I Know What You Did Last Summer

"If you're going to bury the truth, make sure it stays buried."

1997 1h 42m EN

😐

6.0

MID

★6.0TMDB · 3,397

HorrorThrillerMystery

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

After an accident on a winding road, four teens make the fatal mistake of dumping their victim's body into the sea. Exactly one year later, the deadly secret resurfaces as they're stalked by a hook-handed figure.

“If you're going to bury the truth, make sure it stays buried.”

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Cast

Jennifer Love Hewitt
Julie James
Freddie Prinze Jr.
Ray Bronson
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Helen Shivers
Ryan Phillippe
Barry Cox
Bridgette Wilson
Elsa Shivers
Johnny Galecki
Max Neurick
Muse Watson
Benjamin Willis / Fisherman
Anne Heche
Melissa Egan

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Jim Gillespie
Writers: Kevin Williamson
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 7.4× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

29 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "I Know What You Did Last Summer Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Jim Gillespie, shot by Denis Crossan. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by John Debney. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Steve Mirkovich shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "If you're going to bury the truth, make sure it stays buried.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jim Gillespie directs. Denis Crossan behind the camera. John Debney scores. Steve Mirkovich cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 7.4× over at the box office.
229 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Part of the "I Know What You Did Last Summer Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
4Directed by Jim Gillespie, shot by Denis Crossan. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by John Debney. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Steve Mirkovich shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "If you're going to bury the truth, make sure it stays buried.".
9IMDB entry: tt0119345 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 14 themes, including "high school", "police", "blackmail", "fisherman".

The technical file

Cinematography: Denis Crossan
Original score: John Debney
Editing: Steve Mirkovich
Production design: Gary Wissner
Costume design: Catherine Adair
Makeup / hair: Judith H. Bickerton
Sound: Matthew Iadarola
Stunt coordinator: Freddie Hice
Runtime: 102 min · 1h 42m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $17,000,000
Box office: $125,586,134
Return: 739% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

Part of

I Know What You Did Last Summer Collection

I Know What You Did Last Summer is a 1997 American slasher film based on the 1973 novel of the same name by Lois Duncan. The film stars Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe and Freddie Prinze Jr., with Anne Heche and Bridgette Wilson appearing in supporting roles. It centers on four friends who are being stalked by a killer, one year after covering up a car accident in which they were involved. The film was directed by Jim Gillespie, from a screenplay written by Kevin Williamson, writer of Scream. The film was followed by three sequels, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), the straight-to-DVD release I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (2006), and the legacy sequel also titled I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025).

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Jim Gillespie

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2015-10-21
★ 6/10
Ben the Bream. Kevin Williamson, hot off of the success of his screenplay for Wes Craven's Scream, here adapted the Lois Duncan novel with mixed results. A bunch of pretty teenagers in a coastal fishing town run over a man in the road and try to cover it up. Not a wise move at the best of times, even more so now as the victim, a hook wielding fisherman, is coming to get them. And that's pretty much it. Williamson adds some humour into the play, while director Jim Gillespie plays his shock tactics well and keeps the pretty young cast annoying enough for us to want to see the fisherman guy enact revenge. It sadly gets away from itself in the last quarter once the stalker is revealed, and in truth there's very little imagination gone into the whole pic. But it's a decent night in with beer and popcorn for those after a short sharp shock type horror. 6/10
Wuchak2022-02-13
★ 6/10
The guilt will haunt you and maybe even KILL you Released in 1997, "I Know What You Did Last Summer" takes place in coastal North Carolina where a group of just-graduated teens experience a tragic event and compound it by foolishly reacting. They swear to carry the secret to their graves, but the next summer it becomes clear that someone knows their secret and murders start piling up. The teens are played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ryan Phillippe and Freddie Prinze Jr. Also on hand are Johnny Galecki, Anne Heche and Muse Watson. This movie is full of slasher clichés, like the killer who's always in the same garb (this time a fisherman's slicker outfit), the slow-methodical walking of the killer (never running) and the undead dead. There are also two blatant "Yeah, right" scenes (noted below). Thankfully, it makes up for it by the stellar coastal locations (strangely shot on BOTH East and West coasts), a quality cast, some effective sequences and the potent moral on haunting guilt that slowly kills ya. The immediate aftermath of the opening accident is particularly well done. The film runs 99 minutes and shot in Southport, North Carolina, and Jenner, California, and nearby regions of both coasts. GRADE: B or B- (6.5/10 Stars) SPOILER ALERT (DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM) Here are the two eye-rolling scenes: 1. The sequence where Max's corpse is found in the trunk with the crabs. It couldn't have been an illusion since Helen didn't yet know Max was dead, so it must've really happened. If so, how would the slicker-killer get the trunk cleaned-up so quickly with no one seeing him in a neighborhood in broad daylight? Also, how did he even get into trunk? Did he have his own personal key? The sequence is just too far-fetched. 2. After Barry is murdered by the killer at the pageant how does he know that the cop and Helen would be driving down the alley by-pass an hour or so later? (I realize the street was blocked off and he might've been the one who set it up, but how did he know this would be the precise route taken by the cop and Helen? And how would he even know Helen would be riding with the cop? It's not like she wouldn't have other friends & family in town with whom she could ride. Anyway, wouldn't people living in the downtown area or other passersby notice a man in full-slicker garb working on his truck? Sequences like these take intelligent viewers right out of the story, which explains Roger Ebert's response: "After the screening was over and the lights went up, I observed a couple of my colleagues in deep and earnest conversation, trying to resolve twists in the plot. They were applying more thought to the movie than the makers did."
Andre Gonzales2023-07-04
★ 8/10
I liked this movie. I wish there was more action and killing but overall pretty good. Has a good cast in it too.