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I Know What
You Did Last Summer (1997)
"I became paranoid, and every night I started
seeing crazy fisherman everywhere." - Jennifer Love-Hewitt
Although this is a really lame horror movie, it does
scare us at times with typical stupid horror film cliches.
The director does know how to build the tension. But
the script is so full of holes, even though it's based
on a novel, and so stupid that it ultimately defeats
the film. What does save it, other than it's better-than-average
direction, is it's cast full of hot teen stars.
The cast is made up of Jennifer Love Hewitt (TV's
"Party of Five"), Ryan Phillippe ("White Squall"), Freddie
Prinz Jr. (son of the TV star who died of an overdose),
Sarah Michelle Gellar (TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"),
Johnny Galecki (of TV's "Roseanne"), and Ann Heche (Ellen
Degeneres' partner). Of these, Hewitt has the best time
of it. She sincerely looks frightened and upset. This
is integral to the plot. She pulls off a difficult part
with seeming ease. Her toughest job is distracting us
from plot holes and it probably works on straight guys.
Phillippe has played a gay boy (TV's soap "One Life
to Live") and a wuss ("Squall"), so he really stretches
out as an asshole jock here and seems to enjoy the change
of pace. I enjoyed looking at him in the shower scenes
too. Prinz is extremely attractive and has that puppy
dog look that his role demands. We wish there was more
tension between he and Phillippe at the film's moment
of their conflict. Gellar, meanwhile, actually does
well too. The plot has her as a loser after the first
20 minutes and she looks like a haggard and beaten girl
of 19 when she is supposed to. Eventually, she reverts
back to a pretty girl too soon however. Galecki is relied
upon to be a suspicious weirdo and performs admirably.
We expect this to be his career path from now on. He
will surely show up in horror films with incestuous
themes in the future. And Heche is cool as a horror
film cliche country hick. Her part is especially silly
but it's neat to see her as this yokel after knowing
about her real life situation.
The director does do an above average job of filming
his youthful cast and keeping the suspense taunt. He
just has no plot to work with. He opens the film with
a wonderful overhead shot of waves crashing loudly on
a New England beach. This is accented by Type O Negative's
version of "Summer Breeze" to set us up for the teen
flick feel of the piece. He also films a street scene
from overhead which looks cool and stages a murder in
a pile of rubber tires in a way we've never seen before.
But ultimately, the film fails when we have time to
try and figure out the plot holes. Her's an example
that won't ruin the film for you. Galecki is killed
for absolutely no reason. Well, no reason other than
to eliminate him as a suspect in the slayings.
"Summer" is a typical teen slasher flick. Other than
it's cute stars (no matter if you like girls or boys),
it has nothing much to offer. Note:
"Hush" by Kula Shaker is used effectively in the film.
Directed by Jim Gillespie. Written by Kevin Williamson.
(Review written in 1997)
Report Card
Script: F
Acting: B+
Cinematography\Lighting: C
Special Effects\Make Up: B-
Music: A
Final Grade: C-
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