I Know What You Did Last Summer
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| I Know What You Did Last Summer | |
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| Directed by | Jim Gillespie |
| Produced by | William S. Beasley |
| Written by | Lois Duncan Kevin Williamson |
| Starring | Jennifer Love Hewitt Sarah Michelle Gellar Ryan Phillippe Freddie Prinze, Jr. |
| Music by | John Debney |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 17, 1997 (USA) |
| Running time | 100 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $17,000,000 |
| Followed by | I Still Know What You Did Last Summer |
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| IMDb profile | |
I Know What You Did Last Summer is a 1997 horror film. It stars Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Freddie Prinze, Jr., and Anne Heche. The screenplay was written by Kevin Williamson, which was based on a popular novel by Lois Duncan. The film was followed with the sequels, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer and I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer.
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[edit] Production
Kevin Williamson's screenplay was purchased before his screenplay for the movie Scream. It was only after Scream's success that producers rushed Williamson's screenplay for I Know What You Did Last Summer into production.
[edit] Plot
A group of friends -- Croaker queen Helen Shivers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her angry jock boyfriend Barry William Cox (Ryan Phillipe), Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), -- Helen wins the beauty contest, they party on the beach, telling horror stories about a hook-handed man who killed young lovers. As they swerve home along the shoreline road in Barry's BMW, a shape suddenly looms in the lights. Before they know what has happened, they've skidded to a stop in the middle of the road, they accidentally ran over a man walking across the road. They know what they should do, but they've been drinking. If they turn to the police, all of their post-high school dreams are likely to be shattered--no college football for Barry, no law school for Julie, no heading to New York for Helen or Ray. Barry manages to convince the others to help him dispose of the body rather than report the accident. They are nearly caught by fellow senior Max (Johnny Galecki), who shows up driving down the road and stops to see if (mostly Julie) has car trouble. They say no and Max drives off. They then drive down to the docks and dump the body. The man they ran over appears to still be alive when he grabs Helens crown. Barry jumps in and gets the crown realizing the man is still alive.
At the end of her first year of college, exactly one year later when she returns home, Julie receives a mysterious letter stating "I know what you did last summer". Deciding it's time to see her old friends, Julie visits the market where Helen's elder sister Elsa (Bridgette Wilson) works, finding that Helen never made it to New York and is now working there. Helen suggests the two head off to find Barry, who immediately suspects Max. Taking the girls with him, Barry goes in alone with Max and threatens the guy with a large fishing hook hanging nearby. On the way out, Barry and the girls see Ray, now a fisherman. The two guys discredit everything that happened so far and leave, Ray then brings Julie aside to talk but she tells him that she no longer wants him in her life and walks away from him. It pans to Max cooking fish and then him being killed by the man with the fish hook that Barry threatened him with earlier.
The movie then shows Barry at the local Gym working out. He is taking a shower when he hears somebody come in. He gets out to find put his clothes on, only to discover that his jacket has been stolen and a picture of his beloved car with the words "I Know" on it is stuck in his locker. He runs outside to see his car being stolen. He runs after the car and it stops in its tracks then turns its lights on and drives straight at him. Barry runs but is hit and driven through a building (the car takes most of the blow). A man with a hook gets out and just stares at Barry, Barry then falls unconscious, waking up in the hospital.
Juile arrives at the hospital greeted by Ray and they go to Barrys hospital room where Helen already is. Through a string of research, Helen and Julie quickly find a relative to the man they killed, David Egan. Missy Egan (Anne Heche) lives alone in the "sticks", and offers only a few clues as to who might be responsible, Billy Blue. This clue temporarily strains trust between Julie and Ray, but this is overcome for a while.
Helen has a short talk with Julie in her car and tells her she misses her and that they used to be best friends. Julie doesn't even bother to reply and lets Helen out. Helen returns home to find her father watching TV. A few Moments later, the door opens again. There is a clear view that someone in a slicker is there, but he goes unnoticed. He slips into Helen's room moments before she enters. The night passes uneventfully... until Helen wakes up to find her crown on her head and most of her hair cut off and left on her pillow and "Soon" is written in lipstick on her mirror.
