So, here is the second half of my summer thrillers, even though it's not summer anymore, but, oh well. This time, we're going to explore the lore of I Know What You Did Last Summer, which is also set in my home state of North Carolina. Out of the many times that I've watched this movie, I had no idea this was based on a book. During my middle school and early high school years, I think I was familiar with Lois Duncan's work, but I never really got a chance to read her books. Instead, I've only watched a few TV movies based on her books, more specifically Killing Mr. Griffin and I've Been Waiting For You, adapted from the novel Gallows Hill. I've always wanted to read I Know What You Did Last Summer, but I never really had the chance. Finally, after all these years, I've read the novel, and here are my thoughts:
Of course, the novel is completely different from the film version. It's more like a mystery-drama that slowly turns into a suspense-thriller. The hit-and-run victim in the novel is a ten-year-old boy, which adds emotional weight to the story and makes the perpetrator's motivations more sympathetic. Most of it is character-focused rather than plot-focused. For example, unlike the film version, Julie James is your typical perky cheerleader with average grades. After the accident, she becomes a studious shut-in, prompting her to get good grades, so much so that she gets accepted to a prestigious college at the start of the novel. Helen Rivers, who came from a poor background, eventually becomes a beauty queen and lands a TV gig as a local weather girl, complete with a snazzy new apartment of her own. Ray Bronson was able to collect his bearings and took a trip to California. And then there's Barry Cox, who went on to become a Big Guy on Campus at his local university, complete with a football scholarship. So, the core four are actually doing well for themselves; however, the past comes back to haunt them in more ways than one. The perpetrator's machinations are initially subtle. Not only does Julie get an ominous letter in the mail, but Helen discovers a newspaper clipping of the accident on her apartment door. So does Ray, and so does Barry. The group soon figures out that someone is out to punish them for what happened last summer, and that message becomes clear when Barry gets shot by an unknown assailant. When the walls are caving in and the feelings of guilt resurface, the culprit soon reveals himself to be Collingsworth "Collie" Wilson, a neighbor of Helen's and also the guy Julie was dating after she broke up with Ray. To Julie, he goes by the name of "Bud," which was also the nickname his kid brother David gave him, the same kid brother that Barry ran over. Collie is a soldier who served in Vietnam, and the death of his brother, along with his whole family falling apart, caused him to have a mental breakdown. Seeing Julie giving yellow roses at David's funeral led him to think that Julie was probably mocking him as some sick joke, but in reality, she was genuinely distraught. Unfortunately, Collie's fragile state of mind caused him to plan a revenge plot on Julie and her friends. When I first read this, I was totally caught off guard because all this time I thought he was two people. The book gives out a few hints, but then it becomes clear halfway through. It was actually well done, I really wasn't expecting that. When he goes after Helen in her apartment, she locks herself in the bathroom and eventually escapes through a small window. Soon, Collie has his eyes on Julie and lures her outside to reveal his motives. He starts to strangle Julie, but Ray comes to save the day, knocking Collie unconscious. After their horrible ordeal, Julie and Ray decide to confess to what they did last summer.
Unlike the last book I read, I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It was fast-paced, there was actual urgency, and the characters were well-rounded and interesting. It's a shame that the movie overshadowed the book because it's truly an underrated gem.
Film rights from the book were acquired by Columbia Pictures in 1974, with Producer Ray Stark casting cult favorite Olivia Hussey as Julie and Susan Dey, who was mostly known for The Partridge Family at the time, as Helen. But the production stalled due to a lack of funds. A couple of years later, the project was revived again in 1981 with Jodie Foster as Julie and Helen Hunt as, well, Helen. However, that project also fell through, as the musical Annie flopped at the box office.
Fifteen years later, a little film called Scream graced the movie theaters and became a box-office juggernaut overnight. Kevin Williamson, the screenwriter of Scream, actually penned a script for I Know What You Did Last Summer that was previously rejected; however, after the success of the aforementioned film, studio executives were finally piqued with interest.
