ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - October 17th
"I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER"
released in 1997
"I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER"
released in 1997
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One year after covering up a car accident in which they were involved, friends Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt), Helen (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Barry (Ryan Phillipe) and Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.) begin to receive ominous threats from someone who witnessed what they really did that fateful July 4th night, in Kevin Williamson and Jim Gillespie's, I Know What You Did last Summer!
While at the beach celebrating the 4th of July, couple Julie (Hewitt) and Ray (Prinze Jr.) decide to drive their friends Helen (Gellar) and Barry (Phillipe) back to town, as Barry is too intoxicated. Barry's rowdy behavior as they're driving, distracts Ray from the road, and they hit a passing pedestrian. Realizing that the boy is dead, the group argue on whether to report the accident to the police - with Julie wanting to alert the authorities, and Helen and Barry both wanting to dispose the of the body. While they're arguing, another friend of theirs, Max (Johnny Galecki) drives by, but Julie convinces him everything is fine, before he drives off. The four later take the body to the river and push it in, swearing to never speak of it again.
One year later, Julie returns from college for the summer, and immediately finds a letter stating, "I know what you did last summer." Julie meets with Helen - who she has not spoken to since that night - and the two girls later meet with Barry about the note. Barry immediately suspects Max (as he was the only other person that was there that night) and the three confront him at the wharf, where Barry threatens him with a hook. While at the docks, Julie runs into Ray, who is now a fisherman, and he attempts to reconcile with her, but Julie still blames him for not wanting to go to police with her that night and leaves. Later that night, Max is brutally killed by a figure in a rain slicker wielding a hook. The same figure attacks Barry at his gym, running him over in his own car. In the morning Helen wakes up to discover the killer has chopped her hair off - writing "Soon" in lipstick in the mirror, and Julie discovers Max's body in the truck of her car. Believing the killer is a relative of the boy they killed last summer, Julie reveals she knows that the person they hit was David Egan (having read about his disappearance in the local paper the year before), and visits Egan's sister Missy (Anne Heche). Missy tells Julie that another person claiming to be David's "friend" came by asking about him earlier - Missy calling him Baby Blue - and shows Julie a suicide note that David wrote before he disappeared. Julie realizes the writing matches the writing on the note and rushes back to town.
Meanwhile, Helen participates in the annual Croaker Pageant, with Barry watching over her from the balcony. But during the ceremony, Barry is killed by the Fisherman. Helen herself is later killed when the Fisherman corners her in her family's department store - also killing Helen's sister Elsa. Julie arrives later at the dock to find Ray, but is shocked to discover Ray's boat is called the Baby Blue. Believing he is killer, Julie seeks the help of another fisherman on the dock, not realizing she is now trapped on the real killer's boat - Ben Willis - who reveals what really happened last summer!
While at the beach celebrating the 4th of July, couple Julie (Hewitt) and Ray (Prinze Jr.) decide to drive their friends Helen (Gellar) and Barry (Phillipe) back to town, as Barry is too intoxicated. Barry's rowdy behavior as they're driving, distracts Ray from the road, and they hit a passing pedestrian. Realizing that the boy is dead, the group argue on whether to report the accident to the police - with Julie wanting to alert the authorities, and Helen and Barry both wanting to dispose the of the body. While they're arguing, another friend of theirs, Max (Johnny Galecki) drives by, but Julie convinces him everything is fine, before he drives off. The four later take the body to the river and push it in, swearing to never speak of it again.
One year later, Julie returns from college for the summer, and immediately finds a letter stating, "I know what you did last summer." Julie meets with Helen - who she has not spoken to since that night - and the two girls later meet with Barry about the note. Barry immediately suspects Max (as he was the only other person that was there that night) and the three confront him at the wharf, where Barry threatens him with a hook. While at the docks, Julie runs into Ray, who is now a fisherman, and he attempts to reconcile with her, but Julie still blames him for not wanting to go to police with her that night and leaves. Later that night, Max is brutally killed by a figure in a rain slicker wielding a hook. The same figure attacks Barry at his gym, running him over in his own car. In the morning Helen wakes up to discover the killer has chopped her hair off - writing "Soon" in lipstick in the mirror, and Julie discovers Max's body in the truck of her car. Believing the killer is a relative of the boy they killed last summer, Julie reveals she knows that the person they hit was David Egan (having read about his disappearance in the local paper the year before), and visits Egan's sister Missy (Anne Heche). Missy tells Julie that another person claiming to be David's "friend" came by asking about him earlier - Missy calling him Baby Blue - and shows Julie a suicide note that David wrote before he disappeared. Julie realizes the writing matches the writing on the note and rushes back to town.
Meanwhile, Helen participates in the annual Croaker Pageant, with Barry watching over her from the balcony. But during the ceremony, Barry is killed by the Fisherman. Helen herself is later killed when the Fisherman corners her in her family's department store - also killing Helen's sister Elsa. Julie arrives later at the dock to find Ray, but is shocked to discover Ray's boat is called the Baby Blue. Believing he is killer, Julie seeks the help of another fisherman on the dock, not realizing she is now trapped on the real killer's boat - Ben Willis - who reveals what really happened last summer!
