I Know What You Did Last Summer

Four high-school friends accidentally run over someone with their car and kill him. They decide to dump the body into the water, and not tell anybody their “incident of the summer”. One year later, someone in their town mysteriously begins to taunt them about what they “did last summer”. And that’s when the haunting and scaring begins…

Engaging horror thriller that was very reminiscent of SCREAM, and packs a lot of thrills and chills, within its slick MTV-ized packaged product. And even though the first hour is more mystery than anything, don’t be fooled into believing that the last half of the film doesn’t contain the many gruesome bloody murders to which we have become accustomed. Because plenty of them do transpire (although many less than in SCREAM).

I was never bored by this story, since it unfolded as it went, and allowed the viewer to continually keep guessing on the perpetrator’s identity. That puzzle was fun, as was the costume in which the murderer exterminated his victims (fisherman’s outfit, complete with hook…always seemed kind of eerie to me). The young, hip cast was adequate, with Hewitt doing her best Alyssa Milano impression, and Heche pulling off an excellent hick from the boonies. I must say that I was surprised to find no blatant T&A shots present in this movie, although the two female stars did sport enough tight shirts to cut the circulation in any movie-watcher’s system.

The down side was that much like in SCREAM, the murderer did just seem to be around when the main cast was present, and always seemed to disappear (a bit too conveniently at times) when anyone else appeared. That aside, the movie intensified as it went on, charged through a quick 90 minutes, and left enough room for one and all to look forward to another hip, young sequel in the future, tentatively entitled I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (5/10). Warm those nachos…here I come !!!

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian