I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER REVIEW!!! (A 90s SLASHER CLASSIC)
- Matt Palmer
- Oct 16, 2023
- 3 min read
Initial release date: October 17, 1997
Studios: Sony-Columbia/Mandalay Entertainment
Tagline: Not All Secrets Stay Buried
He's got a hook on them ...
Plot: A year after running over a fisherman and dumping his body in the water, four friends reconvene when Julie receives a frightening letter letting her that their crime was seen. While pursuing who he thinks is responsible for the letter, Barry is run over by a man with a meat hook. The bloodletting only increases from there, as the killer with the hook continues to stalk Julie, Helen and Ray.
Cast
Jennifer Love Hewitt - Julie James
Sarah Michelle Gellar - Helen Shivers
Ryan Phillippe - Barry Cox
Freddie Prince Jr. - Ray Bronson
Muse Watson - Ben Willis
Bridgette Wilson-Sampras - Elsa Shivers
Anne Heche - Melissa Egan
Johnny Galecki - Max
Writer: Kevin Williamson (Peacock Original film Sick; Scream 4)
Director Jim Gillespie (Eye See You)
Rated R for strong horror violence and language (101 minutes)
I Know What You Did Last Summer is a 1997 slasher movie that can really hook you in (pun intended since the killer uses a hook). And wow, I just realized that this movie is 26 years old!!! OK, now let's stop feeling old now and let's get back to my thoughts on this slasher flick ...
This 1997 movie is one of the most memorable slasher movies that came out in the 90s. Once the accident happens and the four lead characters hide the body and make their pact, the tension and the suspense slowly begins to grow.
There are a few false scares that make you think something is about to happen. But that helps build the suspense. And speaking of suspense, even though I have seen this movie dozens of times, the first Last Summer movie is still very suspenseful. A lot of tension comes into play once the killer stalks them in the second half of the movie.
The teen slasher also ties everything up nicely and the killer reveal is also one of the best. So, if you're in the mood for a good 90s slasher, check out I Know What You Did Last Summer!
Up next is the 1998 sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (which was OK at best) and the 2006 sequel I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (which I had no idea existed until a few weeks ago).
Here are some fun tidbits for I Know What You Did Last Summer!
Kevin Williamson wrote this script before Scream 91996), but was unable to see it. Following the big screen success of his next screenplay, Scream, Columbia Pictures immediately bought I Know What You Did Last Summer. This is the reason many critics and fans felt this was a huge step down from his more clever and innovative Scream script.
The ice inside the storage of the boat was actually made of gelatin so Hewitt could comfortably move around inside.
The rocky roads where the teens have this hit and run is the same mountainous road location used in the Alfred Hitchcock classic The Birds.
The movie was shot in 50 days.
It was loosely based on the 1973 novel of the same name by Lois Duncan, a youth-oriented suspense novel about four young people who are involved in a hit and run accident involving a young boy.
Producer Erik Feig pitched the idea of a screen adaptation to Mandalay Entertainment, and subsequently appointed Williamson to retool the core elements of Duncan's novel, rendering a screenplay more akin to a 1980s slasher movie.
The killer's arming of himself with a hook is a reference to the urban legend "The Hook."
I Know What You Did Last Summer opened theatrically in North America on October 17, 1997. The movie has been made on a $17 million budget, yet already in its opening weekend it grossed $15.8 million. By the end of its theatrical run that December, it grossed $72.5 million domestically and $53 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $126 million.
It was followed by I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) and I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (2006)
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