I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

reviewed by
James Sanford


I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMERDirected by Jim Gillespie Hearing that "I Know What You Did Last Summer" comes from the word-processor of Kevin Williamson, writer of last year's surprisingly smart "Scream," could entice you to take a look at this teens-in-peril thriller. Alas, the sophomore jinx has struck hard: Though "Summer" eventually runs through most of the cliches of its genre, it's noticeably lacking in the witty spins "Scream" put on such material. Call it a case of tired blood. "Summer" begins with a beach party gone wrong. High school grads Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt), Helen (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Barry (Ryan Phillippe) and Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.) spend the night of July 4th whooping it up, but they have little to celebrate when they accidentally run down a man on their way home. Terrified of being held on murder charges, the four decide to dump the body in the ocean, only to find their crime resurfacing a year later, as a mysterious stalker begins terrorizing them and sending ominous notes that seem to warn of impending doom. From this point on, you can probably play it by ear, since Williamson's script has no major surprises lurking in it. The resolution of the story falls flat, partially because it's completely unbelievable and partially because the killer turns out to be the most obvious suspect. And while any cod in the audience will undoubtedly shiver at the sight of a murderer in fisherman's garb, it looks pretty silly to us land-lubbers. Throughout, Hewitt and Gellar scream with conviction, Phillippe preens and Prinze basically does a lot of blank-eyed staring (he's much better in "The House of Yes," in which he actually has a character to play). The only interesting performance comes from Anne Heche, playing the inscrutable near-albino sister of a murder victim. What she's doing in this trifle is anyone's guess, but she brings some much-needed spookiness to what's essentially an "Afterschool Special" with a body count. James Sanford


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