I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
Directed by Jim Gillespie
It’s that time of year again. The weather is heating up, peaches are on sale, school…has been in a bit of limbo for a while already. Okay okay, summer this year probably won’t be like the summers we’re all used to. Except for me, because I plan to spend this summer the same as all the others, inside and watching tons of movies, and what better way to start off the season than with a movie that has summer right in its title? This week I’ll be taking on all three entries in the short lived I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer franchise and I’ll finally be able to tell you if it’s worth knowing what happened last summer.
A Pretty Neat Premise!
After having the last 4th of July party of their high school years, a group of friends accidentally hit someone while driving back home. Certain that if this gets out their lives will all be ruined, the teens hesitantly agree to dump the body and never speak a word of this to anyone else. Cut to a year later, where everyone’s lives have been derailed anyway by the intense guilt from their actions gnawing away at the group. Guilt may not be their only problem though, as members of this group begin getting disturbing messages that share the same ominous phrase, “I Know What You Did Last Summer”. With no idea who could be in on their secret, the teens frantically try to figure out who is targeting them before it’s too late.
Nice Cast, Very Believable Jerks!
One of the best things I Know What You Did Last Summer has going for it is its cast; Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Ryan Phillippe all put in commendable performances as shitty teens. That shittiness is really interesting to me, partially because I think it is perfectly reasonable to believe that a couple privileged teens who think they have their perfect futures set up in front of them might do something terrible to keep it that way, and partially because the actors sell that so well. Their collective shittiness brings an intense atmosphere to the movie, not just of fear as to what this mysterious figure targeting them may do, but also of absolute misery.
Delicious Miserable Atmosphere.
This is such a dour movie and I love that! It takes place in a small crappy North Carolina fishing town that the main cast all returns to, tails between their legs, after the world chews them up and spits them out. It’s an instant karma that doesn’t make them sympathetic again, but does start an interesting mystery of who knows, how do they know this, and what is their plan? I’m not certain of what my feelings are on exactly how this mystery plays out, a lot of it is based on assumptions and then getting really really lucky, but I like the premise a lot and the pacing of the movie is phenomenal. Even when the investigation itself doesn’t move quickly there is always something happening.
It’s Great Until Things Stop Making Sense.
That being said I’m not the biggest fan of the rest of the movie. While the premise was great I don’t think the payoff for the mystery was anywhere close to satisfying, and tons of stuff happens in the movie that does not make any sense whatsoever. Very mild spoilers, in one sequence a character finds something terrible and messy in their trunk, and runs to get their friends to look at it. When they all return, what couldn’t have been more than minutes later, everything is gone and the trunk is in perfect order. This event is never even attempted to be explained at any point and completely broke the reality of the movie for me. A bunch of things like that happen and each time is equally frustrating.
Not Really For The Gorehounds. A Violent Whodunnit. But Not Bad!
Also, this is classified as a slasher movie but there aren’t that many kills in it and the ones I remember weren’t all that good or interesting. Sure, the killer using a hook hand as a weapon was a nice nod to the urban legends that are discussed in the opening, but Candyman did the same thing but better 5 years prior. I’m not the biggest fan of I Know What You Did Last Summer, but it has a neat premise and some good acting, and is worth checking out if you’re really into slashers, whodunnits, or general horror movie history.
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