Although Scream was known for its self-aware satire of the slasher genre, I Know What You Did Last Summer was written to be a straightforward slasher without a wink to the audience. Instead of being set in a small town in New Mexico, Kevin Williamson changed the setting to Southport, North Carolina, a well-known fishing village. The concept of The Fisherman is based on Williamson's dad, who worked as a fisherman, and the urban legend The Hook, complete with a campfire scene that tells the story in detail.
Then came the casting. Melissa Joan Hart, who also auditioned for Scream, was approached but later declined because she thought it was a Scream rip-off, which, by the way, it is. I'm guessing she was going for the role of Julie.
Reese Witherspoon auditioned but changed her mind. This eventually led to her boyfriend at the time, Ryan Phillippe to be cast as Barry. Maybe she was trying for the role of Helen, but I'm still banking on Julie.
Jeremy Sisto was Jim Gillespie's original choice for Ray, but the studio execs insisted on casting Freddie Prinze Jr. for the role instead. I'm going to agree with Jim on this one; Jeremy would've been the better actor for the role. I'll talk about Freddie's "performance" later in the review.
As the casting for Julie was on thin ice, the executives looked towards the hit teen show, Party of Five, which ironically starred Neve Campbell, the star of Scream. But there was another breakout star, Jennifer Love Hewitt, who was gaining popularity, and I guess the executives thought that this would be good stunt casting. She was initially cast as Helen; however, Jennifer went for the role of Julie, citing that she didn't want her mom to see her get killed on screen.
Lastly, the role of Helen was the last to be cast. Luckily, there was another up-and-coming starlet who had just won an Emmy award from a daytime soap opera and was in the midst of starring in a soon-to-be hit TV show that would become a cultural phenomenon. That up-and-coming starlet was Sarah Michelle Gellar, and her star will eventually rise.
The basic plot of I Know What You Did Last Summer kind of reminds me of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Not in a literal sense, but more like the tropes surrounding it: you have the beautiful, sympathetic blond and her hot but ill-tempered boyfriend, you have the beautiful, resourceful brunette and her hot but useless boyfriend, you have a killer that toys with them, then kills them, and the whole plot revolves around a deep dark secret that comes back to haunt them.
Before I get to the core four, I would like to get the minor characters out of the way.
Max, played by Johnny Galecki, known for Roseanne at the time, is a character invented for the movie only. He's portrayed as this pest who keeps pining after Julie even though she has a boyfriend, and he keeps being constantly bullied by Barry...just because.
Max originally didn't die in the script, but because this is a slasher movie and the killer has to be some sort of ominous threat, the filmmakers decided to make him part of the body count; however, this doesn't make any sense in the narrative, considering that Max didn't have anything to do with accident, nor is he part of the core group. He's just a guy who's always there and nothing else.
Then there is Helen's bitchy sister, Elsa, played by Bridgette Wilson, an actress best known for starring in '90s cult favorites such as Billy Madison and Mortal Kombat. In the novel, she was the plain, overweight older sister who was jealous of her sister's success. She was stuck having to work a dead-end retail job to take care of her younger siblings, while Helen had everything handed to her just because she was beautiful. In the movie, however, Elsa is just as beautiful as Helen, and she seems to have a steady job as the supervisor at her family's retail store, which looks quite lucrative, so we never really know what Elsa's deal is. It could be because she had dreams of being a beauty queen just like her younger sister, but because she had responsibilities of running the family store, she never really got to follow her dreams, though the movie never really gives us an indication of that.
She's just portrayed as the usual asshole slasher victim we root for to die, and nothing else.
Then there's Missy Egan, played by Anne Heche, who only had a few supporting roles before this. The movie builds up Missy as a red herring, and to be honest, that doesn't sit right with me. In the novel, she was just a girl who was trying to keep the family together after her brother's death. She actually came off pleasant, but in the movie, they decided to make her creepy for some reason, even though she's a person who's suffering from grief and loneliness. But at least Anne Heche did a good job with the few scenes she was given.
