I Know What You Did Last Summer

I Know What You Did Last Summer is a 1997 American slasher film directed by Jim Gillespie, written by Kevin Williamson, and starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Freddie Prinze Jr. The movie is loosely based on the 1973 novel of the same name by Lois Duncan and is the first installment in I Know What You Did Last Summer trilogy.

Plot
A year after running over a fisherman and dumping his body in the water, four friends reconvene when Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) receives a frightening letter telling her that their crime was seen. While pursuing who he thinks is responsible for the letter, Barry (Ryan Phillippe) is run over by a man with a meat hook. The bloodletting only increases from there, as the killer with the hook continues to stalk Julie, Helen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.).

Bad Qualities

 * 1) It's a typical by-the-numbers 90s slasher movie; teenagers accidentally kill the antagonist a year back, and the villain comes back for his revenge. The plot is also inconsistent and clichéd too.
 * 2) * It's also predictable as hell. You already know someone's going to die a long time before it happens. Not helping by the fact that there are only four main characters in this movie.
 * 3) The reason why this movie doesn't work at all is that the teens are not even likable in the slightest. They just killed a man, and he came back for revenge, making only the Fisherman likable in this situation. Basically, the viewer wants the teens to be killed for their actions.
 * 4) * The characters are also extremely stupid. Oh, we killed a man by running him over? Let's throw him in the water. Nobody will find out.
 * 5) The acting is rather weak, particularly Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr., with the latter having worse acting than the former, with his acting being really forced.
 * 6) It's based on a book of the same name, and it's rather a really awkward translation to a horror movie, as the book doesn't have the Fisherman kill the teens or threaten them with death, but rather stalk them. It wasn't even supposed to be made into a horror movie in the first place, and instead looks like a generic Scream wannabe instead of an original idea.
 * 7) The movie was made once Scream made teen slasher movies cool again. However, there is none of the ironic humor or self-referencing that made Scream good. Instead, this is a straight-up horror-thriller that lacks anything to make it special or stand out from the rest.
 * 8) All of the kills aren't really anything that effective like Ghostface or Freddy Krueger and even Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers and Chucky and even Leatherface and Norman Bates because we all feel sympathy for the killer. After all, he's trying to get revenge on the teens for running him over.
 * 9) Almost no thrills whatsoever. Just plain boring crap most of the time.
 * 10) Many wondered why the supporting character Max was murdered when he had nothing to do with the accident and leaving the Fisherman for dead either. Maybe to show the antagonist is threating to kill the main characters soon. Alternately, he knew Max was Julie's lover and so killed him to torture her, also maybe to set her boyfriend Ray up.
 * 11) Helen's death is the most avoidable death in the whole movie. Had she not stopped and looked back to check if the killer was still following her, she would've made it out alive, and had witnesses.
 * 12) It's a rather tame horror movie. A low body count, lack of any gore, and lack of any tension whatsoever.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Ryan Phillippe and Sarah Michelle Geller's performances are great. They even have awesome chemistry on-screen.
 * 2) It's better than the sequels that came after it.
 * 3) Good soundtrack that was composed by John Debney.
 * 4) Jennifer Love Hewitt scene: "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING, HUH? WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOOOOORRRR?"

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