Review of I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) by Stuart K — 30 Apr 2014

Directed by Jim Gillespie (D-Tox (2002) and Venom (2005)) and written by Kevin Williamson (Scream (1996) and The Faculty (1998)), adapted from the 1973 slasher novel by Lois Duncan. This slasher film adds nothing new to the well worn sub-genre, but this one has some good moments and a few good scares along the way, plus it helped make stars out of it's young cast for a time.

High school seniors Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt), her boyfriend Ray (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), Julie's best friend Helen (Sarah Michelle Gellar), and her boyfriend Barry (Ryan Phillippe) who celebrate by going to the local beach to party.

On the way back, they accidentally hit a stranger with their car, they're all scared that the local police won't believe what happened, especially as they're all drunk. So, they decide to dump the body in the ocean, and never talk about it again.

However, a year later, they start getting letters saying "I Know What You Did Last Summer", and they suspect one of them talked, but when the body count starts, the fear builds up. It's actually a good film, it's not perfect, but it does have it's moments, and it manages to build up a dark atmosphere and hold it throughout the film.

It was made for a pittance, but it was a box-office success and spawned an immediate sequel, imaginatively titled I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998).