In 1997 Sarah Michelle Gellar solidified her “Scream Queen” status with an appearance in Scream 2, playing the title role on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and co-starring in I Know What You Did Last Summer. Gellar’s name was barely known and then all of the sudden she’s everywhere. Few actors achieve “Scream Queen” glory as quickly as Gellar, let alone with so many iconic horror franchises. 1997 was the year of Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Of the projects that made Gellar an icon in the horror genre that year I Know What You Did Last Summer is the least interesting. It’s a good role for Gellar to be sure, but the film itself is a rather boiler plate slasher dressed up in the fashion of Scream (1996). Writer Kevin Williamson’s banter isn’t as witty this time and the soundtrack, when compared to Gellar’s other outing with co-star Ryan Phillippe in Cruel Intentions (1999), is as arbitrary as it is dated. I Know What You Did Last Summer is a genre film whose entire success as a work of horror is reliant upon the craftsmanship of the artists involved to make its standard fare feel exceptional.
The film follows four friends (Gellar, Phillippe, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Freddie Prinze Jr.) as they are stalked and terrorized by a witness to their hit and run accident that occurred the year before on the Fourth Of July. Dramatically, the most compelling parts of the movie are those scenes where the characters cope with their guilt and the effects that has had on their lives. These scenes suggest a far more engaging film, but that would be a melodrama and I Know What You Did Last Summer is all horror.
As an exercise in the slasher genre I Know What You Did Last Summer embraces a number of tried and true tropes. For example, the film casts Freddie Prinze Jr.’s character as suspect number one but he’s a red herring. Then the film introduces the killer who has a trademark slicker and wields a stevedore’s hook to set up its own iconography of terror. The problem is that Freddie Prinze Jr. isn’t a skilled enough performer to pull of being a red herring and the killer, in the final showdown, sheds his slicker in favor of a denim shirt and jeans.
If it is horror kicks you want the only sequence that really delivers is the chase scene with Sarah Michelle Gellar. Gellar is excellent and the blocking works with the cinematography to create not just suspense but also an oppressive atmosphere of dread. The final shots in this sequence, in an alley with fireworks exploding overhead, juxtaposes Gellar’s violent death with the Fourth Of July celebrations to create a moment that is almost heartbreakingly tragic. This sequence is far and above anything else in the film and is exactly what all of I Know What You Did Last Summer should have been.
That said, I recommend we all embrace our inner ghoul and pop I Know What You Did Last Summer into the VCR. It’s the Fourth Of July after all and I Know What You Did Last Summer is a holiday movie. And don’t drink and drive or dump any bodies into the ocean cause they may still be alive.
