I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER

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Douglas Lobo
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMERI KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER - 1997
USA Release: Oct. 17, 1997
Columbia Pictures / Mandalay Films, Summer Knowledge
Rating: USA: R

Why do some successful movies, after their theater run, have a long career in DVD and TV, while others are forgotten forever though they were huge successes too?

In actuality, some movies will always surprise those who expect a short career for them. Ten years ago, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER was a huge success world wide. But who really expected the movie would become a long career film?

The movie is based on Lois Duncan's novel. It's about four teenagers who accidentally run over a man. They hide his dead body and decide not to tell anyone what happened. But exactly one year later a mysterious hook-handed man appears and begins hunting them. It's the start of a series of bloody murders in a bucolic sea county, while the four youngsters desperately try to save their lives.

Starring Jennifer Love Hewitt (I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER) as Julie James, Sarah Michelle Gellar (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, THE GRUDGE, THE RETURNER) as Helen Shivers, Ryan Phillippe (LIFE FORM, ANTI-TRUST, BREACH) as Barry William Cox, and Freddie Prinze (SCOOBY-DOO [1 and 2]) as Ray Bronson.

On the one hand, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER is a real suspense movie because we never know where the danger comes from. The killer is cold, slow and efficient. On the other hand, cast seemed too inexperienced at that time and they did a lot of over-acting. Jennifer Hewitt's screams, for example, are close to Macaulay Culkin's in Home alone.

The movie plot is worn out: a murderer is killing a group of youngsters one-by-one. How many American movies are like this? But maybe that's why the movie is enjoyed even today. Watching I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER is a new way to appreciate old movies. A movie with a frightening serial killer, sexy young actors and actresses in a small bucolic place has a little touch of films like FRIDAY THE 13th and HALLOWEEN in their good times.

Although still appreciated a decade later, the movie, directed by Jim Gillespie (D-TOX, VENOM), doesn't have the cultural strength of its ancestors, which became symbols of their time. But some movies will always surprise those who expect a short career for them.

I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER gets 4 out of 5 ShriekGirls.

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This review copyright 2007 E.C.McMullen Jr.

I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) on IMDb
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