Hello and welcome to another edition of Twisted News! In this edition, I’ll be spoiling the movie I Know What You Did Last Summer. *Disclaimer: If you have not seen the movie and intend to, but do not wish to be spoiled, then please stop reading.*
IKWYDLS was a 1997 slasher film that hit theaters when I was in high school. It was released around the same time as Scream, with the same writer, Kevin Williamson, on board. It became a cult classic that still holds up to this day. When a group of teens makes poor decisions after killing someone and covering it up, a fisherman wearing a slicker, hunts each of them a year later, killing them one by one. Sequel picks up a year later with a whole new cast. The two survivors are adjusting to their new way of life until they are brought back together with another skeleton that wouldn’t let things lie where they should, dead.
On any given day, I would pop those movies into my VHS player and watch them over and over until I could recite the dialogue as it played. It was a franchise that, despite its plot flaws, I still loved. And for roughly two hours, I lived in a state of nostalgia while watching the new movie. The OG’s came back to weave a new storyline for the current generation. They paid homage to the ’97 flick with locations and the loss the town endured.
All right, let’s go ahead and slash this up. (See what I did there *wink*).
A whole new cast accompanied us. The usual two couples, but this time, they added a fifth wheel. Danica, Teddy, Ava, Milo, and Stevie. Danica is rich, or maybe she wants people to think she is, because the guys she dates have money. Perhaps for her, that was something she had always sought out. She is not your typical spoiled rich girl brat, but it was very much a look at me and this fancy lifestyle I have. I took her character as similar to Helen Shivers. Ava closely resembled a Julie James version. Quiet and shy, unsure of herself and what she wants. When shit happens, she questions Teddy and his choice to leave and not say anything.
Teddy reminded me of Barry, a reckless, cocky, very deviant character with a chip on his shoulder. Milo reminded me of Ray. Shy, quiet, and wanting to get the girl, but always just out of his reach. Stevie, being the fifth person, was an anything-goes character. She didn’t have it easy like the others. She was known as the person whose father stole her money and then skipped town. (With this scenario, I need to rewatch to confirm because I don’t remember all the details.) Inputting a new character, I don’t think was necessary. Stevie’s character seemed like a disposable filler, as if the writers didn’t want one of the main four to be the killer. I questioned her from the start. I suppose a valid reason is Hollywood’s way of concluding the story in the ’97 and ’98 films, but if so, then the cutscene doesn’t make sense. As the viewer, you knew they were friends, maybe even at some point. But it was never confirmed why they didn’t stay in touch.
We begin with Danica and Teddy’s engagement party. After everyone leaves for the night, Milo, Ava, Danica, and Teddy are hanging out by the pool. Milo offers a blunt to Teddy, and Teddy can’t refuse, so the four of them decide to take a trip up to the cliffsides because the view of the fireworks is the best up there. Before getting in the car, they see Stevie loading crates into her vehicle, having just worked the party, and extend an invitation for her to join them. Driving recklessly around sharp curves, laughing, and having a good time. This is where things differ from the original. Instead of hitting someone, they stop off to the side of the road and get out. Teddy stands carelessly in the middle of the road, and for a minute, you think he will be the casualty, but another car comes around the bend, driving erratically, then swerves to avoid hitting Teddy. The vehicle hits the guardrail and teeters on the edge of the cliff.
A brief moment of shock suspends their next moves before they snap into action. The two guys try to open the door to help the driver, but it’s locked. The girls tried holding down the back of the truck, but despite their efforts, the car still plunged to the bottom of the cliffs. This is where the familiar tug-of-war takes over. “We need to call the police.” “We need to go down and help him.” “Why were you standing out in the middle of the road, Teddy?” “We need to tell someone.” “Our lives will be ruined if we tell someone.” “Why should we go down there? It’s too late.” “The police have been called. We need to go.” “We will go to the police station to give our statements.” That seems to be a suitable answer as they all pile back into the car, their moods somber. Instead of heading to the police station, they head back to Danica’s house and make a pact. Never speak of it again. I think it was stupid because it was an unfortunate accident. Besides Teddy’s dumbass being in the middle of the road, it did not justify the chain of events that took place after. They could have fleshed out the idea better to make it make sense. I suppose that is the whole point, though, do something you know is wrong and then deny it happened.
