I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)...And A Brief Summary of I'll Always Know (2006)

 

After the success of I Know What You Did Last Summer, it was inevitable that a sequel would be greenlit a year later. Lo and Behold, we have I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. For kicks, I decided to read the script, which is nearly identical to the movie, but with a few changes here and there. Yes, I know this is an unnecessary sequel, and yes, I know it is a cash grab, but...and this is a big but... This is a guilty pleasure of mine. Maybe it's the nostalgia calling me; however, I keep finding myself watching this movie over and over again. I don't know why. Sure, this movie is beyond dumb, and the plot twist is so stupid to the point where I ask myself, 'Why would they come up with that? Yet and still, this movie has a hold on me. This is what I call an adventure slasher, and compared to the original, things are a lot more exciting this time around. The story has stakes. HUGE stakes. It's bloodier, gorier,  has action, and a few suspenseful moments. It's a dumb popcorn movie, and I'm okay with that.

 

The movie begins with an overly dramatic opening scene, where Julie walks to the cathedral to confess her sins. It is actually really well shot, and the light blue shadows of the cinematography give it this ethereal yet ominous feel. So, Julie starts to confess her sins to the priest, which is a recap of the events of the first film in case the audience forgot. Then the priest creepily says, "I know..." Julie catches her breath for a moment and replies, "You...know?" The priest turns his head to reveal it's Ben Willis, the killer from the last movie, and shouts this cheesy line, "I Know What You Did Last Summer!" and punctures his hook through the frame. I just couldn't help but laugh; it was so corny. 

Of course, this turns out to be a dream, and Julie wakes up screaming in class. This indicates that the ending of the first film was all but a dream and has been a recurring problem for Julie ever since.

Embarassed by her outburst, Julie scurries out of class, where she is then accompanied by her new male friend, Will, played by the very attractive Matthew Settle. To add more to Julie's worries, it's the fourth of July, the day her friends were killed by Ben Willis. Will reassures her that everything will be fine and just a relic in her past. But just as he says that, here comes Ray, Julie's boyfriend, appearing out of the blue. 

He tries to lure Julie back to Southport to celebrate the Fourth of July together, but considering that she's still traumatized by the events of last year, Julie refuses. Instead of understanding her plight, Ray gets upset and walks off in a huff. He is extremely whiny and selfish here, which doesn't help that he was a bland character in the first movie, but he soon improves. 

After she argues with Ray, Julie drags her feet to the apartment, feeling sorry for herself, and jumps on the bed to sleep off the stress. 

Then comes nighttime...

Julie stirs from her sleep and hears a sudden noise. She becomes instantly spooked. Investigating the apartment, Julie senses someone there and, on instinct, she grabs a kitchen knife. She hears ruffling in her closet. Julie creeps closer and closer, ready to strike and then...

Out pops Brandy. Yes, the Brandy Norwood, in her closet. She plays Kara Wilson, Julie's friend and roommate, who encourages her to go to the club with her to dance off the stress of her strained relationship with Ray. 

Say what you will about the movie, but one of the best parts, in my opinion, is the chemistry between Jennifer Love Hewitt and Brandy. They actually come off as genuine best friends, and it gives the film a lot of heart. I know I'm pushing it, but I'm just being honest here: if Jennifer and Brandy were in a buddy comedy, I would definitely watch it. 

So, then Kara takes Julie to the club where we meet with Kara's boyfriend, Tyrell, played by the very handsome Mekhi Phifer. Tyrell is pretty much Barry 2.0, but he's not as bad, though. His only takeaway is that he's on the snarky side and dismisses Julie's suggestion that there might be a killer a foot.. Kara also invites Will over, unbeknownst to Julie, and it's clear that she is setting him up to be Julie's next love interest. Just when Will shoots his shot, Julie gets distracted...

For some reason, The Fisherman stalks Julie at the club. This is one of the few nonsensical moments of the film, but at least there is an explanation for that later. When Will comes back over, Julie forgives him and decides to cool off at home to shake off her PTSD. 