Now we focus on our four main leads of the film: Julie, Ray, Helen, and Barry. As expected, they are far more different than how they are in the novel.
Let's get Barry out of the way, shall we? He is, by far, one of the most irritating characters in the movie, but it helps that he's played by the handsome Ryan Phillippe, which almost helps me forget how much of an annoying twat he is. Barry in the novel is a lot more tolerable in comparison, and that's saying a lot. He still comes across like a selfish jerk who has no remorse about the accident, even though he was the one who was driving the car, and he contemplates breaking up with Helen, but doesn't exactly go through with it, leading her on and seeing other girls behind her back. But once he hears the news about Helen having a male friend, he freaks out and plans on breaking up with her on the spot. So yeah, he's quite a hypocritical jackass, but at least there's a shred of humanity in him towards the end.
When the accident happened, Barry suggested they dispose of the body in the sea rather than have Ray make an anonymous 911 call in the book. Then he grabs Julie in a CHOKEHOLD when she refuses to make the pact, which makes me think he's not above committing violence towards women, or maybe even Helen if she gets on his bad side.
When they suspect that Max might've been the one who wrote the letter to Julie, instead of questioning him reasonably, Barry ATTACKS him while at his job and outright THREATENS him. Then, when he thinks Ray was the one behind their attacks, he sucker PUNCHES him.
And finally, oh my gosh, I'm getting exhausted from this, when he and Helen spot the fisherman, he TACKLES an old man who happens to wear the same slicker. He doesn't even apologize to him.
So yeah, it's pretty laughable that this guy gets away with so much crap, and I start to wonder why the group is even friends with him. He's completely unbearable.
Ray was actually given more to do and had a lot more development than what they have given him in the movie. Ray is nothing more than the generic everyguy who is utterly useless at any given moment. First, when Barry holds his girlfriend Julie in a chokehold, Ray does absolutely NOTHING. He just stands there like some big dumb dog. Throughout the rest of the movie, he does nothing to help out the group's situation, especially when he was the guy who gave Missy his condolences to her brother, going by the name Billy Blue. Had he told the group that he was in fact the guy who visited Missy, everything would have been solved, and Julie wouldn't have run into The Fisherman's boat during the climax. Ray was never this dumb in the novel, but there would be no plot progression if he weren't.
Nothing against Freddie Prinze Jr., he has grown to be a charismatic actor, and he did a decent job in the film House of Yes, but he is incredibly wooden here. There were times when he "tries" to sell a performance, but still comes off like a deer in the headlights. It may be because he had a beef with director Jim Gillespee, the reason why his performance is so flat, but it's more so the writing of his character. Ray is just a blank slate that fills up space and doesn't do much to be proactive in the story.
Aw, yes. Now we have Helen Shivers played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, who is the biggest highlight of the movie. In the novel, Helen Rivers came from a poor working-class family, and once she matured, she became a model and landed a gig at a news station. Unlike the novel, however, Helen didn't exactly find success after the events of the accident. Before I go on, I would like to take a moment to talk about Helen's last name. Why did filmmakers change it to Shivers? Is it supposed to mean that Helen shivers in fear? If so, that is really corny. Anywho, Helen really goes through the ringer in the film version. Different from her book counterpart, Helen is already well-off, but with a failed attempt at an acting career, Helen is forced to work for her sister, who clearly hates her. In just one day, Helen is really having the worst of luck. When she tries to reconcile with Julie, she's given the cold shoulder. When she tries to talk to her dad, he ignores her. Then, of course, she gets bullied by her bitchy older sister. And worst of all, The Fisherman cuts her precious long hair.
And from the looks of it, the haircut doesn't look that bad. It wasn't as if the filmmakers were going to put this awful short wig on Sarah Michelle Gellar; the hairstyle is quite flattering and is the right amount of shoulder-length.