Helen immediately calls Barry to come over and also calls to tell Julie about the threat. Julie rushes over in her car. While driving she hears a scratching in her trunk and stops to open it only to find Max's dead body wearing Barry's stolen jacket and crabs crawling all over him. Julie screams, closes her trunk and runs to Helen's where she finds both Barry and Helen.
This threat catches Barry's attention, and he subsequently swears protection for Helen. She is due in the parade that Day and Barry rides along with her and the float. Helen thinks she sees the man and Barry chases after him, but it ends up just to be a civilian. Before the pageant Helen tells Barry she saw the man with a hook and Barry pulls her close to comfort her and tells her "It'll be okay. I wont let anything happen to you". During the pageant, however, Barry is attacked from behind in the balcony. Helen, seeing him being dragged back, begins to shout, cry and plead for help, however this is of no use and she is held back by the crowd when she attempts to go and rescue him. She is driven home in a distraught state by a police officer, but the officer stops to see if a stalled car needs help. He is killed, and Helen screams and gets out of the car and runs. The killer tracks her down and kills her amid the loud band music of the parade, having already killed Elsa in the market where she went to hide.
Julie, having figured out at last who the killer truly is, runs to find Ray. The clue mentioned earlier about Billy Blue, sends her running from him. Ray is stopped by an older fisherman, who tells Julie to get onto the boat. The fisherman, however, turns out to be the killer, as he reveals to Julie by pulling out the large fish hook from his jacket. He is also wearing dirty Wellington boots, a clue to his identity. A chase ensues throughout the boat. Ray finds a small boat nearby and gains access to the fisherman's boat, adding to the chase. Julie runs to the bottom of the boat only to find Barry and Helen frozen in the pieces of ice to freeze fish. The chase ends with the Fisherman's hand being chopped off and the body thrown overboard, though not found later.
The film ends with a moment of suspense. Julie is at college, ready to take a shower and finishing up talking to now boyfriend Ray. A friend passes and tells her that she has mail. Julie is somewhat shocked when it looks like the letter she got that started everything, but is relieved to find that it is only an invitation to a pool party. On her return to the shower room, however, she finds it completely filled with steam. The last shots show the words "I Still Know" written on the glass shower door. There is a flash of Julie's shocked face, then the camera pans to the glass mirror, which is broken by a figure in a slicker....
[edit] Box office and critical reception
Opening to $15.8 million in 2,524 theaters, the slasher was declared a hit from the start. Impressively, the movie stayed in the #1 position again the following week and showed great legs at the box office throughout October 1997. The end result was a total of $72.5 million and making its mark as one of the few popular horror films released in the 90's.
Critics, however, were mixed in their reviews. Critic Roger Ebert wrote in his review, "The best shot in this film is the first one. Not a good sign."
[edit] Subsequent careers
After the film's release, Prinze and Hewitt emerged as two of the most popular young stars in the country. Prinze went on to do a string of romantic comedies aimed at the teenage market. However, Hewitt's career initially floundered in the late 1990s after a poorly reviewed television biography of Audrey Hepburn and an ill-fated 1999 television series. However, at the turn of the millennium, she rose to fame as an actress, working in movies alongside Jackie Chan, and most recently, receiving a starring role in the hit CBS Television Show Ghost Whisperer.
Meanwhile, Gellar's role in the movie, alongside starring on her TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, began a long career of horror for the actress. She furthered her horror career by appearing later that year in Scream 2. She would later go on to star in 2004's The Grudge and also in 2006's sequel The Grudge 2. She will also star in the upcoming horror thriller The Return. Phillipe co-starred with Gellar in Cruel Intentions.
Gellar and Prinze would later marry. Gellar denied her interest in Prinze began when they met on the set of this film. Prinze was romantically involved with another woman at the time. Prinze and Gellar later costarred as Fred and Daphne on the movie Scooby Doo.