The next morning, Kara gets a call from a local radio station offering the chance to win a vacation to the Bahamas if she answers what the capital of Brazil is. As they scramble to find a clue to where the capital of Brazil is, Julie grabs coffee mix. Yes, coffee mix to figure out the answer. These days, they would just Google it on their phone and presto! But in the heat of the moment, Kara spurts out, "Rio de Janeiro." There's a moment of uncertainty until the radio host says, "Congratulations, you just won a weekend getaway!" The girls are ecstatic and instantly plan out who to invite on the trip. Julie decides to call Ray. Of course, he acts like a whiny self-centered jerk, saying, "Oh, you'd rather hang out with your college friends instead of me." Dude, she WON a vacation trip, and you were the first person that she called. At the end of the day, it's the thought that counts. Be grateful. 

When Ray realizes this, he softens and says he'll try to come. His friend and coworker, Dave, convinces him that he should take the work off of him. So, Ray agrees, and the two hang out before their departure. But as they stop near a supposed hit-and-run accident in the dead of night, Ray goes to investigate. Once he kneels down towards the body, it turns out to be a mannequin. Turns out, The Fisherman is alive after all, and he instantly kills Dave with the swift movement of his hook. He goes after Ray in his car, but fortunately, Ray dodges from the car and jumps over a hill, rendering him unconscious. 

As they get prepared for their trip to the Bahamas, Julie and Kara hopelessly wait for Ray. Julie tries to make excuses for him, but Kara doesn't budge and figures that Will would be a good replacement for him, to Julie's dismay. From plane to boat, Julie, Kara, Tyrell, and Will finally arrive at the Bahamas to the tune of Esethro's That Girl. Sure, this is a bad movie, but the soundtrack is fire, you can't fight me on that. 

Upon arriving at the hotel, Julie and the gang get some bad news. It just so happens that they're in the middle of storm season, which means that they're the only ones left in the hotel. Therefore, that's when the carnage really begins. 

Before I continue with the main characters, let's get the lesser characters out of the way, which is basically half of the hotel staff. 

There's Darick the Dockhand Guy. He only gets a few lines here and there and...that's pretty much it. The Fisherman kills him before he becomes an actual character. 

Then there's the housekeeping lady, Olga. She doesn't get that many lines either, and once she sees there's something fishy going on, she instantly gets hooked by The Fisherman.

Further down the line, we have the poolboy, Titus, played by none other than Jack Black. He is probably the most cringeworthy character in the movie, but he is also the funniest because...he's played by Jack Black. The only thing we know about this character is that he is a hardcore stoner, and that's it. He had a different death scene in the screenplay, but the producer thought his death wasn't gory enough, so The Fisherman gives him a good stab on the hand and some shears to his chest. 

We have Bellhop Estes, the all-knowing old man who uses Voodoo to protect our main cast. Apparently, his using Voodoo is a bad thing, and they instantly accuse him of being the killer, though it's obvious it's not him, and the gang is just uneducated on how Voodoo actually works. You see, Estes knew about Ben Willis, and he gave out a hint that he might've killed his wife because of the affairs she had. Although he tries to save the main group, unfortunately, he's no match for The Fisherman. 

Then we have Bartender Nancy, played by the criminally underrated Jennifer Esposito. Nancy is probably one of my favorites of the hotel staff because she actually has personality. She's a smart whipper-snapper who holds her own and is also the most proactive of the bunch. If she had the chance, she would've survived the whole movie, but again, The Fisherman has too much of tight a grip on her and she goes down without a fight. 

Lastly, we have the cratankerous hotel manager, Brooks, played by cult favorite Jeffrey Combs. He's quick to throw insults at our main cast, and he's not quite as hospitable as he should be. He's definitely one of those characters you root for to die.

Although he gets killed off-screen, his death looks extremely painful. You can tell that The Fisherman did a number on him. 

