I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
RATING: *** (out of ****)
Columbia / 1:40 / 1997 / R (language, violence, gore, terror) Cast: Jennifer Love Hewitt; Sarah Michelle Gellar; Freddie Prinze, Jr.; Ryan Phillippe; Anne Heche; Muse Watson; Bridgette Wilson; Johnny Galecki Director: Jim Gillespie Screenplay: Kevin Williamson
"I Know What You Did Last Summer" is just the kind of horror movie that last December's hit slasher satire "Scream" poked fun at. It's an ironic connection, seeing as how screenwriter-of-the-moment Kevin Williamson penned both of them, adapting the former from Lois Duncan's popular young adult novel and creating the latter from scratch. But while "Summer" boasts a much more solemn tone than "Scream" (and bears more flaws), it certainly proves Williamson's staying power -- simply put that whether the guy's milking or laughing at the genre, he's quite solid at doing it.
The movie tells the story of four friends -- there's prim, sensible Julie ("Party of Five"'s Jennifer Love Hewitt), beauty queen Helen (Sarah Michelle Gellar of TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), boozy jock Barry ("White Squall"'s Ryan Phillippe) and low-key outcast Ray (Freddie Prinze, Jr. of "The House of Yes"). The summer before the quartet of friends venture off to college to pursue their respective dreams, they're out celebrating the July 4th holiday on the beach. Barry becomes too intoxicated to drive his new BMW back to their Southport, North Carolina fishing village hometown, so Ray takes over for him. But along the way, Barry's drunken rantings distract the rest of the party, and they accidentally hit a passer-by while quickly cruising up a windy mountain road. Their semi-reluctant decision to dump the body off a nearby pier leads to an impulsive crime of passion of which the less divulged, the more terrifying the sequence is.
Fast forward a year later and the gang are all husks of their former promising selves, driven to personal failure by remorse. As if 12 months of guilt weren't enough, it also appears that someone knows their secret after Julie receives an ominous note bearing the titular sentence and the group begins being stalked by a psycho clad in Gorton's Fisherman getup -- a rain slicker and hat that mask his identity. Is it the creepy class nerd (Johnny Galecki) who possibly witnessed the initial mishap? The victim's backwoods sister (very good Anne Heche)? One of the four overcome with grief? Or someone different altogether?
"I Know What You Did Last Summer" generates a strong undercurrent of tension from this setup, but its problem area is its anti-climactic boat chase finale. After doing so well on so many levels, it turns into a "Scooby-Doo" episode without the hippie and the talking dog -- once unmasked, you half expect the killer to cry, "And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for you meddling kids!" The actual identity of the villain and how it is revealed is another flaw -- a character who's remained an enigma for 85 minutes starts rattling off one-liners ("Welcome aboard!") like he's Bruce Willis or something. And the movie's concluding scene is illogical; it seems tacked-on to generate one last scare, but only in that sense does it succeed.
It's a sad send-off, because there's much to appreciate about the build-up. Williamson's strong point is in creating interesting protagonists, even if these kids aren't as educated in slasher cinema as the "Scream" gang. The four leads have charisma to spare, especially Prinze as the loner whose actions cast most of the suspicion his way. Hewitt, who is probably supposed to be the main character (she gets the most screen time), has an appealing, low-key presence, even though I found myself wishing she'd do something with her hair. All of them holler with gusto, and maybe that's what matters most. Williamson is also inventive with death scenes; when the Fisherman meat hooks one person in the jugular and yanks them across a stove that's boiling crabs, you'll never look at seafood in quite the same way again.
The movie looks beautifully downbeat, shot in somber hues of blue and gray that fast establish a notably grim tone. I don't know if horror flicks are Oscar fodder, but it'd be nice if director of photography Denis Crossan got a nod. Then again, all of the technical credits are first-rate -- production-wise, this movie excels. "I Know What You Did Last Summer"'s undoings restrain it from attaining the level of "Scream," but, that icky conclusion aside, it's still pretty much a scream.
© 1997 Jamie Peck E-mail: jpeck1@gl.umbc.edu Visit the Reel Deal Online: http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~jpeck1/
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