The Summer of Horror: “I Know What You Did Last Summer”
Remember when our biggest national problem was four teens who covered up an accidental murder? Those were the days!
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997, Shudder) was written by Kevin Williamson before his even bigger movie, Scream, was released, but didn’t see the light of day until after studios decided to jump on the new era of teen slasher flicks. After Scream, but before the dozens of other cheap knockoffs like Urban Legend, The Faculty, and Final Destination, came a movie about the worst summer ever until 2020.
As with all the Slasher Revival movies, I Know What You Did Last Summer stars plenty of pretty 1990s Gen Xers; here, it’s Jennifer Love Hewitt (in what would become her signature film role), Sarah Michelle Gellar taking a break from slaying vampires, Freddie Prinze, Jr., and Ryan Philippe. After our attractive foursome accidentally hit a stranger on the road one Fourth of July evening, they decide to dump his body in the water and pretend like it never happened. Why? Because Barry (Philippe) is heavily drunk and, although he wasn’t driving, it was his car and he doesn’t want to get into trouble. (Points for using a designated driver?) Even though Barry is White and rich and would likely get a slap on the wrist, everyone complies with doubling down on this nightmare. Barry bullies them into it, but it’s three against one and, well, he’s the rich White male of the group.
Except they didn’t quite make sure that their victim was 100% dead before dumping him. One year later he’s back to take his slow and plot-holey revenge!
During the past 365 days, our gang has been coping with the burden of keeping this big secret in their own sad ways. Barry boxes, sulks around his mansion with his mom, and is sort of generally grumpy all the time. Helen (SMG) tried to make it as an actress in New York City but failed, moved back home, and works at the family department store with her bitter and miserable older sister. (Though, how hard did Helen really try if she gave it less than a year?) Ray (Prinze, Jr.) works on a fishing boat in the same small town. And Julie (JLH) has gone to college, but appears to have spent her freshman year being gloomy and distracted because she’s carrying the burden of this big secret that could have been avoided if she, Helen, and Ray had only ignored Barry’s yelling.
Somehow, despite all still living in the same small town, Helen, Barry, and Ray have little to no contact with one another. Because this is pre-social media, no one has contact with Julie, either. When she returns for the summer and finds Helen, and they in turn track down Barry and Ray, it’s like the most awkward and cranky class reunion ever.
Over the next few days, the gang is given several opportunities to come clean and confess to the police, and each time Barry stops them. By the time Julie finds the body of a friend in the trunk of her car, the kids decide it’s too late to tell the cops anyway. Thanks to this forward-thinking decision, once the killer really gets going, no one now believes these crazy kids and mayhem ensues.
As far as horror goes, I Know What You Did Last Summer is a tamer, far less gory version of its older sibling, Scream. There’s some splattered blood and plenty of implied hacking and gutting, but nothing that would be too edited for network TV in 2020. Instead, IKWYDLS relies on jump scares, screams, and lots of chase scenes. In that respect, its DNA comes from slasher ancestors like Halloween, where the suspense lies in not knowing who will be killed next rather than a gorefest.
IKWYDLS knows its audience and doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is: a toned-down slasher movie for the teen set. Don’t overthink it, just sit back and enjoy the ride.
In keeping with the rules of slasher movie final girls, Julie is clearly the star, as she’s smart, feminist, and spends the most time standing up to Barry. She, Helen, Helen’s sister Elsa, and the victim’s sister Melissa, all have names and all have many conversations with one another about subjects other than men, earning IKWYDLS a passing grade on the Bechdel Test.
Unfortunately for Julie, however, she’s played by Jennifer Love Hewitt and must spend almost the entire movie wearing low-cut tank tops. Which isn’t necessarily bad; it’s nice to see a movie that doesn’t ugly-ify its smart girl for the sake of taking her seriously, or to be used as an “other” against the pretty, popular girl. Julie is smart, feminist, AND conventionally attractive. At times, though, JLH’s costuming feels it’s chosen purely to titillate male audience members who feel squicky watching the college-bound girl stand up to the group’s Alpha Male.
The 90s were a time of political correctness and Riot Grrrl feminism, so while JLH (and SMG) are there for the boys and lesbians, Ryan Philippe spends a hefty chunk of a scene in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist and also in a tank top. Equality!
Where IKWYDLS fails, though, is in the killer’s motives. Whereas the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises start off with motives of revenge, IKWYDLS goes beyond that. Innocent people who had nothing to do with the kinda-not-murder are killed, making it seem like the killer wants revenge, but also just likes to slash people with a hook.
All told, this is far from the best horror movie out there and it’s not the worst, either. For the genre, it falls dead center. For 90s teen slashers, it’s close to the top, but then Final Destination and Urban Legends are hardly competition. The plot holes are there if you care. If you don’t, grab a cold drink, crank up the a/c, and curl up with all the 90s nostalgia in this flick.