A year later, Danica is with someone new, Wyatt. Teddy went off the rails and was living on his dad’s boat. Ava and Milo haven’t spoken, but the tension between them is palpable. Danica and Stevie have become the bestest of friends. Danica is having a bridal shower, which seems too fast after Teddy. I’m wondering if perhaps the writers needed a way for the group to reunite but couldn’t think of another option. Honestly, you could have done anything. In the original, Julie came into town from college and saw the infamous note; then, they all met up again. However, this is the scene where our characters are introduced to the infamous note, “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” scrawled in sharp-edged black font. Panic sets in, and the group breaks off to have a private conversation about it.
Within forty minutes of the movie, things start picking up. The fisherman brutally kills Wyatt with a harpoon weapon. That was pretty awesome. I think Stevie did the deed for two reasons: he was marrying Danica, he drank heavily, and as a friend, she didn’t find him suitable for her. Or she wanted Danica to feel the same pain she did when she lost her boyfriend. Either way, Danica was a mess and didn’t understand why he was gone. They hadn’t started piecing together the connection yet.
A podcaster, Tyler, who we first saw in an airport scene with Ava, meets up again. Ava is looking for answers, and who better to ask than someone who has been researching the ’97 massacre in Southport. Or it could be Julie James. Well, both eventually happen. Here we see a homage to Shivers Department Store, which was now a restaurant named Bayside Manor. Not entirely sure what the purpose was for visiting the location, but Ava comes face to face with the fisherman and puts up a fight. You go, girl! Typically, in horror flicks, they tend to portray the female as a very wishy-washy, damsel-in-distress type character, which isn’t empowering to women. So, it was cool to see the change in delivery. Unfortunately, we witness Tyler’s death with similarities to Helen Shivers’ in the original. Before being hooked to death, Tyler pulls the hat off the fisherman to then express, “It’s you,” revealing the identity of the fisherman that the audience can’t see. Well, shit, if SHE knows who it is, then WE also know who it is! That subtlety was not so subtle. Besides Tyler bringing a new age concept of social media into play with the podcasting—shows have been adding that addition recently—and as cool as it seems to adapt to the change, I find that Tyler’s death timeline was out of context. For example, perhaps Ava and Tyler meet with Julie together. Tyler wants to investigate the location of each of the deaths with information from what Julie provided, and then BAM, the fisherman guts her. The horrific scene still plays out, but now there is a little more depth.
Whether it is before or after (this is another scene, I don’t remember the order of events), Ava visits Julie James, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, who is now a professor at a University teaching students about trauma. “If you don’t deal with it, then it will rule your life,” that kind of conversation. Julie isn’t thrilled to see someone claiming they are “living her past,” but is willing to help Ava. Which is, find who is doing this and take care of them once and for all. Because of Tyler’s death, the sheriff holds a town hall meeting. Teddy’s dad, Grant, who is a wealthy real estate developer in Southport, has been attempting to cover up the ’97 massacre to bring in more tourists. The town is in a frenzy, and who comes storming out of the crowd? Ray, played by Freddie Prinze Jr.! Our dashing save-the-day prince. 
However, Ray has become bitter and angry over the years. He doesn’t like that the sheriff and Grant are ignoring the events that have happened to him and what is currently happening in Southport.
Dismissing the growing concern of the town, Grant extends an offer that Pastor Judah is there to help anyone in need. Stevie realizes that her boss is none other than Ray, OG to the massacre in ’97. (Is this really her first realization? I mean, she works for the guy.) The group follows Ray and explains that it is happening to them too, and they need his help. When Ava mentions that she had spoken with Julie, Ray interrupts with a very hostile view of Julie. You see the disdain and tension that allude to a nasty split, but they never go into an explanation about what happened. I can only guess that maybe Ray didn’t deal with his trauma of what happened to them, and it festered like an infection until one day Julie said, “Enough, I’m out.”
