Spooptober 2022 | Movie :pound_symbol:1
Cheesy and engaging, IKWYDLS is a fun 90s slasher with all the tropes and cliches of it’s decade. Never too serious, an intriguing “who-done-it” plot and PG-13 kills keep things rolling through the delightfully brief runtime. Fun way to kick off the spooky season.
Very entertaining, even after all these years.
I Know What You Did Last Summer is a smart and well-crafted film that helped to revive the teen slasher genre in the late ‘90s. Based on a novel, the story follows a group of 4 high school graduates who accidentally get into a hit-and-run, and then take a vow of secrecy after dumping the body. The cast is quite good, and includes Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Freddie Prinze Jr. (though some of the acting is a bit weak). Still, the storytelling is well-done and keeps an air of mystery and suspense throughout the film. While I Know What You Did Last Summer sticks to the same old tropes of the slasher genre, it does so in a clever and inventive way that’s a lot of fun.
Based on my wife's recollection (I'd never seen this movie until very recently) this movie was huge back when it first came out. I'm struggling to understand why. As with so many other things, did we just not... have taste or know how to distinguish good from terrible in the 90's?
I feel this this comment/review has gotten ahead of itself already, but man this holds up terribly. Though I'm pretty sure it was terrible in 1997 too, so I'm not sure "holds up" is the right term.
I have no idea how Freddie Prince Jr and Ryan Phillippe ever got an acting gig, let alone multiple ones. I've seen more convincing performances in middle school musicals. On the upside, Sarah Michelle Gellar (yay Buffy!) and Jennifer Love Hewitt (of many things) do the best with the material they are given and while even they can't manage to save a script this awful, they can at least make watching it halfway bearable.
The plot machinations are so insane, and make so little sense, that I don't even think it's worth going into them. Don't @ me (or fine, why not, maybe do) if you want me to go into detail. The script for this movie must've looked like a block of swiss cheese.
Overall: I don't know if tastes have shifted, I don't know if we were all dumber in the 90s, I don't know if we are spoiled by the quality of current movies and TV (especially in the horror genre, which all of a sudden is amazing again), but the TL;DR is: there are literally thousands of movies better than this one. Watch one of those.
Silly but entertaining slasher film. With a really good cast and a Kevin Williamson (Scream) screenplay. I just hate the “killer comes back for one more scare” endings. Though the ending of the sequel is much worse.
Don't go into this looking for an elaborate plot or fantastic acting. Take it for what it is - a silly fun slasher flick.
Bonus points for J.Love running around.
This movie had major potential, but some weird choices just makes you wonder...
Throughout the film, due to some solid cinematography and acting, there's a certain atmosphere that it's crafted that actually holds tension and doesn't give off a "tacky" or "cheap" vibe as some other movies (especially slasher ones) at the time did. Some self-aware humor sprinkled throughout it also makes it fun (even if some people say it "ripped off" Scream). So, even due to some weird choices, it always "feels" good in a certain way. However, these weird choices makes you wonder sometimes:
Why was The Fisherman toying with the bunch at times? For instance, why would he choose to cut Helen's hair instead of just killing her?; even if her hair is important to the character, there's no reason for the killer to actually give a f*** about it.
Why and how (but most importantely WHY) would he stuff Julie's car trunk with Max's corpse and a bunch of live crabs? And, minutes later, just... disappear with it...
How does he kill Barry and gets away with it? He slashes him with a hook and, fine, there's a show going on so no one can hear it or see it, but there's just a little blood on the scene after that gruesome death (that the cop obviously doesn't notice) and the killer just... disappears with Barry's corpse without a trace...