It gets even worse for Helen when she witnesses Barry's murder during her beauty pageant recital. The most frustrating part of this scene is that the people kept holding Helen back, and no one would even go up to the balcony to check if Barry was there. Besides that, the scene was very effective and added some much-needed dramatic weight to balance out the horror elements.
When Helen gets escorted by some idiot cop, The Fisherman lurks around a back alleyway pretending to have car trouble, which catches the cop's attention. Unlucky for him, the cop gets gutted like a fish.
Then, The Fisherman sets his sights on Helen...
This leads to one of the most thrilling and suspenseful chase sequences that I've seen in a while. Then comes ANOTHER frustrating situation when Helen races to the retail store and tries to get Elsa to open the door. Elsa takes her sweet little time, even though her sister is in distress, but she doesn't have a care in the world. This made me detest her character even more.
Thankfully, The Fisherman pays her a visit.
After being nearly tackled by The Fisherman and seeing her sister's dead body, Helen makes the great escape. She runs to the dumbwaiter, hoists herself up, jumps out of the window, into the alleyway, and just when she sees a parade down the street...
She stops and turns around. I can tell that the audience in the theater groaned in annoyance at this. Helen could've easily gotten away and hid amongst the crowd, but knowing that the beauty queen most likely won't be the final girl, they make her do something stupid to be unceremoniously killed by the slasher. I was so pissed off at this because she almost, almost made it! We were all rooting for Helen, we were all rooting for you! If the filmmakers had actually given it some thought, they could've made Helen a final girl. How about this? Why won't they make both her and Julie the final girl? Therefore, with all of the trauma they went through, defeating the killer would be a cathartic and full-circle moment for them to overcome the burden in their friendship. But, oh well, I can only dream.
Sarah Michelle Gellar stole the show for me. She was mostly known for daytime soap operas at the time, and Buffy was just picking up steam, so this would be the role that made her a star, and what a performance! She acts her ass off in this movie, even upstaging Jennifer Love Hewitt in certain moments.
Last, but not least, we have our resident Final Girl, Julie James, played by the ever-so-charming Jennifer Love Hewitt. She doesn't get a lot of fans amongst the horror community, mainly because they think of her as self-righteous and holier-than-thou, who's more concerned about the logical side of things instead of the emotional weight of the situation even though it does show that Julie does have some guilt about the accident, it's more so about how she feels and not anybody else. But I'll explore that later. Some might argue that she is a bit more interesting and likable in the book, considering her character development. Before the events of the novel, Julie was a cheerleader, which is far from the character she plays in the movie. However, after the accident, Julie uses this traumatic event in her life to improve her grades and eventually gets accepted to a prestigious college. During this time, she dates a guy named Bud, who's actually Collingsworth, the person terrorizing the core four. Of course, they would cut this subplot out of the final film, leaving Julie to be the investigative final girl who searches for the truth, other than dating a guy who just happens to be her perpetrator.
In the film version, Julie is a straight-A student from the start and is a staunch feminist. Before the accident, Julie was sweet, endearing, and deeply cared about her friends. But after the accident, she's suffering from post-traumatic stress, is very antisocial, and is cold and distant throughout. When it comes to the novel, I liked the moments between Julie and her mom, particularly when her mom has bad premonitions of what's to come. I wished there were more scenes between her and her mom in the movie because it would've added more dramatic elements to the film, which would also explore their complicated yet loving relationship, because I thought the actress playing Julie's mom did a good job with what little she was given.
Julie does feel immense guilt, but the problem is that she's not confiding in anyone about it. For instance, there's a part where Julie feels bad about obviously ruining a family's life due to an accident, and Helen is actually right there with her, feeling the same shame and guilt. However, instead of understanding Helen and picking up where their friendship left off, Julie coldly shuns her. Sure, Julie feels crappy about what happened last summer, but she's not the only one who's going through it, and in some ways, it makes her kind of selfish, which made it difficult for me to be on her side. However, as the movie progresses, she's not as bad as initially perceived, and she does receive some redemption in the end.