Now on to our main foursome:

First, we have the one and only Brandy as Kara Wilson. Kara could've easily been a throwaway character, but Brandy's personality shines through as I find her to be quite likable and easy to root for. She's seen as Julie's emotional anchor and is the kind of friend who cheers you up when you're having a bad day. That's why I find the chemistry between Jennifer Love Hewitt and Brandy to be so palatable because you actually believe it. Say what you will about the movie itself, but I honestly think Brandy did a good job and made the film a bit bearable, in my opinion. 

It's already said what needs to be told about Tyrell. He's basically a Barry clone and spends most of the movie complaining. However, the most frustrating part is that, despite all the carnage, he still dismisses Julie's claims that there might be a killer afoot. Even though he has seen dead bodies, it's pretty obvious that Julie has a target on her back and that the person who's after her will probably kill him too. Just as soon as he says he hasn't seen a psycho killer yet, right on cue, The Fisherman pops out and hooks him in the neck, complete with cartoonish CGI blood. Yelp, that's all I could say about Tyrell. 

Then there's Will, who's the typical dogged nice guy, pining for Julie's affections when she's clearly not over Ray yet. But beneath that nice guy facade, he harbors a deep, dark secret that would implode in the film's climax. More on that later...

Julie is a lot more likable this time around and is quite sympathetic, given the trauma she went through in the first film. By the time we get to the film's middle section, you can tell that she has grown tired of The Fisherman's bullshit and finally takes charge. There's this part in the movie where Kara gets pursued by the killer, and Julie bursts in with an ax as if to say, "No, not this time!", and hacks away at the door for Kara to escape. You see, this is what I like about Julie: she makes sure that no friend gets left behind. 

Of course, she gets her "what are you waiting for!" moment, but this time, when she sees her name and birthdate spray-painted on a tombstone, she shouts out, "You want me, Ben! Come and get me, but my grave stays empty!" Not as cringy, but it's just as entertaining. 

There are a lot of stupid moments in the film. For example, Julie finds a dead body in her closet, and it's quite a bloody mess. But as soon as the rest of the characters come in to check on it, it's gone, and the floor is sparkling clean. Oh, where have I seen this before? Oh yeah, the first movie. Boy, it seems like Ben Willis has super-cleaning skills. 

Probably the dumbest moments in the movie have got to be the karaoke scene. I've seen this scene in all the promos and trailers, and I always kept wondering how the killer was able to even program the machine unless he had some supernatural powers to make that happen. 

I think I find the tanning bed scene to be most suspenseful, but then again, it's just an excuse to show off Jennifer Love Hewitt's sculpted body for the horny male audience. 

Unlike the first movie, the movie goes to the extreme when it comes to the blood and gore. Pretty much the entire film has this approach of bigger, broader, and bloodier with a different location, higher body count, and over-the-top action. 

Which leads us to the climax of the film. It sort of hints that Ben Willis might have an accomplice who does his dirty work, and it turns out that this accomplice is none other than....

Will Benson. Will is Ben Willis's son. The name says it right there. Will, Ben's son. He explains this to Julie verbatim. It's just so fucking ridiculous. But what's even more ridiculous is how Julie and the gang got there in the first place. You see, the movie relies on our good ol' friend, the idiot plot. Ben and his son, Will, devised an elaborate plan to lure Julie and her friends to the Bahamas. Will impersonated the radio host who won them the trip, and it turns out, in the middle of the film, Julie and Kara got the answer wrong. Whether they got the answer wrong or right, they would've been screwed either way, but what really gets me about this is the time spent between the first movie and this sequel. So, it's been a year, right? How come Will just spots Julie at her college, pretends to be a student, or rather attend the same school as her, I don't know, then befriend her, somehow got in contact with his father who was presumed dead since then, and for some reason, plan this whole evil plot to get Julie and her friends shipped off to the Bahamas to kill them. That's a little bit overboard, don't you think? I mean, that takes a lot of time and money to actually make that happen. It is beyond nonsensical, unless Ben inherited a million dollars. I don't even know if that's plausible. Now, Matthew Settle's acting was decent until then, but at this point, he becomes cartoonishly over-the-top. He's trying to channel Skeet Ulrich, but it was giving Jim Carrey. So Will brings Julie over to Ben, and just when you think it's over for her, out pops Ray, gun in hand, serving off his big hero moment.

