I Know What You Did Last Summer (film)
Tagline:If you're going to bury the truth, make sure it stays buried.
I Know What You Did Last Summer is an Award-winning 1997 horror film. It stars Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Freddie Prinze, Jr., and Anne Heche. The screenplay was written by Kevin Williamson, which was based on a popular novel by Lois Duncan. The film was followed with the sequels, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer and the unrelated I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer.
Opening to $15.8 million in 2,524 theatres on October 17th, 1997, the slasher was declared a hit from the beginning. The movie stayed in the top position for three consecutive weeks. The end result was a total of $72.5 million in the US and a worldwide theatrical gross in excess of $125 million.
After the film's release, Prinze and Hewitt emerged as two of the most popular young stars in the country. Prinze went on to do a string of romantic comedies aimed at the teenage market. However, Hewitt's career initially floundered in the late 1990s after a poorly reviewed television biography of Audrey Hepburn and an ill-fated 1999 television series. However, at the turn of the millennium, she rose to fame as an actress, working in movies alongside Jackie Chan, and most recently, receiving a starring role in the hit CBS Television Show Ghost Whisperer.
Meanwhile, Gellar's was already one of the most popular female actresses in America, and her role in the movie, alongside starring on her hit TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, began a long career of horror films and television shows for the actress. She furthered her horror career by appearing later that year in Scream 2. She would later go on to star in 2004's The Grudge and also in 2006's sequel The Grudge 2 and the horror thriller The Return. Phillipe co-starred with Gellar in Cruel Intentions.
Gellar and Prinze would later marry. Gellar denied her interest
in Prinze began when they met on the set of this film. Prinze was romantically
involved with Kimberly McCullough at the time. Prinze and Gellar later costarred
as Fred,and Daphne on the movie Scooby Doo and its sequel.
Awards
and nominations
Year Ceremony Category Result
1998 ASCAP Award Top Box
Office Films, John Debney nominated
1998 Saturn Award Best Horror Film nominated
1998 Blockbuster Entertainment Award Favorite Female Newcomer, Favorite Actress,
Jennifer Love Hewitt won
1998 Blockbuster Entertainment Award Favorite Supporting
Actress - Horror, Sarah Michelle Gellar won
1998 Blockbuster Entertainment
Award Favorite Actor - Horror, Freddie Prinze Jr. nominated
1998 Blockbuster
Entertainment Award Favorite Actress - Horror, Jennifer Love Hewitt nominated
1998 Blockbuster Entertainment Award Favorite Supporting Actor. Ryan Phillippe
nominated
1998 IHG Award Best Movie nominated
1998 MTV Movie Awards Best
Breakthrough Performance, Sarah Michelle Gellar nominated
1998 Young Artist
Award Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actress, Jennifer Love
Hewitt nominated
Cast
Jennifer Love Hewitt - Julie James
Sarah Michelle Gellar - Helen Shivers
Ryan Phillippe - Barry William Cox
Freddie Prinze Jr-. Ray Bronson
Bridgette Wilson - Elsa Shivers
Anne Heche - Melissa 'Missy' Egan
Johnny Galecki - Max Neurick
Muse Watson - Benjamin Willis
Stuart Greer - Officer David Caporizo
J. Don Ferguson
- Emcee
Deborah Hobart - Mrs. James
Mary McMillan - Mrs. Cox
Rasool
J'Han - Deb
Dan Albright - Sheriff
Plot
After teenager Helen Shivers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) wins the annual Croaker County Beauty Pageant (on the radio), she and her boyfriend Barry William Cox (Ryan Phillippe) party on the beach with their respective best friends: Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze, Jr.). The four tell horror stories about a huge, hook-handed man who periodically kills young lovers. As they swerve home along a shoreline road, Barry spills his bottle of whiskey over Ray, who tries to clean the mess when a shape suddenly looms in the headlights. Before any of them know what has happened, they've skidded to a stop in the middle of the road. Although at first believing it was an animal, they realize that the dent on the car could not have been created from an animal. Julie finds a fisherman's boot on the side of the road and a few feet down the road, they see a man's body lying lifeless. They have been drinking, and if they turn to the police, all of their post-high school dreams will likely be shattered: no college football for Barry; no law school for Julie; no heading to New York for Helen or Ray. Barry, a bitter jock, convinces his friends to help him dispose of their victim's body, although the others would rather report the accident. The four swear to take this incident to their graves and never tell a soul about the incident.
