Verdict
Summary
It’s an enjoyably non-challenging slasher and it holds up pretty well. This Walmart exclusive steelbook edition is a nice addition to any collector’s collection.
Plot:
Four young friends bound by a tragic accident are reunited when they find themselves being stalked by a hook-wielding maniac in their small seaside town.
Review:
Four young people with their whole lives ahead of them (played by up and comers at the time Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Freddie Prinze, Jr., and Jennifer Love Hewitt) get a little rowdy and out of control on a deserted road when they hit a man with their car by accident. Instead of taking the man to the hospital, they agree to finish him off by drowning him in a lake to save their asses from any jail time. A year later, and all four of them are living with the immense guilt over the murder they committed, and on the anniversary day of their fateful act, they each receive a note stating “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” which puts them all at odds with each other, because they think one of them is playing a sick game. Turns out there’s a very real killer in their midst, and he’s got a big hook to do them in with. One by one, the bodies pile up, and if they don’t come together for a plan of some kind, they’ll all be victims of the mysterious killer.
Released at the height of the resurgent slasher boom of the 1990’s, following the success of Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer was precisely the sort of thing that connected with audiences looking for more of the same. It plays the kills pretty safely (very little blood and gore, or sex, for that matter), and it features pretty actors who weren’t very edgy. Still, it’s an enjoyably non-challenging slasher and it holds up pretty well. I saw this theatrically and I remember thinking it was nowhere near in the league of Scream, but it didn’t have to be. From director Jim Gillespie and screenwriter Kevin Williamson.
Mill Creek has just reissued I Know What You Did Last Summer is a sweet looking steelbook Blu-ray edition. The transfer is pretty much identical to that of their previous edition, the multipack Queens of Scream, which included several other titles. What makes this edition – a Walmart exclusive – so cool is the nice artwork. There are no bonus features included.