I have to hand it to Ray. He started off a bit whiny and combative, but he actually stepped up and went out of his way to save Julie. I mean, the guy gets run over, escapes from a hospital, takes a bus, and takes a boat through a raging storm just in time to save Julie. That takes a lot of guts.

Ben Willis is no different from how he was in the last movie. Just a generic horror villain who, this time, lets his son do his dirty work in the climax, but this time it costs him.

So he has Will rough up Ray a bit and hoists him up for Ben to give him the final blow. But then Ray hits Will and dodges out of Ben's way, only for him to stab and kill his own son by accident. 

Full of rage, Ben goes after Ray and then...Julie finally takes charge, grabs a gun, and blasts Ben's ass away.

Ironically, Ben falls into the same grave made for Julie, the sludge and mud submerging him into a proper burial. 

So, all is well. The national guard comes through. Julie and Ray hold each other in an embrace, and thankfully, Kara survives her ordeal. 

This should be the end, but the movie feels like it should have one last jumpscare because it's a horror movie. So at the end, Julie and Ray are living the life of young newlyweds in their rather lofty two-story home. The scene sort of takes its time to get through, but finally, we see that Julie still has visions of Ben attacking her. Yes, I said visions. You would think that she was actually attacked by Ben at this point because it was left a mystery for years until the new movie came out. Yes, there has been a recent sequel, or shall I say requel, that addresses that Julie, in fact, survives this and has lived to tell the tale. I will cover that at a later time. But unfortunately, there was a third sequel that was sandwiched between this and the recent one, and trust me, I will get to that soon...

So, what do I think of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer? It's a bad movie. Borderline stupid even. But I can't help to say that I was thoroughly entertained. Maybe it's the nostalgia talkin, but I might count it out as So Bad, It's Good. Am I saying that it's a classic or it's Shakespeare? No. It's a dumbass movie. But it's a fun, dumbass movie. The kind where you get to sit back, get a couple of drinks or some joints, and have the time of your life.

My last word: It's a turn-your-brain-off gory slasher flick. Nothing more, nothing less. 

Okay, now it's time to talk about I Always Know What You Did Last Summer. Very dumb title by the way. I only saw this movie once back in high school, and I was bored out of my mind. Not only that, I could barely see anything. This was, of course, the mid-to-late 2000s, when most horror films were shot predominantly in darkness. Shit, you could hardly tell what's going on, and it would often sour the enjoyment of most of those films. However, the most annoying aspect of the filmmaking was the music video flashes, which could cause seizures if viewed for too long. Alright, the story itself goes like this: A group of high school friends hang out at a carnival, and one of them decides to prank another friend by dressing up as The Fisherman (he's obviously an urban legend now). Suddenly, the friend who pranked that friend causes his accidental death, which evokes the ghost, yes, I said ghost, of Ben Willis one year later, killing them one by one. The characters are nothing to write home about, along with some terrible, terrible acting. I guess the lead actress tries to do a good performance, but nothing ever comes out of it. Then you have The Fisherman, who has basically turned into a Freddy/Jason clone. Considering that he has the power to hide and clean dead bodies in record time and teleport out of nowhere, why not make him a supernatural ghost? There's really not much I can say about this movie. It's a cheap, low-budget direct-to-video knockoff with no connection to the original except for the zombie/ghost fisherman Ben Willis. But ever since, this sequel has been forgotten and should be forgotten. Hell, I don't think it's even canon in the film series, so yeah, that's a good thing.

My Last Word: Avoid at all costs.

So those are the two sequels to I Know What You Did Last Summer. Are they great? Hell, no. But will the 2025 reboot be any better? I highly doubt it, but I'll check it out anyway. 

I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

 

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.