A year later, after her first year at college, Julie returns home. She has been performing poorly in school due to the guilt she feels from the past incident. While spending time with her mother, she receives a mysterious letter which reads, "I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER." Julie finds out that Helen has returned from New York because it "didn't work out." Julie believes that she never actually made it to New York. She now works at a department store, under the supervision of her elder sister Elsa (Bridgette Wilson). Ignoring Elsa's objections, Helen and Julie head off to find Barry. Judging by Barry's current condition, it is evident that he is the only one of the four who has felt little or no guilt from the incident. He immediately suspects Max of sending the letter. Julie remarks that they found the body of the man they killed last year, and he was identified as David Egan.
Max is murdered by a man wielding a hook, and Barry is run over by the same man. Julie arrives at the hospital and is greeted by Ray. They go to Barry's hospital room, where he and Helen await them. Doing some quick research, Helen and Julie discover that two years ago, David Egan accidentally killed his girlfriend, Susie, in the same location that they ran him over. They find the location of David’s sister, Missy Egan, and they decide to visit her for information. During the course of their conversation, Missy mentions Billy Blue, a young handsome man, who visited her, saying he was best friends with David Egan. Julie and Helen now suspect that David’s friend Billy Blue is trying to avenge his friend’s death.
Julie drives Helen home. The fisherman steals into her room just before she enters. The next morning, Helen awakens to find herself wearing her old "Croaker Queen" crown. Most of her hair has been cut off and left on her pillow; the word "SOON" is written in lipstick on her mirror. Helen promptly calls Barry and Julie, both of whom she tells about the incident. While rushing over in her car, Julie hears a scratching noise in her trunk. She stops the car to investigate-and finds the murdered Max wearing Barry's stolen jacket. Crabs are crawling all over the corpse. Julie screams, shuts her trunk and flees for Helen's.
The next day, Helen is due to partcipate in the Croaker Queen Pageant, but is frightened that the fisherman will attack her. Before the pageant, Barry holds Helen tightly and promises that everything will be okay. During the pageant, however, the Fisherman attacks Barry from behind on the balcony. Helen sees the killer dragging Barry off the balcony and out of sight. She begins to shout and cry, but it's of no use; she is held back by the crowd, thwarting her attempts to go and rescue Barry. The distraught Helen is driven home by a police officer, who unfortunately stops to see if a stalled car needs help. The other driver turns out to be the killer, who kills the cop. Helen screams, jumps out of the car and flees for her life to Shivers Department Store. The Fisherman is already there, having "hooked" Elsa when she went to lock the storage room-door. Helen just has time to discover Elsa's corpse before she is discovered by the fisherman. Brandishing his signature murder-weapon, he stalks Helen through the empty store and its storage rooms-finally cornering and butchering her in an alleyway. Loud music from the parade band drowns out Helen's death screams.
Meanwhile, Julie at last figures out David Egan's true identity. After meeting with Ray, she solves the mystery. They didn't run over David Egan one year ago, but someone else. Because the face was disfigured and bloody, they were unable to truly identify who the person was; Julie believes that Ben Willis, Susie's father, tried to avenge his daughter's death by killing her boyfriend/murderer, David Egan. Missy, however, believed that David committed suicide due to guilt and depression. David was actually murdered by Ben Willis and was set up to look like a suicide. His body was the one found by the police in the docks. Ben Willis was the man that Julie and her friends ran over; however, he lived and returned to kill them. The fisherman is Ben Willis; this is revealed to Julie when he pulls out the large fishing-hook from his jacket. The older man is also wearing dirty Wellington boots, the same boots Julie found at the incident a year ago. She finds the corpses of Barry and Helen in the ice meant for freezing fish. The chase ends with Ben getting his hand chopped off, and then thrown overboard. Although later, nobody can find his body, only his hand and the fish hook. The sheriff says not to worry and that the body "usually" turns up.
A year later, Julie is back at college. (Ben Willis’s body remains missing.) She prepares to take a shower after finishing a telephone conversation with Ray. A dorm-mate passes by and tells Julie that she has mail: a letter which looks exactly like the one Julie received last year, the letter which started her entire nightmarish ordeal. To Julie's relief, it is only an invitation to a pool party. Returning to her shower room, however, she finds it completely filled with steam. She finds the words "I STILL KNOW" written on the glass shower-door. Hands burst through the glass, and it suddenly cuts to the credits.
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