Line #3 YMMV/IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer


1	!!The film:
2
3	* ActorShipping: Although it was Creator/FreddiePrinzeJr she'd eventually marry, a lot of fans shipped Creator/SarahMichelleGellar with Creator/RyanPhillippe.
4	* AdaptationDisplacement: The movie is far more well-known than the novel at this point; people who seek out the book may be shocked that it's a character drama about the guilt the characters feel over the hit-and-run ([[spoiler:a little boy in the novel]]) and having to cope years later while dealing with the title-based note. It's even got to the extent that some reprints of the book have a cover featuring a fisherman with a hook - even though that's something that exists entirely in the movie.
5	* AlasPoorScrappy:
6	** [[spoiler:Barry gets killed after he starts to show some HiddenDepths and has spent the day trying to protect Helen. The fact that she - and she does definitely care about him - has to watch him die while people try to stop her from helping makes this even worse.]]
7	** [[spoiler: Elsa is a real piece of work as well, but seeing her face to face with the killer and the look of terror as he raises the hook over something she had no part in...she even screams once she realises what's about to happen to her.]]
8	** [[spoiler: Max is presented as a jerk (though he isn't really), but he had nothing to do with the accident and absolutely did not deserve to die over it.]]
9	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
10	** Despite Julie's stance as the responsible one of the group, she never actually ''stops'' the others from dumping the body. She just protests it, and never goes to the police herself. She has ample opportunities to stop the others. But she goes along with the concealment and keeps the pact, suggesting she might not be as moral as she paints herself. But since Barry threatened her, she may have kept quiet out of fear. Or she may have worried going down for being associated with the crime, since she did help cover up a murder.
11	** Helen acts as though she just failed as an actress in New York, saying "it didn't really work out". But if you think about it, she was probably traumatised by the accident, and moving to a different city so soon afterwards can't have helped. Perhaps she returned home because she needed support from her family or to simply be near someone familiar. Another possibility is that Helen gave up on her acting career out of atonement and guilt, feeling that she didn't deserve it after her role in the hit and run.
12	** When Helen gets upset about the accident victim grabbing her crown before going into the water, is she being materialistic, worrying about evidence, or clinging to a symbol of what she may already know was the last time she’ll be innocent.
13	** Helen is also the one who tries to rationalise the oddness of David Egan supposedly running out onto the road as there being more to the hit-and-run than a simple accident. And she also remembers the accident that killed Susie Willis. So while on the surface it seems like she's grasping at straws to make herself feel better, did she perhaps sense that something didn't add up?
14	* AudienceAlienatingEnding: A lot of people aren't wild about the ending scene, to the point that the sequel retconned it as just being a dream of Julie's.
15	* BestKnownForTheFanservice:
16	** A lot of people remember the film for Jennifer Love Hewitt spending the climax in a tight white tank top.
17	** For the other end of the spectrum, the gratuitous ShowerScene with Ryan Philippe (who then spends several minutes in just a towel) is a close second.
18	** Sarah Michelle Gellar spends one memorable scene in short shorts and a tank top, another in a swimsuit, and another still in a sports bra.
19	* CriticalDissonance: The film was trashed by critics upon release. Audiences however, loved it. The film was number one at the box office for three weeks and ended up outgrossing many of the bigger budgeted releases of that year.
20	* DamselScrappy: WebVideo/ChrisStuckmann felt Julie became this in the third act. After the film had her established as an active character taking charge of the situation, she spends the final confrontation doing nothing but scream and having to be rescued by Ray - not to mention she distracts him by screaming his name when he's fighting the killer. This is another of the reasons most viewers prefer Helen as a character.
21	* DracoInLeatherPants: While there is no disputing that Helen is TheWoobie and a NiceGirl, a lot of fans try to ignore or downplay her less than admirable actions in helping cover up the hit-and-run in a way that has a lot to do with the attractiveness of Creator/SarahMichelleGellar and the sad and frightened expressions she gives her character.
22	* EstrogenBrigade: The movie has 90s teen heartthrobs Ryan Phillippe and Freddie Prinze Jr. Both get scenes wearing tight tank tops, and the former gets an extended ShirtlessScene. Unsurprisingly there are a lot of people who watched the film for them.
23	* FanonDiscontinuity: Some fans of the movie are reluctant to accept 1) [[spoiler:Helen's]] death and 2) the killer being [[spoiler:a StrangerBehindTheMask]] as canon.
24	* FightSceneFailure: When Julie, Helen, and Barry go to visit Ray, Barry throws a punch at him. It doesn't even come close to connecting, yet Ray falls down as if it hit.