Barry, in the film version, is borderline psychotic. He has this uncontrollable rage, and it's almost comical to watch at times. For starters, let me give you a list of the many crimes of Barry Cox. 

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. 

Okay, I have got to take a moment to talk about that shower scene. It's one of those scenes that made me realize that I'm gay, even at a young age. But like I said, Ryan Phillippe is an attractive man with an attractive body, and I just had to acknowledge that. 

As for his acting, he does a decent job, even though his character is repugnant. Luckily, he does have a bit of redemption when he swears to protect Helen in one of his final scenes, but I would've liked more of this, So I could at least have some sort of empathy towards him. But besides that, Ryan Phillippe did a good job with his role, and Barry's death was tragic enough to warrant some sympathy, but I felt more bad for Helen if anything. Overall, Barry was not an easy character to root for. 

Then we have Ray Bronson, played by Freddie Prinze Jr., who is the weakest link in this movie. Ray was a much more interesting character in the novel, just being a regular guy who wanted to live up to his father's expectations and was a genuine friend to Barry, matching his sensitive side to Barry's manly side. 

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.

I've heard about the early developments of the screenplay, where Helen was described as "having warmth to her, but can still be a bit of bitch." But I didn't get that out of Gellar's performance. She was very earnest in her approach, which garnered Helen a lot of agency. She didn't play her off like a shallow, vapid mean girl; she portrayed her as a real person and I felt that Gellar had a hand in developing her character more. That's why Sarah Michelle Gellar was fan-freakin-tastic and was a shining beacon to an otherwise above-average slasher movie. 

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.

Speaking of complicated relationships, I would've liked more interactions between Julie and Helen. Considering what Helen is going through, I wanted so badly for Julie to bury the hatchet and give the comfort that Helen truly deserves. I mean, at least she went out of her way to join Julie to visit Missy. But the film never gives them enough time to make amends, and instead wants to focus on the mystery/horror aspect instead of the character study it's supposed to be. 

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...

.

Now it's time to talk about that scene. The scene that produced countless of parodies and jokes throughout the 90s and 2000s. Yes, it's the "What are you waiting for!" scene. How this came to be was that a teenaged fan requested it, I guess because they thought it might add more dramatic tension but it came off more corny than anything. Hell, Jennifer Love Hewitt didn't even want to say the line. However, at least it's one of the more memorable parts of the movie. 

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. 

Like I mentioned above, The Fisherman has teleporatation abilites despite being a normal, human man and then there's the scene when Julie discovers Max's dead body in the trunk of her car and just as she drives to Helen's house, the trunk is completely clean with no body in sight. Let me remind you that the trunk was filled with slimly crabs crawling around and not to mention the smell. Then, on top of that, this was all done during the daytime. How could The Fisherman plant a dead body, put crabs all around it, and by the time Julie and the crew go checking on it, completely cleans it out in a nick of time? Think about it, a man in a slicker, in daytime mind you, puts a dead body in a trunk of a car (how did he get the keys?), decorated with crabs, cleans the car out in a span of seconds, then drags the body out, which is obviously heavy, without a trace. There had to be witnesses, there's no way that's logical.

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?

But the most frustrating part of the movie is definitely the climax. So, you have Julie and Ray going toe to toe with Ben Willis. Ray, being the dumbass that he is, gets knocked around and thrown off at the ocean and Julie is the typical damsel in distress: screaming, running around, and expected to be saved. Sidney Prescott, she is not. Speaking of Sidney, she took out two of the killers in the first Scream film. TWO. The only thing Ben Willis has is this measly fishing hook they could easily knock down with a pole or crowbar. It's just so ridiculous. Just by sheer luck, they were able to get away when Ben makes the fatal mistake of getting his fish hook caught on the boat's ropes, pulling him up, severing his hand, and being swung out into the depths of the ocean. It's so over-the-top that it's funny. Unlike the novel, where Julie and Ray decide to confess to the police about the accident, in this version, they decide to just keep it on the hush-hush in terms of why Ben Willis would be after them. And on top of that, the police never found his body. Do I smell sequel bait?

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.