Soon, The Fisherman starts terrorizing the core four to the point where Julie has a mental breakdown...
.
Despite the flaws in her character writing, I thought Jennifer Love Hewitt did a decent job. Whatever you think of the Julie as a character, at least Jennifer Love Hewitt made her tolerable and likable in some moments. I would even argue that Hewitt makes an effective final girl and Scream Queen, especially in the second movie. Overall, Jennifer Love Hewitt ask what was required of her and did her job well.
Finally, we get to our main villian of the piece, The Fisherman. Although he's a normal human man, The Fisherman apparanetly has the powers to hide dead bodies without a trace and teleport out of nowhere. So, throughout the whole movie, the core four have thought to have hit a guy named David Egan, who's aged up from a ten-year-old in the novel to a man in his early to mid twenties in the film. It's pretty clear when you see the body that that is not a twenty-something year old man, he's obviously a guy in his late forites or early fifties in the least. But oh well. In the film version, David was dating a girl named Suzy whom he accidently killed in car crash. Julie thought that David intentionally went to the sea to drown out of guilt but in actuality he was already killed...
The guy that they actually hit was Ben Willis, Suzy's father. Up until that point, The Fisherman makes for effective slasher villian with cool look and a menacing edge, but once he's revealed, he's kind of generic and his motovations are murky. Sure, you could say his reasons for revenge is sympathetic, he did lose a daughter and after getting run over and left for dead in the ocean, but what did that have to do with Max? Or Elsa? Or even the idoit cop? Oh well, I guess he just loves killing for killing's sake. Muse Watson was...okay. Not great. Not memorable. But just okay. Like I said, he could be menacing but the screenplay doesn't do his performance any favors and he just comes off generic.
One of the weirder aspects of the movie is of course the nonsensical writing. None of it is really Kevin Williamson's fault, the producers probably saw dollar signs and decided to greenlight the first draft.
Then there's the part where the idoit cop makes a joke about Helen's haircut, asking her if The Fisherman was the one that cut her hair. Why would that even cross his mind? She probably just decided to get a haircut one day, who knows?
Then we have our cliched happy ending. Everything's fine and dandy and no lingering trauma. Julie and Ray are living in the midst of their young love bliss and Julie seems to be back to her old perky self until there's a message in the shower...Now, originally Julie was supposed to recieve an email titled, I STILL KNOW but the producers thought it was too anticlimatic, so instead she recieved the message in a steaming shower. Maybe as a homage to Pyscho? Heck, I don't know. It's pretty cheesy but, hey, what can you do? As expected, The Fisherman burst through the shower for one last jump scare and that's the end of the movie.
So, what I think of I Know What You Did Last Summer? It's pretty mediorce to be honest with you. It has it's moments such as the Helen chase scene and some of the acting is pretty decent, however, the story could've been executed better. Yeah, it's a slasher movie but it could've had more substance than that. Lois Duncan was actually appalled that they would turn her novel into slasher movie, especially since her daugther was murder not too long ago, which kind of gives it a bad reputation because of it. It's also a movie that's very much of it's time. The poster alone shows that trend of late 90s/early 2000s teen horror that was all the rage back in the day. You have the cast who was part of some popular show either on the WB, ABC, UPN or what not, all scurnched up on the poster with some mysterious entity or killer lurking in the background. I've seen it all, but then again, I don't mind it. I wouldn't say that I Know What You Did Last Summer is my favorite movie. I watch Scream over this any day but at least it's somewhat watchable.
Eventually, this spawned a cult following. Not only did this get two sequels but it also has a TV series and a requel...a freakin requel! Okay, I'll probably have to save that for another time. But until then, this movie was just mildly okay.
My Last Word: Not good. Not bad. Just Okay.
