Helen Shivers
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Helen Shivers is a fictional character from the 1997 slasher flick I Know What You Did Last Summer. She is portrayed by popular actress Sarah Michelle Gellar.
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[edit] Before I Know What You Did Last Summer
Prior to the events in the first film, Helen is your typical beauty queen: self-involved, somewhat snotty, mainly concerned about her hair and physical appearance. She does show a good bit of intelligence and wit, however, setting herself apart from most of her competition in the Croaker Queen pageant. She is in a relationship with Barry Cox (played by Ryan Phillippe), a high school quarterback, and best friends with Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt)
[edit] I Know What You Did Last Summer
After the accident, Helen moves to New York City to "pursue a career as a serious actress." Unfortunately, it dont work out, and she returns to Southport, where she is employed at her family's department store. To put it bluntly, Helen's life is a mess - she and Barry have broken up, her former best friend wants nothing to do with her, her career aspirations have been crushed, and she is working long hours at a thankless job. When Julie receives an ominous note and Barry is run down by a car driven by a mysterious fisherman, Helen teams up with her old friends to locate the person responsible.
After Helen and Julie pay a visit to the sister of the man they killed, the fisherman sneaks into Helen's bedroom at home and cuts off her beloved hair while she is sleeping. That afternoon, Helen is forced to take part in the town's annual Fourth of July parade, where she and Barry keep an eye out for the fisherman in the crowd. Helen sees him standing on a roof overlooking the street, and he brandishes his hook as a kind of death threat. Helen is distraught and seeks comfort from Barry backstage at the Croaker Queen pageant. He assures her that he won't let anything happen to her, as he will be up on the auditorium's balcony during the show. Being the reigning Croaker Queen, Helen must sit on stage during the pageant and watch the new contestants perform. Amused by one girl's performance, Helen glances up at Barry, only to see the fisherman attack him from behind. She starts screaming and runs from the stage, trying to get to the balcony to help Barry. She is held up by a confused and panicked audience, who crowd around her as Barry is killed. Eventually, a police officer makes his way to her and the two of them search the balcony. Barry's body is gone and there are no signs of a struggle, other than a small splatter of blood that neither one of them sees.
Later, the same policeman offers to drive Helen home from the pageant. While in the police car, she begs him to investigate Barry's disappearance, but he just shrugs off Barry's apparent murder as a stupid prank. They reach a blockade in the road, and the officer decides to take a shortcut through an alley. There, a truck is broken down, and the policeman parks the car to give the truck's driver a hand. As the officer is walking to the truck, Helen realizes that the driver is actually the fisherman and screams a warning. The fisherman pulls out his hook and stabs the officer in the stomach, killing him. Helen, unable to open the back doors of the police cruiser, kicks out one of the windows and manages to escape. The fisherman chases Helen to her family's store, where her older sister Elsa is doing inventory. After a lengthy stalk sequence inside the store (in which Elsa is murdered and Helen is attacked several times), Helen finds herself in another empty alley. She follows the sounds of fireworks and music to the end of the alley, where she sees a marching band walking by on the street. Mere feet from safety, the fisherman suddenly appears behind her and viciously slashes her to death.
Near the end of the film, Julie discovers Helen's body in the ice chamber of the fisherman's boat.
[edit] I Still dont Know What You Did Last Summer
Helen is not a character in the sequel; however, she does make a brief appearance via a picture in Julie's apartment, and Julie mentions her during the film's opening.
[edit] Helen and Barry's relationship
Helen and Barry were high school sweethearts and seemed to have their lives planned out in accordance with once another. They broke up following the events on July 4th, but reconciled shortly before Barry's murder.
[edit] Helen in the novel
In the book, which was written by Lois Duncan, Helen was not a beauty queen, but rather a weather girl at a local news station. Other differences in the novel: Helen lived in an apartment by herself, her last name was Rivers instead of Shivers, and her family was poor (which was the catalyst behind several arguments with her sister, also named Elsa in the book).
