” i know what you did last summer , ” the first high-profile slasher thriller to be released after 1996’s ” scream , ” and written by the same screenwriter , kevin williamson , is a stylish , effective horror film that became 1997’s biggest hit of the fall season .
while ” scream ” was a more knowing film about the genre , ” i know what you did last summer ” is more reminiscent of a straight-forward slasher flick , but it is far more intelligent than such bottom-of-the-barrel guilty pleasures as all nine of the ” friday the 13th ” films ( well , okay , ” jason goes to hell ” was pure hell to sit through ) .
the film starts off with four talented , aspiring teenage friends who have just graduated from high school in their small boating town of southport , n . c .
it is the 4th of july , and they will soon be heading their separate ways .
kind-hearted julie ( jennifer love hewitt ) , and outsider ray ( freddie prinze jr . ) will be headed off to college , while helen ( sarah michelle gellar ) , who has just been honored croaker queen in the town , and her ignorant jock boyfriend , barry ( ryan phillippe ) , are going to new york to become an actress and football player .
when the four of them travel to a nearby mountain-side beach for the evening , they are dismayed after hitting a man in the road on their way home .
distraught and confused , they decide they can’t go to the police because they will be charged with manslaughter , so they devise a plan to throw the apparently dead victim off a peer into the ocean , in hopes no one will find him .
julie is apprehensive about it , but is forced into it by barry .
switch to exactly a year later , julie , still unable to come to terms with what she did , reluctantly returns home from college to find that all three of her old friends are still in the town because their career plans did not work out .
almost immediately , julie recieves an ominous letter that simply reads , ” i know what you did last summer , ” and that is the start of their problems as they find themselves being terrorized by a mysterious figure dressed in fisherman gear and yielding a giant hook .
” i know what you did last summer , ” is a successful horror film for a number of reasons .
the cinematography by denis crossan could very well be described as hitchcockian , as it put shadows , fog , steam , and other clever devices to add atmosphere to the proceedings .
the characters , particularly julie and helen , are realistically written , and the film amazingly deals with their broken relationship in a few scenes , which is largely uncharacteristic in films of this sort .
and last , the film creates a few dazzling and scary set-pieces that are some of the most memorable i’ve seen in a horror movie , particularly the suspenseful , superbly shot sequence involving helen at her family’s store with the killer inside with her .
perhaps the best character is that of missy egan ( anne heche ) , a lonely backwoods woman whose brother was the one julie thinks they hit .
heche’s performance is a standout , as she is able to create a full character in only about ten minutes of screen time .
” i know what you did last summer , ” could have been a great horror movie if not for a few problems .
prinze jr . gives a performance to be desired here , and much of his dialogue sounds wooden coming out of his mouth .
also , the climax of the film almost completely loses its frightening grip after it unveils the mystery killer , who is a decidedly bad actor and should not have been given any lines .
luckily , the penultimate scene saves the disappointing finale , which includes an expertly crafted ” jump-in-your-seat ” scare .
in the main roles , hewitt and gellar are highly talented , and hewitt , especially , is one of the best screamers i’ve ever heard .
she honestly could give jamie lee curtis a little competition for the best ” scream queen . ”
and gellar is touching as a young woman who , in the course of one year , finds her dream of being an actress ultimately shattered .
although not up to the level of either ” scream ” movies , or the more recent , ” urban legend , ” ” i know what you did last summer ” is a respectable , smartly-scripted slasher film that firmly proved good horror movies were once again being made .