There are some other stuff that I was picky about at first but, the more I thought about them, the more they made sense. For instance: how would Julie and Helen not recognize that David was not the same guy that they rannover if they saw the corpse on the road and Edgar's pictures in Melissa's house (and probably did Ray, as he had been there before)? But, looking back, they make sure to say that "his face is all messed up" lol . So kudos to the movie for covering some of their bases when the viewers start overthinking it; even when it's revealed that the killer is a non-supernatural being (which is a nice twist on the genre), the action still makes sense
Anyway, as I said, the movie and its atmosphere "feels" good (at least for me) and not "tacky" or "cheap" as some other slasher movies of the time — except for the very ending, which is just silly. And it's FUN. So, I guess that's what counts :)
This, together with Scream, Urban Legends, and Final Destination were a big part of my horror childhood. I still love Scream but haven't watched the others in years. So I'm starting off with this. And so far so good. Not as bad as I expected.
Cast of 90s eye candy, decent 90s soundtrack, one of the least memorable slasher killers, and plot that sits a touch on the dull side. It was a popular film when released, but always sat on the side of mediocrity for me.
"Scream" ushered in a new era of teen slashers in 1996. "I Know What You Did Last Summer" was one of the first imitators a year later, and probably the most well-known. As with "Scream," Kevin Williamson penned the screenplay. However, not much of the humor from the "Scream" movies can be found in this film, which takes itself quite seriously overall.
The biggest draw of "I Know What You Did Last Summer" is certainly the cast. Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe and Freddie Prinze Jr.—that was certainly a strong combo, especially in the 90s. But they don't really deliver good performances here. And the film doesn't have much else to offer either. The characters all behave stupidly, the premise is far-fetched, and the script is thin. The tension builds nicely at times, but the film frequently becomes tedious. And the kills are all very tame. "I Know What You Did Last Summer" is a thoroughly mediocre slasher, nothing more.
Scary Movie makes so much more sense now xD
My first exposure to 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' was through Scary Movie, so the whole movie I couldn't get that movie out of my head.
For example: In the part when Sarah Michelle Gellar's character picks up the bloody welly boot after running over the guy, I couldn't help but say, "Oh my god, they hit a boot! But where is the foot?!
Also, this has to be the cleanest killer in horror movie history.
"A toast... to us, to our last summer of immature, adolescent decadence."
I can totally see how Kevin Williamson wrote this script before Scream. It has a similar feel but not quite hashed out as well yet. To be honest I was a little bored watching this but getting to see Sarah Michelle Gellar freak out over a hair incident was worth it.
This movie will always be a part of my heart. love it must watch
Having a teenage daughter wanting to know more about horror movies forces me to go back to some of the slasher classics. Before showing her Scream, Jason, Michael and Freedy, I started with a lighter movie. This one I remember for that. Easy to watch, filled with celebrity and with some scares. While Kevin Williamson script brings a good idea and Sarah and Jennifer look great, what’s the point of a soft horror movie? Only for this. To slowly introduce someone to the genre. For me, seeing this in 2020 was disappointing. Bad scares, bad actors, bad story overall. This never became a classic and for sure is not one today.
Re-watched this for the first time since its release in 1997 when I watched it at the cinema. At 18 I remember it being pretty good and of course it was probably the only Scream clone to make any lasting impact, but watching in 2020 it seems to me that most of its success was down to the cast (two in particular eh?) and a hunger for teen slasher movies, and yes, I'll concede that the villain was memorable but compared to Ghostface? Pah!
Its bad. Its badly written and the acting is terrible. Scream could get away with certain clichés and silliness because it was self aware and Craven knew how to tread the line between humour and threat, but IKWYDLS takes itself far to seriously so has none of the charm it's progenitor has. The jump scares aren't going to get anyone today.
We had more fun picking it apart than we did watching the film itself.
Nothing special about this except for the killer using a hook.
Watching another one of my favorite 90's slasher flicks to celebrate Halloween month. — Followed closely by the two terrible sequels; not because I enjoy them, but simply because I own them. lol
The acting by the two leads (Love Hewitt & Prinze) leaves a lot to be desired.
Shout by Carlos Fernando IbarraBlockedParent2017-05-29T08:14:14Z
One of the only Scream-clones to come out of the 90s that was pretty good itself. Not Scream good, but there is a cool killer, likeable cast and a solid revenge plot. I may be biased though, 'cause I was just the right age when it came out.