Souviens-toi... l'été dernier

The best part of this film comes with the opening credits, when we hear Type O Negative's excellent rendition of the cheesy old Seals & Crofts song "Summer Breeze." Unfortunately, the song soon ends and the movie starts.

This film bears little resemblance to the book upon which it was based, which is a shame because the book was really quite good. The book was about four teens who strike a young boy with their car, accidentally killing him. The boys' older brother tracks them down when one of the girls sends flowers to the funeral. It was a story about taking responsibility for your actions, and about the different (and extreme) ways that guilt and grief affect us all. The movie version, however, scraps all that and gives us a hook-handed slasher who cannot be stopped and will not die. It's Jason Voorhees on the beach.

The teens are all flawlessly beautiful and perfectly one-dimensional, although Jennifer Love-Hewitt does try to convey a severe case of guilty conscience and mostly succeeds. The story quickly becomes ridiculous as crabs are stuffed into the trunk of a car and then inexplicably disappear (I suppose if you were H. P. Lovecraft, this might be considered scary) and one girl is subjected to the spine- tingling terror of a professional haircut while she sleeps! Oh god, the horror! The Fisherman (wow, what a terror inspiring nickname - next we'll have the Mailman or the Burger Chef, I guess) stalks silently through the film in his yellow rain slicker and floppy hat, impaling people on his silver steel hook. And I didn't care about any of the victims. Granted, you're not really supposed to care much about the characters in a film like this, but this is far from innovative stuff here; there's just nothing to appreciate. I was bored silly with this one. Give me Friday the 13th any day.

Exactly, everyone should - but why? Because it is an excellent film, containing a good storyline (though not one of the best) and some promising new actors and actresses. In regards to the storyline, not many viewers realise that the film was actually based on a novel written before Kevin Williamson even thought up the idea to create another horror flick - therefore the general outline is not his, and so some people's comparisons between this and Scream can be considered as wrong. However, they are right in the sense that the typical horror elements are all there, and some are similar to Scream. I feel that the statement on the video cover "scarier than Scream" is to some extent true, especially the climatic ending (I won't spoil it for any of you left to see the film)!

I enjoyed the acting performances, though sometimes the screams did get slightly out of hand - near the end, one popped up every other minute or so! Despite this, the characters were portrayed very well, and you could really notice the distinctions between them, and which characters you were likely to prefer. However one drawback to the characters was how obvious it was to spot who was going to bite it - all my sister had to do was look at the characters in a group and guess straight away.

On the whole though, I found it to be a good horror film, done proud by the talents of writer Kevin Williamson and of the cast. If you are looking for a good scare, or simply taste other films after experiencing the wonder that is "Scream", then "IKWYDLS" should be your first choice - with its many 'jumps' making you enjoy the ride all the way!

ENJOY, and most importantly, SCREAM ON!!!

I haven't seen a whole lot of teen slasher movies. In fact this may be the only one I have seen, and it is a fitting tribute of the genre for our birthday girl, Sarah Michelle Geller.

Writer Kevin Williamson follows up Scream with a serious example of just how effective these movies can be if they're well-written, directed and acted.

Sarah Michelle Geller (Buffy, TMNT) and Jenniver Love Hewitt (Ghost Whisperer) fit perfectly together and are supported by Ryan Phillippe (Crash, Breach, Flags of Our Fathers) and Freddie Prinze Jr. Why does that sentence sound naughty? If I had to watch one film of this type, I'm glad this was it.

So I might not like this movie as much if I were watching today for the first time. My opinion is biased by the fact that seeing this in the theater was just about the most fun I've had at a movie. That nostalgia is part of what I enjoy about it, but there are other good elements as well. For one, I like Jennifer Love Hewitt as a scream queen. Actually, that might be it. It's not big on story, the performances aren't anything special, and the kills are pretty tame. I'm giving it a seven based on my personal enjoyment of it, but I'm not recommending it for horror fans for the reasons stated above.

I Know What You Did Last Summer is an obvious attempt to cash in on the big success of the Scream movies. Compared to them and many of the other horror classics (Halloween most notably), this movie just does not measure up, but it is still entertaining. There is a sense of mystery here that really hasn't existed in slasher movies since the first Nightmare on Elm Street. You don't know who the killer is and he's always hiding in the shadows until... you know. This movie is far from perfect but entertaining.