Write a commentFor the majority of my life, I've angered a lot of people.
Whether it be due to the fact I continually ask questions or just because of a simple difference of opinion, I've been labeled as "difficult" or "annoying". I accept that. No one is everyone's cup of tea. Some people don't even like tea. They prefer coffee or even plain water. The point I'm making is I've never been the recipient of an anonymous block letter text note. I've also never written one myself nor have I done one of those "cutting letters from old magazines" deals. That takes time, commitment, patience and steady hands. None of which I possess.
During the first act of "I Know What You Did Last Summer", our protagonists are celebrating the end of their senior year. They go to the beach, have a fire and talk about the urban legend of a man with a hook for a hand. Barry (Phillippe) is a football star and an alcoholic, the type of guy we all knew in high school. Good looking, loud, practically made of Teflon. While being just about the biggest moron one could, he stands up through a sunroof, drunkenly woohoos and yips right before dropping a bottle of liquor into Ray's (Prinze, Jr.) lap. Oh, yeah. Ray is driving and half-full liquor bottles to the crotch wasn't covered in driver's ed. Ray, distracted, mows down a pedestrian. Barry threatens Julie (Hewitt) and makes the executive decision to dispose of the pedestrian's body. A year later, Julie receives a note: "I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER".
The film, written by Kevin Williamson ("Scream"), runs through the usual slasher movie tropes. Unlike "Scream" that came out the year before, "I Know..." doesn't really deal with rules or self-aware teens. Most of the characters in this film are blissfully unaware of horror movie tropes. There's a passing line about halfway through when Julie and Helen (Gellar) are doing their investigating that sounds like a line directly out of "Scream", but besides that, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of life here. Even as a teenager myself when this came out, I knew this was just okay in comparison to a film like "Scream". Thankfully, only a couple of months after "I Know..." was released, "Scream 2" would come out in theaters.
Julie and the gang run afoul of the man in the slicker and it tries being a whodunit, failing for the most part. The mystery is revealed in such a weird and hamfisted way that, towards the end, some characters are talking and what they're saying doesn't make a ton of sense. The idea that a film should "show and don't tell" was lost on the filmmakers. They opt instead to have these actors, some of whom are not that great, explain the plot to death. For a movie that should just be a series of fun murder set pieces, it certainly gets bogged down pretty quickly.
An issue about this movie that has only recently cropped up has to do with the mid-movie foot chase with Helen desperately trying to avoid the killer. Almost thirty years later, people have reappraised this film and cite this particular chase as one of the best in slasher history. Hyperbole aside, this is a competently shot and paced sequence, but it's extremely difficult for me to jump on the bandwagon. For one, director Gillespie doesn't have the skills of someone like Wes Craven ("Scream", "A Nightmare on Elm Street"). Craven always found a way to squeeze every drop of suspense out of a sequence. If you look to "Scream 2", there are several masterful sequences where the good guys are trying to escape the killer. Attempting to mention anything from "I Know..." in the breath as something of Craven's is laughable if it weren't so tragic.
With all this in mind, yes, the movie is fun (for the most part). The kills are serviceable, but they all feel like they're building up to something that unfortunately never comes to pass. We, as the audience, are continually looking to the horizon for something to happen. "Maybe the next sequence. Nope. Okay, maybe the next. Nope." It's a series of disappointments. Over the years, "I Know..." now passes for background noise on a slow day off. It's not a film that's exactly interesting enough to study. In all honesty, the only reason I chose to review it is to lead into the newest film.
I'd be lying if I said I don't watch this movie a lot. It's less about the quality of the movie and more about it being oddly comforting to watch. And I know there are a lot of fans of this movie. I'm never going to try disabusing people of their opinions; I just don't really understand the newfound hype for this mediocre film. But, as they say, "all old things are new again" or something like that.
I guess there is one good thing about all of this: perhaps after this review is posted, I'll get my very own block lettered stalker note.
'I KNOW YOU DIDN'T LIKE 'I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER' THAT MUCH. WATCH YOUR BACK!"
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
Directed by: Jim Gillespie
Cast: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Ryan Phillippe, Anne Heche, Muse Watson
Runtime: 101 minutes
MPAA Rating: R (Strong horror violence and language)
Rating (out of ****): **1/2
