I Know What You Did Last Summer

This article is about the film. For the franchise, see I Know What You Did Last Summer (franchise). For other uses, see I Know What You Did Last Summer (disambiguation).

I Know What You Did Last Summer
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJim Gillespie
Screenplay byKevin Williamson
Based onI Know What You Did Last Summer
by Lois Duncan
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyDenis Crossan
Edited bySteve Mirkovich
Music byJohn Debney
Production
company
Distributed byColumbia Pictures[1]
Release date
  • October 17, 1997 (1997-10-17)[2]
Running time
101 minutes[3]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$17 million[4][5]
Box office$125.3 million[4]

I Know What You Did Last Summer is a 1997 American slasher film directed by Jim Gillespie and written by Kevin Williamson. It stars Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Freddie Prinze Jr., with supporting roles played by Johnny Galecki, Bridgette Wilson, Anne Heche, and Muse Watson. The first installment in the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise, it is loosely based on the 1973 novel by Lois Duncan.[6] The film centers on four teenage friends, who are stalked by a hook-wielding killer one year after covering up a car accident in which they supposedly killed a man. It also draws inspiration from the urban legend known as "the Hook", as well as the slasher films Prom Night (1980) and The House on Sorority Row (1982).

Williamson was approached to adapt Duncan's source novel by producer Erik Feig. Where Scream contained prominent elements of satire and self-referentiality, Williamson's script for IKWYDLS reworked the novel's central plot to resemble a straightforward 1980s-era slasher film.[7]

I Know What You Did Last Summer was released theatrically in the United States on October 17, 1997. It received a mixed reception from critics but was a sizeable commercial hit, grossing $125.3 million worldwide on a budget of $17 million, staying in first place at the U.S. box office for three consecutive weeks. The film was parodied in Scary Movie (2000) and is frequently referenced in popular culture, as well as being credited alongside Scream with revitalizing the slasher genre in the 1990s.[8]

The film was followed by a sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), in which Hewitt, Prinze Jr., and Watson reprised their roles. A straight-to-video standalone sequel, I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (2006), featured an entirely new cast. Following a television series adaptation released by Amazon Prime Video in 2021, a direct legacy sequel to the first two films is scheduled to be released by Sony Pictures on July 18, 2025.

  1. ^ a b "I Know What You Did Last Summer". American Film Institute. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  2. ^ Rockoff 2016, p. 182.
  3. ^ "I Know What You Did Last Summer". BBFC.
  4. ^ a b "I Know What You Did Last Summer - Box Office Data". The Numbers. Archived from the original on December 20, 2013. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  5. ^ Harper 2004, p. 26.
  6. ^ Fahy 2010, p. 248.
  7. ^ Rockoff 2016, p. 183.
  8. ^ Shary 2012, p. 62.