textbook example of how to take source material and make it better.  Insert derogatory Rob Zombie comment here.

Since the film has been parodied and referenced numerous times, I don't know if I have to get into the plot, but hell, here goes anyway.  We're introduced to four perfectly happy and perfectly hot high school seniors - Julie (Hewitt, who radiates likability and girl-next-door charm in the role), her best friend Helen (Sarah Michelle Geller, in a performance that actually predated Buffy by a few months), Julie's boyfriend Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and Helen's jocky boyfriend Barry (Ryan Phillippe).  Sex is had, alcoholic beverages are shared, and within short order Ray accidentally hits and kills a pedestrian on a middle-of-nowhere road.  After the obligatory close calls where they are almost found out, the four friends dispose of the body in the lake to avoid the incident mucking up their idyllic lives.

Flash forward a year.  Now a college freshmen, Julie returns home.  The incident has stuck with her and, again, Hewitt really does do a fantastic job in these scenes that establish her character's moral compass.  I've said this in passing a few times, but it really is a shame that she didn't do more horror flicks besides this and the amazingly craptacular sequel.  Just imagine if, say, there was no Halloween H20, and we got a non-Rob Zombie and non-suck reboot at THAT time when horror was white-hot.  With Love as Laurie Strode.  Cue fireworks and confetti.  Anyway, Julie's three friends are still in town - Helen, in the final week or so of her reign as the town's beauty queen, is still with Barry, while Ray works at the docks.  Cue the random, unmarked note in her mailbox that reads "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and take your best guess as to where we're going from here.

Unlike a lot of horror movies, I remember this flick for how much I genuinely enjoyed the characters, then and now.  The scenes where they're doing things other than getting killed actually manage to hold my interest, and that's more than I can say for some films in the big three franchises.  Gellar and Phillippe are the movie's beefcake couple, and it's Phillippe in particular who really dives into his role and turns Barry into one of the more memorable douches in horror.  Secondly...I don't know why, but I've always been a sucker for horror movies that have a romantic subplot that is more than just window dressing, and the whole "Ray trying to get back with Julie" plot in this movie is done really well.  It's one of those things that could have been suicidal if the acting was subpar, but both Hewitt and Prinze do their damndest to give the story emotional resonance. 

Quick aside - I've always been a HUGE mark for Freddie Prinze Jr., even back then when I was in junior high/high school and he did that string of crappy movies aimed at the teenybopper crowd after this flick became a huge hit.  I've always been mystified that he never made the major leagues despite being both talented and handsome enough to do so.  I always felt like he was just one good role away from hitting that big time.  Then again, this movie is where he met his future wife whom he gets to bang to this day, so it's not like the guy failed at life.

Where was I?  Oh right, the escalating body count.  While Julie and Helen go about piecing together the mystery of both the person they accidentally killed (on this newfangled thing called the internet) and the potential killer (in the backwood swamps), the mysterious, cloaked, hook-wielding killer is busy going about his business, and this movie does indeed have its share of money scenes.  Admittedly, it does tread into Dark Knight territory at times with the villain's ability to predict exactly how people will act in given situations, but it's a minor complaint this time.  The flick's two "main character" deaths don't disappoint in the slightest.  You know, for a guy who wrote a slasher flick that seemed to sneer at other slasher flicks, Kevin Williamson certainly wasn't shy when it came to scripting the red stuff flying himself.

Since I'm guessing the vast majority of people reading this have either seen this film or the numerous movies that make fun of it (the original Scary Movie being the most prevalent), my guess is that you've got your mind made up whether or not this is a good flick.  Good is a relative term.  I've got plenty of nostalgic love for I Know What You Did Last Summer...to say nothing of the sequel, which makes the story fifty times more unrealistic, turns the characters (including the ones left over from this film) into a bunch of unlikable doofs, and slathers on the manufactured hipness to the nth degree.  You know, the annoying one.  But enough about that.  Of all the things that work in this movie, it's the performers that I like the best, and it does indeed make me a little sad that this time period featured such a good, talented, charismatic crop of young actors while today's stable of cardboard cutouts have left me so numb that I seriously don't even go to movies anymore. 

Oh, and it had an awesome soundtrack with a rocking version of Deep Purple's "Hush" by Kula Shaker.  Youtube it.

*** 1/2 out of ****.  That's probably a higher rating than just about anyone else would give it, but f**k it.  Joe Bob says check this one out.