I Know What You Did Last Summer Review

Interest: 7/10

Acting: 7/10

Storyline: 8/10

Intensity: 4/10

Fights Guns or Otherwise: 8/10

Nudity: 0/10

Horror: 5/10

Gore: 3/10

Mystery: 6/10

Logic: 6.5/10

I Know What You Did Last Summer is a 1997 Horror Mystery film. Its run time is one hour and forty-one minutes. The Three Top Stars are Jennifer Love Hewitt (Known for I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Tuxedo, Heartbreakers, and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Known for Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Cruel Intentions, Scooby-Doo, and I Know What You Did Last Summer) and Ryan Phillippe (Known for Crash, Gosford Park, Cruel Intentions, and The Way of the Gun). I remember this movie coming out, and it was one at the time, that made me freak out (Was only 6 at the time). A quick summary of this film is “Four Friends celebrating, accidentally kill a man, then a year later, someone takes revenge on them!” Let’s see how this one plays out shall we?

Interest: I Know What You Did Last Summer (From this point on abbreviated to IKWYDLS) is a semi interesting idea. I won’t ruin the full twist, but you think you killed someone and then they’ve come back with vengeance. The action keeps you interested as does the story. Characters are scared trying to figure out what the best course of action is for the trouble that has been caused. I didn’t switch it of except for bathroom breaks.

Acting: Acting was pretty solid, a little corny but nothing so distracting that it can’t be forgiven. Everyone pulls their weight, everyone builds off one another and it makes for an enjoyable film. Again nothing ground breaking, but nothing terrible.

Storyline: The storyline is a semi typical for a slasher but does have quite a nice twist and makes me respect the slasher genre a little more (I already did, but this is thicker than most of your typical Friday the 13^th films) but with the twist, it makes it seem that slashers still have tricks up their sleeves.

Intensity: The movie tried to make things intense, but to me, it just doesn’t quite make the mark of what I’d consider intense. It feels a step or two before being on edge. it’s engaging and you can totally tell something is amiss, but it doesn’t build the seriousness in a complete way. It feels like they’re almost screaming for no actual reason, even though we know they have a reason.

Fights, Guns or Otherwise: The fights in the film was pretty solid. Physical fights are paced well, not having a kill every other scene, but not so sparse that you forget what type of movie you are watching. They are motivated with revenge and hatred, and distrust. They are also shot very well, which makes them satisfying! Now for bickering, arguments, verbal razors as it were, are a dime a dozen it seems in the film. Mostly the four friends screaming and hollering at each other about which one is trying to kill the others, trying to explain why they broke up, and then yelled at that “They’re an asshole.” and in general being dicks. I understood the characters, it doesn’t mean I have to like them.

Nudity: There is no nudity in the film, and in the slasher-esque film genres, nudity is usually abundant. It wouldn’t of added any real video besides nudity for nudity sake. Could they of made something happen were nudity moved the plot? Eh possibly, but it would of made the whole movie change focus quite a bit.

Horror: The horror elements aren’t incredibly strong in the film. I think this is mostly an intensity problem, since when you watch the film, you clearly know what is happening and that you should feel scared, but I don’t think it quite meets the mark. I never felt scared, I didn’t even jump, but if it went just straight slasher, it was entertaining, but again, never scary, but had horror elements.

Gore: There were mostly just little nicks and bruises in the film, and maybe a broken bone, but it isn’t until about half way through were were get a kill scene with actual blood, mos of them have no blood at all. Also someone loses an actual hand, and someone’s face looks pretty bad near the beginning of the film form an accident, otherwise, the film is nearly clean.

Mystery: Mystery for me was lame and didn’t make me think to much about the film. I suppose I happen to watch a lot of movies, so small twists like this isn’t too crazy. That being said, if you’re a first time watcher and don’t watch a lot of movies with twists, this move may be able to figure out what is going on, or you’ll love it for the mystery.

Logic: The logic in IKWYDLS is alright. It does just enough to pave things over. Police are called when needed, but aren’t useful. The main characters have the brains to try to get help, to tell people things are going wrong and they need help. Everyone else messing up and failing, is the reason so much murder happens in the movie.

So then did I like the film? It wasn’t bad. Do I suggest that you watch it? I think you should give it a single watch. It does do some things well, and even for a slasher-esque film, does some things that aren’t usually done in them. But the lack of blood and intensity makes this film a bit of a drag. If you are scared easily, I feel like IKWYDLS is a film for you. Overall I give this film a 54.5%, which sounds low, but I believe everyone should watch it once! Until Next Time!