I Know What You Did Last Summer; No one saw him step out.

Title: I Know What You Did Last Summer
Year: 1997
Dir.: Jim Gillespie
Producer: Neal H. Moritz, Eric Feig
Writer(s): Kevin Williamson (screenplay), Lois Duncan (author of I Know What You Did Last Summer, 1973).
Company: Mandalay Entertainment, Columbia Pictures

Starring: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Freddie Prinze Jr., Anne Heche, Bridgette Wilson, Johnny Galecki.

I am going to keep this one as brief as possible.

Why?

There’s nothing magical or special about this movie.

There’s nothing going for I Know What You Did Last Summer minus two sequels, one of which I’ve never seen. And I don’t plan on watching it.

Some back history off the top of my head; I Know What You Did Last Summer is based off a book which was in a series of book by Lois…. Lois Duncan? Her books were everywhere in the late 90s. The book original was published in 1973 but you can imagine the publicity around Duncan and this film that her books would be re-covered and sold more prominent. You have the writer from Scream, Kevin Williamson, writing the screenplay for this and this is post Scream so you can imagine the horror landscape.The success of Scream is probably why this screenplay was created and done by Williamson.

The 90s and early 2000s were this resurgence of horror involving very popular teen actors such as Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Devon Sawa, Neve Campbell, those actors who were booming on television or in films (The Faculty, Urban Legend, Idle Hands, Scream, Final Destination, Little Witches, The Craft, Disturbing Behavior, Fear, etc.)

When I was younger, I really did like this movie. I guess I just liked who was in the movie more than anything. Now looking back at this movie, it’s not that great.

I like the premise and I like the cast, it’s a cast that I “grew up watching” aka I watched Party of Five (which has Hewitt AND Campbell) and I watched Buffy from the beginning so for me, there are elements I like about the movie. The sad part is I don’t think the film aged well or in a positive manner like Scream did. And that’s another problem, the constant comparisons to Scream which did so much that anything similar would immediately get compared and would most likely paled to it.

As for cinematography, there are some very cool moments in the movie but nothing spectacular.

And now remembering this moment off the top of my head now, when I watched this in October, I wrote something similar to this in my notes; there are these moments of camera angles or moves that look unrealistic. There’s a weird effect in the shooting of this movie that I still don’t understand why. It throws me off as an audience member at the age I am. I’m sure I didn’t notice this when I was younger and if I did, it didn’t bother me as much.

I’m a detailed person. I notice everything.

A positive highlight is the beginning of the film, the landscape shots, the “blueness” all over the screen that creates this ominous vibe. Between that scene and the shots of Helen (Gellar) versus the Fisherman in the shop are my favorite moments. It’s the entire atmosphere of both scenes that I feel created the few iconic moments of the film.

Nonetheless, check out the sequel “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer” (I remember seeing that in theaters) but uh, don’t know about the 3rd one.

It’s a staple in teen horror films and that entire phase we had in the 90s and early 2000s. If you’re going to talk about Scream, you have to talk about how this movie.