The killings continue, and so do the subtle hints. Do you think you can pick out each subtle hint? Ray is Stevie’s boss, hmm. He made it clear that he had promised her dad he would do everything he could to protect her, hmm—clearly, anything. Keep reading, you will see what I mean. There is a cemetery scene where they search for answers and come across the gravestones of the original cast members who died. And lo and behold, we see fresh flowers on Sam Goody’s—the person who died that night—gravesite. Danica is then chased through the cemetery by the fisherman, and she runs into a warehouse that, surprise, is holding the Croaker Queen float! Danica is in a fight for her life, but Teddy saves her. Wait, she is not killed right away, hmm. Remember when the second fiancé died, but she didn’t die? Well, stay with me. You find out that Danica was Croaker Queen only because she mentioned it. I think a two-minute scene of the parade or even the pageant would have been nice to see. It is a tradition in that town, so it didn’t hold up when they just said it in passing.
Ava and Milo share a will-they-won’t-they get together. It always seemed to elude them. There was a brief moment of wanting to see it, but at the same time, there was no real attachment. I think the writers had one focus in mind and didn’t think clearly about how to bring these two together. It could have been the actors, too, but they were very cold and distant. I think little hints of them accidentally touching or dialogue would have worked. But I didn’t believe they wanted to get together. So, when he died, I was like meh. My first thought was, well, that sucks. They could have done better.
When the gang investigates into who Sam Goody is, they discover he was part of the congregation led by Pastor Judah. You remember when I mentioned him earlier? Well, a scene led audience members to believe that he could be the fisherman killer because we see a journal with Sam and the pastor together. Possibly the pastor is angry at the loss, and it would have made sense, but it wasn’t him. Let’s be real, these kinds of movies always misdirect. The girls go to the police station with this information. 
In the meantime, Teddy and his dad’s gutted bodies are hung by the pier for everyone to see. It was evident who killed them. Stay with me. Danica falls asleep, and we get to see another OG, Helen Shiver, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, in a dream sequence.
The police storm the church to arrest Pastor Judah. But the pastor is dead! A cop points out to the sheriff a photo on the wall, and who is standing next to Sam Goody? Stevie! Shocker. At the same time, we see Ava and Danica are now on a boat with Stevie heading away from Southport. This is where the movie’s climax unfolds. Stevie reveals, dun dun duuun, she is the killer! She angrily expresses that they killed her boyfriend whom she was in love with, and didn’t go to the police station. She was going to kill Danica and wanted to make sure Danica knew who it was. This is where, honestly, I’m over it. It seems a bit over the top for that reason. I understand the love angle, but your friends did try to help. They even called the police! So, the crux of her anger was that they lied about going to the police station. Furthermore, why did Stevie friend Danica if she was going to kill her anyway? To get close to her? To make it hurt more for killing her boyfriend? To make it more personal?
Which further made me stop and think: why was Sam Goody driving on the road at that exact moment anyway? We never find out the reason. We discover that he stole the pastor’s truck. Why? Why was he driving crazy? Did Pastor Judah and Sam get into a fight? If so, why? Give me something to connect the dots. If they had mentioned it in passing and I missed it, then it wasn’t a relevant point for me to remember. It seemed like a slippery slope of actions that didn’t justify murdering all these people because you felt they could have done more than what they had done. Just saying.
So, they are on the boat, and a fight for survival breaks out. Ray shows up, demands why Stevie didn’t go to him for help, etc. Then Stevie hooks Danica, and Danica falls overboard. Ray shoots Stevie, and then she also goes over the side of the boat. But remember, Ray said he would never let anything happen to her. End of movie, right? No. It might have been satisfying for most, but it didn’t feel over. It didn’t make sense how Stevie managed to take on the ones that fought back. I understand the concept of female empowerment, but there was some brute force involved, and I don’t think she was capable of doing it all by herself. There had to be a second killer.
