So much average

Just perfect...

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Gathering up flicks to view for ICM's poll of the best films from 1997,I read a Facebook post from HMV marking 20 years since this title came out.Shoerly after seeing that post,I found it being added to Netflix UK,and spotted fellow IMDber Red-Barracuda rate it. With all these coincidences, it felt like the perfect time to go on a Summer holiday.The plot:Celebrating Helen Shivers being crowned college princess,pals Shivers,her boyfriend Barry Cox, Julie James and her boyfriend Ray Bronson drive home drunk. Paying no attention to the road,the gang run over a man dressed in a long black coat. Believing they would be charged with manslaughter,the group pick up the body and chuck it into the ocean. Just as the body is being thrown, the man screams and puts his hand out. Losing contact with her friends after they all vowed a year ago not to tell anyone of what they did,James is horrified to get an anonymous letter,saying that they know what she did last Summer.View on the film:Only keeping a partial reference to the original ending,and the drunk teens run over a person part of Lois Duncan's book, (whose daughter Kaitlyn was killed in an unsolved murder,and who hated this adaptation,with the book being about the remorse the teens (none of whom are killed) have over taking the life of an innocent man) the screenplay by Kevin Williamson hooks into his most streamline take on the Slasher genre,with Williamson's pop culture- driven dialogue being clipped to a handful of stray lines of dialogue,and the set-pieces lacking any serious feeling of danger. Locking the door on a person being trapped in a car whilst a nutter waits outside, (a major theme of his work) Williamson gathers a surprisingly nasty group for the slayings,with their blunt exchanges stubbing out any chance of empathy growing for any member of the gang.Despite being filmed in California, director Jim Gillespie (despite this being a big hit,he would not direct again until 2002's The Legacy) & cinematographer Denis Crossan give the movie a very good small,fishing town vibe,as slick tracking shots catch the daily prep of seafood in the background,as the teens get slayed. Appearing to be inspired by the Giallo sub-genre, Gillespie gives the black coat- wearing psycho ultra-stylised Slasher set-pieces,from the killer hiding in smoke-covered rooms,to the face of the murderer being revealed via a reflection in the glasses of a victim,as Julie James is reminded what she did last Summer.

I remember seein this in '97 in Sterling theater, South Mumbai with my friends. Revisited this recently on a DVD. This is writer Kevin Williamson's follow up to the successful Scream. So expectations were high. The plot - After their high school graduation, four friends head off to the beach but on the way home they accidentally hit n kill someone. To avoid police problems, they decide to throw him into the water and promise each other that they will never discuss that incident ever. One year later they start getting messages from somebody who knows what happened. Later they are stalked by a rain-coat wearing mystery man who uses a big hook. The performances from Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe and Freddie Prinze Jr. were all decent. Director Jim Gillespie (Joy ride) did a good job in creating enuff suspense n tension. The ending wasn't predictable. The killer in a raincoat with a hook was an effective n intimidating one. Although the body count is surprisingly low, the tension was enuff. One of the most memorable n tension filled scene is the scene in the alley, with Gellar jus ten feet away from a musical parade/safety n the killer chasing her. The second one is the car in a wooded lane in broad daylight parked outside Anne Heches house. Yeah u heard right. Heche in a small role.

I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)*** (out of 4) Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe and Freddie Prinze, Jr. play a group of friends who are drinking and having a good time but on the way home they accidentally run over a man and kill him. They decide it's best not to go to the police fearing murder charges so they dump his body but a year later they begin getting harassed.Thanks to the success of Wes Craven's SCREAM the horror genre got a boost and soon after one slasher after another was being released. Out of all of them this one here is the best in my opinion because Kevin Williamson's screenplay goes away from all the self-mocking and instead delivers a very good story that works perfect as a drama but it also features the horror elements that slasher fans would come to expect. Throw in a very good cast and some likable characters and we're left with one of the better horror films to come out of this period. If SCREAM was a classic like HALLOWEEN then this here is more like a good stepchild in the same vein as a Friday THE 13TH.The thing I enjoyed most about this was the actual personal story of these four people who find their lives changed over a bad decision. The set up itself is pretty simple but it works extremely well because we've all been young and made foolish decisions and one of the best moments in the film comes when the four teens must decide whether or not to go to the cops. Their reasoning behind it is interesting and their thought process is something you don't typically see in a slasher. The damage that their decision has on their lives is something else brought up in the screenplay that works extremely well. All of this happens before we even get to the horror elements. The mystery surrounding the killer keeps you guessing for certain.The horror elements are all extremely good. I know some make fun of the "Captain Gordon" outfit but I thought it was rather effective and brought back memories from the giallo days of the 70s when killers wore nothing but black. Another thing that works are the actual chase scenes, which director Jim Gillespie manages to build up some nice tension. It also doesn't hurt that you actually like the characters, can connect with them and you don't want to see them killed. Hewitt, Gellar and Phillippe are all extremely good and believable in their roles as is Anne Heche in her supporting bit. Prinze Jr. is probably better here than anytime in his career, although that's not too much support I'm giving him.I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER certainly has a few flaws including the movie getting dragged out in the third party but overall it's a highlight of what the genre had to offer after the success of SCREAM.

Spoiler Alert! I personally am not a fan of this franchise because the story is just dumb. I mean a maniac kills kids just because they accidentally run him over. Also how the heck would he know who each one individually is? Like seriously what if they went to the police? There'd be no story. This is literally one of the worst concepts I've ever heard. On top of that all of the acting in this besides Bridget Wilson and Muse Watson sucked. The cop that dies looks like he's confused on how to act when he is stabbed to death by the Fisherman. This whole thing really is poor and I'd take Valentine(1999) any day compared to this film. Although some of the kills weren't too bad. I'll generously give it a 4 out of 10 instead of a 2 or a 3 out of 10.