30 September Slashers: Day 22-I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER

Some may say I was a bit of a late bloomer when it comes to horror.  My parents were not particularly horror fans, and I didn’t have an older brother or sister who got me into the genre.  While my friends grew up with posters of Freddy and Jason Vorhees, I was more interested in Star Wars.  Although sometimes tossed aside by genre fans, the late 90s’ slasher boom was essentially some of my first exposure to horror and thus, those films hold a special place in my heart.  The film we will watch tonight was one of the most successful in this particular era of horror and one of the best.  Throw in a line while we watch I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Day 22: Has it Really Been 13 Years? …I Know What You Did Last Summer

After high school graduation, Jennifer Love Hewitt and her friends thought they had the world by the ass and were going to have one last night of debauchery before they leave their small coastal town…that is until they ran over a fisherman.  Fearful that this incident will ruin their future, the gang throws him in the ocean.  One year later, the teens didn’t fulfill all their dreams and are still haunted by the memory of that night.  They never got caught by the police, but unfortunately for them, someone remembers what they did last summer (hence the title).

This era of slashers was an odd one.  While the premises’ of films like Urban Legend and Valentine were essentially that of an 80’s slasher, one couldn’t help but notice that the cast looked like they were straight out of Dawsons Creek . This was no different in this film.  If Freddie Prince Jr. can play a grizzled blue collar fisherman, then I can play the President of the United States.  The film reeked of nineties fashion and cinematography.  All that aside, the film had plenty of scares, had a compelling mystery, and featured a brief appearance by Southern Culture on the Skids (How the hell did they get this gig?).  One thing that this film could have benefited from was a bit of gore from Tom Savini and some more T & A.  I can understand that they didn’t include that stuff so as to appeal to a wider audience, but it would have helped the film’s appeal with hardcore horror fans.

Problems aside, this is a film from the late nineties horror resurgence that is worth a second look.  Kudos to I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.  I haven’t seen that film in years, and it might be worth revisiting for next year’s installment of 30 September Slashers.  The 23^rd day of 30 September Slashers will see us going back to high school as we look at Graduation Day.