I Know What You Did Last Summer

I Know What You Did Last Summer
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Directed by	Jim Gillespie
Written by	Lois Duncan; Kevin Williamson
Produced by	William S. Beasley; Neal H. Mortiz
Starring	Jennifer Love Hewitt; Sarah Michelle Gellar; Ryan Phillippe; Freddie Prinze, Jr.
Music by	John Debney
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	October 17, 1997 (USA)
Running time	100 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$17,000,000
Box office	$125,500,000

I Know What You Did Last Summer is a 1997 thriller/slasher film starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Freddie Prinze, Jr. The screenplay was written by Kevin Williamson, writer of Scream, very loosely based on a popular novel by Lois Duncan of the same title. The film was followed by the sequels, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer and the straight-to-DVD I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer.

Plot

After teenager Helen Shivers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) wins the annual Croaker County Beauty Pageant, 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. They take the body to the pier and dump his body in the water. However, when they were lifting him in, he stole Helen's crown so Barry jumps in and gets it. Under the water, he sees the mans eyes open and swims to the surface and gives Helen her crown. 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 the man was still alive when they dumped him in the water. The police 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 enters the house and goes into her room when she is in the kitchen. He hides in her closet. Helen's sister Elsa comes in and says that she needs Helen to work at the store tomorrow. Helen replies that she has the parade tomorrow, while brushing her long hair. Elsa says that she and her hair are pathetic. The next morning, Helen awakens to find herself wearing her old "Croaker Queen" crown. Her hair has been cut off to the shoulder and left on her pillow; the word "SOON" is written in lipstick on her mirror. When she sees it, she screams and shatters the mirror with her fist. 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. Barry and Helen come to see but when the open the trunk Max's body is gone. Julie says that the fisherman must have took the body and that he has them exactly where he wants them and they can't go to the police because he's made sure of it. He's just out there watching them and waiting.

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 out of sight. She begins to shout and cry for someone to help him, but it's of no use; she is held back by the crowd, thwarting her attempts to go and rescue Barry, who is killed by the fishermen.

The policeman taking her home via car is forced to take the back alley with Helen in the back. A car has broken down in front of them blocking their way, so the policeman gets out of the car to see if he can help. Helen realizes that the man who's car has "broken down" is the fisherman and screams at the policeman telling him to turn around. When the policeman does however, it is too late. The fisherman kills him, lies him on the floor, and cleans his hook.

Stuck in the back of a police car, Helen tries to get out, but the doors are locked from the inside. In desperation, Helen kicks the window and smashes it. She scrambles out as the killer walks after her. Helen runs to her sister's shop and bangs abruptly on the locked door, getting Elsa's attention. Elsa takes her time to get the keys to open the door as the killer is descending upon Helen. Elsa eventually opens the door and allows Helen to come in, commenting that the back door is unlocked. Helen tells her to lock it while Helen calls the police.

Elsa enters the back storage room as the back door closes. Elsa locks the door and turns around after noticing that someone is behind her. The fisherman looks upon her as Elsa is rooted on the spot in fear, apparently petrified. The fisherman reveals his hook and brings it down on Elsa, causing her to scream, alerting Helen. Elsa is now dead.

Helen hears the scream and calls for her sister, but her sister doesn't answer. She walks down a flight of stairs slowly and walks past a few mannequins with dust covers upon them. The lights turn off and the fans on the ceiling stop. She turns slowly around and looks alarmingly at the mannequins. The fisherman is beneath one and jumps on Helen, making them both fall over a table with equipment on it and they both fall to the floor.

Helen quickly gets up and runs away just as the killer gets up and takes the dust cover off himself. She runs to the loading dock doors but they won't budge, so she looks to her left and sees Elsa dead next to a toilet. Helen lets out a blood-curling scream and sees the killer coming towards her. Helen spots a hand-controlled pulley and climbs aboard it. She pulls on the rope and brings the elevator up. The fisherman swipes at her legs with his hook and she narrowly dodges each and every swing. So the fisherman then takes the stairs as Helen eventually gets into the attic.

As she falls to the floor and gets back up, she sees the killer at the top of the stairs. She runs into an empty room. She opens the window closest to the door and climbs through. She clings onto the window ledge and looks down, spotting rubbish (wood etc.). She looks back and the killer swings his hook at her but misses as Helen jumps off the side of the building and falls into the pile of rubbish. Dazed, she looks up and sees that the killer isn't there, so she gets up and heads down multiple back alleys towards a roaring parade.

Only a few steps to go to get into the parade full of people who could help, she hears a noise behind her. She turns around and looks to see if the Fisherman has been following her, but there is no sign of him, so she turns back towards the parade. Standing directly in front of her is the fisherman, who grabs Helen and shoves her to the side into a pile of tyres, blocking them from view of the parade. He swings his hook at her but she grabs his arm. The fisherman pushes her to the other side of the alley and swings his hook at her again twice. Helen ducks and puts her arms above her head, causing the fisherman to miss her. The killer wraps his arm around her and keeps trying to stab her with his hook as she tries to punch and push him away. The two again go to the other side of the alley. Helen tries to push him away but he stabs her with his hook, killing Helen. The blasting music from the marching band and the screaming fans of the parade block out the screams and cries that Helen makes.

