I Know What You Did Last Summer
                                      (1997) 
                                       review by Head Cheeze

In the tradition of Choose Your Own Adventure books and Curious George comes I Know What You Did Last Summer, Suspiria for the Teen People set. Scripted by Kevin Williamson and based on a one of those horror novels you order in elementary school, I Know... takes two hot T.V. stars (Hewitt and Gellar) and two Tiger Beat magazine poster boys (Prinze Jr. and Phillippe) and throws them into a cliche' ridden horror flick that could have easily been an episode of Scooby Doo, and had it been, would have probably proven a whole lot scarier.

Julie, Helen, Ray, and Barry (Hewitt, Gellar, Prinze Jr. and Phillippe) are fresh faced high school grads in a seaside North Carolina fishing village who all have grand plans for their futures. Julie is off to college in New York, Helen is set to pursue an acting career, Barry's football scholarship could take him to the NFL, and Ray, well, Ray is a good fisherman. After the town's annual parade and beauty pageant, in which Helen is crowned Queen Fish or something, the group go to the beach and have one of those teen moments no one ever has, get slightly liquored up and decide to call it a night. On the ride home, the group accidentally hit a guy walking in the road. He seems dead, so they decide it best that they hide the body lest they risk their plans for the future. When the group tosses the corpse off a pier, they make a pact to never discuss this event again, and all leave their lil' hometown to pursue their dreams. A year goes by, and all 4 teen dreams are back in their crappy fishing village. Julie has become a total freak and shows this by not combing her hair and wearing little to know make-up, Helen's acting career stalled when she apparently realized she could not work outside of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Barry was injured and lost his football scholarship. Ray, of course, is still fishing, and in real life, would have a massive heroin problem. Each person has also recieved a note telling them "I KNOW", and it isn't long before they are being chased around by a hook wielding guy in a rain slicker! BOOGA BOOGA!!!!!!!

I Know What You Did Last Summer is basically a wart on the ass of the juggernaut that was Scream, featuring the same writer, the same formulaic line-up of "dreamy" young actors, and the hip soundtrack with songs by bands who were 1997's equivalent of Creed. The only elements it lacked were a decent storyline, script, a single scary moment, and Hewitt taking off her clothes.

All that aside, I Know... is a pretty bad film unless you like your horror films Dawson's Creek style. While it's okay to watch simply to see Hewitt in a tight white shirt, there is little else of value. Gillespie's direction is fairly pedestrian, however, the source material doesn't seem to be the stuff of inspiration, so I'll give him a break and place the blame squarely on Williamson's shoulders.

The Columbia/Tri-Star DVD has a commentary with Gillespie, and a trailer and that's pretty much all she wrote. While it's a budget priced DVD, a Yugo is a budget priced car, and I wouldn't buy either.