We cut to Ray and Ava at Ray’s bar. She is trying to make sense of it all. Ray takes off his sweater, and instead of the audience seeing it, a quick flashback from the Bayside Manor scene, where Ava swipes at the fisherman, tells us what Ava then realizes. Ray played a part in it all. I was bothered by the fact that we, as the audience, didn’t see it first. There is a type of connection where you can engage the audience and provide them with clues. You don’t have to force it down their throats. This is what I want you to see, blah, blah, blah. I don’t think that is great storytelling.
We have official clarification; there is a second killer. It makes sense when you look back at his anger at the town hall meeting. The hatred for Grant, Teddy’s father, and the sheriff for trying to sweep what happened to him and his friends under the rug. I bet you can piece together who did what killings. Some were more brutal than others. Now that I’ve revealed the final piece of the puzzle, the podcaster’s death is what irked me the most. So, Ray is pissed, right? He is downright furious that they are trying to erase the past. So then why kill the podcaster? She was there to bring awareness to the killings of the town. Unless it was negative, but I couldn’t see that relevance. Once it’s on the internet, it will be hard for any of those officials to cover it up. So that was a bit of a scratching head moment.
Julie, who plays a larger role in the movie, saw the news and researched to discover that Stevie and Ray knew each other. The writer made it seem like an ‘aha’ moment for the audience, but we already knew that. I think the scene of her looking it up online was misplaced. It should have been right before the bar scene when Ray and Ava were there. It would have been an ‘awe shit’ moment. But Julie shows up and questions Ray about his involvement in the killings. He further justifies his anger for what they were 
doing. Okay, we get it. Julie says her infamous line, “What are you waiting for? Huh? What are you waiting for?” It was fucking beautiful! Ava shoots him with the harpoon weapon, and for one split second, you think Ray hooked Julie, but in fact, Ava harpooned Ray. Now Ray is dead.
We find out that Danica survived. How? Make that make sense. Danica and Ava leave the hospital all patched up. They share a moment of sentiment toward one another as they eat. Then Ava breaks the news to Danica that Stevie is still alive. This time around, you had two main female characters. All the men died. A very stark difference from what we are used to in a typical slasher flick. It was nice to see the change-up. As a woman, I can appreciate that.
Credits start rolling, and then we have a (wait for it) cutscene! You see the TV reporting that Ray was the fisherman killer. Camera pans out, and who do you see? KARLA, played by Brandy! She was one of the survivors in the sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. She comments about men not going to therapy, which seemed to be the theme in the story.
Karla shuts off the TV, and there is a knock at the door. A moment of suspense, wondering if the fisherman has come back. After all, the only OG to survive at this point is Julie James. I was looking for the classic cliffhanger scenes from the first two. The first film turned out to be a dream sequence, but for the sequel, they never explained the reason. Either way, it was a pattern that the films shared. I’m thinking; here we go, it’s going to tie this up with a little red bow. Nope. It was just Julie at the door. She comes in, and Karla says her famous line, “Dang, Julie, you can’t catch a break.” Then Julie hands Karla a letter and says she received this. Karla opens it, and it is a picture of the two of them with Karla’s face crossed out. On the back of the picture, in ominous words, “It’s not over.”
BAM! And there you have it, folks. There were pros and cons. I definitely wished they used the harpoon weapon more. It was a nice change from the usual fisherman’s hook. I liked that it featured a more female-driven cast. However, it did force other side characters to be dispensable with no regard for their deaths. The writers could have fleshed out those extra characters more fully. Some storylines just fell off, and maybe the writer didn’t think it was necessary to provide details. If they did discuss those little details, then it wasn’t something memorable enough for me to remember. However, why do you think Kevin Williamson was known for capturing the fans with his work in the first two? Because he established those connections. Or maybe I’ve grown up, and the flaws are too obvious to ignore. Ultimately, it turned out to be a typical slasher flick, killing for the sake of killing. I will have to watch it again to catch what I didn’t catch during the first viewing. As for my initial reaction, I can say that, given the movie’s genre, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Moral of the story: Deal with your shit!
What leaves your mind twisted?
Until next time!
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