[Julie and Helen speak with Barry about the letters]
Barry: I know what you did last summer?
[Sarcastic]
Barry: Ooooooh! What a crock of shit.
Top: Friends Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt), Helen (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Barry (Ryan Phillipe) and Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.) discover the hit a young man with their car;
Above: A year later, Julie is still haunted by guilt from that night
Kevin Williamson wrote the script based on the Lois Duncan novel before Scream (1996), but was unable to sell it. That all changed after the enormous success of Scream, Columbia Pictures, with Mandalay Enetrtainment, immediately bought the property. Aside from the characters names and the teens hitting someone with their car, the plot is almost completely different from the original novel. In the novel they did not hit a fisherman but a young boy who was the brother of one of Helen's new friends. In addition, no one dies in the book; Barry is shot with a gun but survives and Julie comes to a close encounter and was almost choked by Collie, the boys brother, but Ray hits him with a club.
Melissa Joan Hart was first to turn down the role of Julie James, before Jennifer Love Hewitt was cast. Interestly, Hewitt had originally auditioned for the role of beauty queen Helen, while Sarah Michelle Gellar later auditioned for the part of Julie; both actresses would eventually end up playing the part the other auditioned for. Freddie Prinze Jr. and Ryan Phillipe joined the cast as Julie and Helen's respective boyfriends, Ray and Barry, with supporting cast including, Bridgette Wilson, Anne Heche, Johnny Galecki, and Muse Watson as the murderous Fisherman/Ben Willis.
Melissa Joan Hart was first to turn down the role of Julie James, before Jennifer Love Hewitt was cast. Interestly, Hewitt had originally auditioned for the role of beauty queen Helen, while Sarah Michelle Gellar later auditioned for the part of Julie; both actresses would eventually end up playing the part the other auditioned for. Freddie Prinze Jr. and Ryan Phillipe joined the cast as Julie and Helen's respective boyfriends, Ray and Barry, with supporting cast including, Bridgette Wilson, Anne Heche, Johnny Galecki, and Muse Watson as the murderous Fisherman/Ben Willis.
[Barry fights with Ray]
Julie: Barry, stop!
Barry: No! Wake up, Julie. He's behind all this! How many fucked up fisherman are out there?
Ray: Look, he's after me too! I got a letter.
Barry: Oh, you got a letter? I got run over! Helen gets her hair chopped off, Julie gets a body in her trunk, and you get a letter? That's balanced!
Top: The friends immediately suspect Max (Johnny Galecki) is the one sending the notes, as he was also on the road that night;
Above: Julie: [screaming in frustration] What are you waiting for, huh?! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!
Filmed in only 50-days, production for I Know What You Did Last Summer began on 31st march, 1997, in North Carolina (curiously not far from where writer Williamson was producing his TV series, Dawson's Creek). The set relocated from North Carolina to California for scene where the four teenagers run over David Egan. Producer Erik Feig said that North Carolina was the flattest state and they needed a more 'curvy' and 'dangerous looking' road. The film originally had a different ending, where Julie James is chatting with Ray online, she gets the pool party invitation, and then another person starts a chat with her typing in, "I still know.", then the killer jumps out on her. Although the ending was never used, it was included in the teaser trailer for the sequel.
I Know What You Did Last Summer caused quite a bit of controversy before it was even released, with Lois Duncan openly stating that she hated the movie, because the filmmakers turned her book into a slasher film (Duncan especially detested it in the wake of her 18-year-old daughter's murder in 1989). Columbia Pictures was later successfully sued by Mirmax when Columbia attempted to promote the movie as, "From the creator of Scream". Miramax, who owned the rights to the Scream franchise, had the phrase removed as false advertising.
Above: The Fisherman (Muse Watson) prepares to take another victim!
Released in mid-October, I Know What You Did Last Summer proved another success at the box office for a horror film with Williamson's named attached to it, grossing an impressive $72 million in the US alone by the end of its theatrical run (amassing over $125 million, including worldwide receipts). Critics, however, were less enthusiastic, giving mainly negative reviews. Critic Roger Ebert gave the film 1/4 stars and wrote in his review, "The best shot in this film is the first one. Not a good sign." But Jennifer Love Hewitt was praised for her performance as Julie James by an Entertainment Weekly columnist stating that Hewitt knows how to scream with soul.
Both Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jennifer Love Hewitt would go on to great fame in the horror genre, with Gellar as Buffy Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) - as well as appearing in Scream 2 (1997) - and Hewitt in Ghost Whisperer (2005). I Know What You Did Last Summer also spawned two sequels; I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) and the straight-to-DVD release I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (2006). Though the former film sees a continuation of the plot-line established in its predecessor, the latter film establishes a new plot-line and does not star any cast members from the previous two installments.
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 36%
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