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. Julie begins to run and tries to jump off the boat but they are too far away from the dock. She flees down inside the boat and locks the door. Ben starts trying to open the door so she runs into the ice meant for storing fish. She finds the corpses of Barry and Helen in the ice and screams and cries. Ray comes aboard and saves Julie from Ben. 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.) Julie's friend Deb 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 the words "I STILL KNOW" written on the glass shower-door. A shadow of Ben Willis bursts through the glass, and it suddenly cuts to the credits.

Production

Kevin Williamson's screenplay was purchased before his screenplay for the movie Scream. It was only after Scream's success that producers rushed Williamson's screenplay for I Know What You Did Last Summer into production. Scottish director Jim Gillespie was hired by producer Neal H. Moritz to make his debut feature film on the strength of his 10-minute short film "Joyride". The film was shot in Southport, North Carolina, which also served as the film's setting.

Differences between the movie and the novel

Lois Duncan, the author of the book, was barred from the set of the movie.^{[citation needed]} She was not aware of the drastic changes to her source material until she saw the completed film.

The novel is set in New Mexico, while the movie is set in North Carolina.
In the novel, the victim's name is David Gregg, not David Egan. He is a young boy on a bike, and the novel's villain is David's older brother seeking retribution. He is not a fisherman, never uses a hook, and is not a killer, but he seeks to murder only Julie, due to Ray (after the hit-and-run accident) said that he would live in a world without her.
Instead of chopping off the Villain's hand or throwing him off of a boat, Ray hits him in the head with a flashlight (incapacitating but not killing him).
In the novel, Barry is driving the car, and it is a hit-and-run accident, not a cover up.
For the movie, Elsa and Helen's last names were changed from "Rivers" to "Shivers."
In the novel, Helen works as a weather girl for the local news station; she is successful enough that she can afford to live at The Four Seasons, a swanky apartment complex. In the movie, Helen lives at home after failing to make it as an actress in New York, and she works for her father's department store.
In the novel, Julie is a year younger than Barry and Ray, and is at the end of her senior year in high school at the beginning of the story. She has just been accepted into Smith College. In the movie, Julie graduates the same year as Barry and Ray, and is struggling with low grades at Duke University.
In the novel, Helen jumps from the bathroom window of her condominium to escape the killer. She is only injured by the fall, whereas she is actually killed in the film, not by the fall, but by the killer a few minutes later.
In the novel, Barry is shot in the abdomen and has to be fitted for a colostomy bag, thereby ending his sports career before it begins; ultimately, he dissolves the pact by agreeing to report what he and his friends did last summer, when it becomes only too clear that all four of their lives are being jeopardized in every sense.
In the novel, only Julie receives the note while Helen receives a drawing, Ray receives a newspaper clipping and Barry receives a phone call. In the movie, only notes are delivered and only to Julie and Ray.
The novel begins with Julie receiving the note. The movie begins with the night of the accident.
In the novel Julie is described as a redhead but in the movie she is a brunette.
The novel describes Elsa as a fat girl who is jealous of Helen because she has things so easy. In the movie Elsa is a pretty girl who is jealous of Helen's beauty.
There is no character Max in the novel.
In the novel there is no beauty pageant on the night of the accident, they go to a picnic spot in the mountains rather than a beach in the movie and they don't tell the story of the escaped killer.
In the movie both Barry and Helen (along with Max) are killed. Nobody dies in the novel.
In the novel Julie does not find a body in her car and Helen does not get her hair cut.
In the novel Ray and Julie go to the house to see David's sister but instead Helen goes with Julie in the movie.
In the novel David's sister's name is Megan not Missy.

In pop culture

The film inspired the Simpsons Halloween episode Treehouse of Horror X sequence called "I Know What You Diddily-Iddily-Did".

Spanish tv show Sé lo que hicisteis... (weekly "se lo que hicisteis la ultima semana" and monthly "se lo que hicisteis el ultimo mes" and specials "se lo que hicisteis el ultimo año") is a spoof of the spanish title of the film "se lo que hicisteis el ultimo verano"

The movie was mentioned in Aquamarine. When Hailey, one of the characters, said to Claire "he knows what you did last summer", about an employee at the beach hut of Claire's grandparents.

The movie is referenced in 'Horror Show,'a season 3 episode of Ghost Whisperer. In the episdode Melinda Gordon, and Professor Rick Payne are examining a list of Horror Films. Payne reads them out, and as he reaches 'I know what you did last summer,' he pauses, turns to Melinda, (played by Jennifer Love Hewitt) and raises an eyebrow before continuing.

Awards and nominations

Year	Ceremony	Category	Result
1997	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

Reception

The film opened to $15.8 million in 2,524 theatres on October 17th, 1997. 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.

Critics, however, were mixed in their reviews. Critic Roger Ebert wrote in his review, "The best shot in this film is the first one. Not a good sign."

DVD & Blu-ray Disc Release

The film has been released on DVD multiple times. The only special feature was a commentary, but on newer releases it features commentary, a featurette, music video and a trailer. It was released on high definition Blu-ray Disc on July 22, 2008. It will include the same features as the newer DVDs and also BD-Live.

External links

I Know What You Did Last Summer at IMDb