25	* FirstInstallmentWins: The first film is seen as a quintessential 90s teen slasher - with iconic moments such as Helen's extended chase through the town, the murder of [[spoiler: Barry during the pageant]] and Julie's infamous "what are you waiting for, huh!" - and is remembered to this day. The second was a ContestedSequel that didn't make as much impact, and most fans try to pretend the DirectToVideo third film (with none of the original cast and added supernatural elements) doesn't exist.
26	* HarsherInHindsight:
27	** Ryan Philippe playing the [[DomesticAbuser abusive boyfriend]] especially prone to violence and threatening the others is quite harsh to watch in light of his ex-girlfriend Elsie Hewitt suing him for assault in 2017, and another ex-girlfriend accusing him of harassment.
28	** Anne Heche plays the sister of someone who died in a drunk driving accident (although it wasn't the driver who was drinking and [[spoiler: it turns out he was murdered]]). She herself would be involved in a drunk driving accident on August 5, 2022, passing away only 7 days later.
29	* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments:
30	** Despite Barry and Helen being at odds after the TimeSkip, there are several PetTheDog moments between them that suggest Helen is his MoralityPet in some way. After she's attacked in her house, we see that Barry was the first one there to comfort her. And in the parade, he gives her a reassuring smile as if to tell her she looks great.
31	** Julie is likely doubting her own sanity after Max's body vanishes from her trunk, and Barry seems to think so too. Helen however immediately says she believes her.
32	** Meta: in 2008, Jennifer Love Hewitt called Jim Gillespie her favourite director she'd ever worked with.
33	* HesJustHiding: While it is a bit of a stretch, it can be ''just'' possible to imagine [[spoiler:Helen]] still being alive but unconscious on the boat (especially given how she only has one visible, relatively non-gory stab wound a couple inches away from her heart and being put in a freezer might have inadvertently stopped bleeding from the hook wounds with the cold). The fact that [[spoiler:she]] isn't directly mentioned as dead later on (at least not in ''this'' movie) can help.
34	* HilariousInHindsight:
35	** At the start, the teens mention going down to "Dawson's Beach". You'd think this would be a ShoutOut since Kevin Williamson wrote ''Series/DawsonsCreek'' as well - but this was made first. The series would even end up using the same locations!
36	** The movie has [[Series/GhostWhisperer a girl who talks to ghosts]] and [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer a girl who kills them]].
37	** Eventual husband and wife Creator/FreddiePrinzeJr and Creator/SarahMichelleGellar star together. Despite being in a group of friends, their characters only interact once (when Helen looks at Ray before leaving the hospital). And there's the fact that Julie early in the film talks sadly about who Ray will fall in love with in future - not realising it's the actress just off camera.
38	** The DreadfulMusician performing during the second Croaker Queen pageant looks uncannily like Creator/ReeseWitherspoon - Creator/RyanPhillippe's eventual wife, and his and Sarah Michelle Gellar's co-stars in ''Film/CruelIntentions''. In both films, he gets hit by a car too.
39	** More ''Cruel Intentions'' - there the roles are reversed for Ryan Philippe and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Here, Ryan plays the {{Jerkass}} Barry and Sarah plays the LovableAlphaBitch. In ''Cruel Intentions'', he's the BigManOnCampus who reforms and she's the BitchInSheepsClothing.
40	** A sisterly rivalry with the eldest named Elsa - jealous of everything her younger sister has? [[WesternAnimation/Frozen2013 Hmm...]]
41	** Bud in the book is a ShellShockedVeteran, a detail that was left out of the movie. Ryan Phillippe would later find himself playing a lot of those - notably in ''Film/FlagsOfOurFathers'' and ''Film/StopLoss''. Barry is also wearing dog tags at the gym.
42	* HollywoodHomely:
43	** Despite her significant AdaptationalAttractiveness, Elsa is still given a pair of glasses to make her seem less attractive than Helen. True to this trope's form, it fails miserably to the point of making her MORE beautiful.
44	** Barry tells Helen and Julie that they "look like shit". Julie arguably does--she's pale, thin, with stringy hair--but Helen doesn't.
45	* JerkassWoobie: Although Julie is UnintentionallyUnsympathetic (see below), she has spent an entire year dealing with guilt for being involved in a hit and run accident. The fact that Barry nearly choked her when she didn't agree to keep quiet right away suggests she may have been afraid of him coming after her too.
46	* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: Likely another reason Julie tends not to be as liked; she's merely aloof to her mother, rejects Helen's attempts to rebuild their friendship and tells Ray she doesn't want to be around him to remind herself of the accident (and even then, she still says "I'm responsible for my own actions" without blaming him entirely). It's however a strike against her because she's the protagonist, {{Jerkass}}es like Barry are quickly given LaserGuidedKarma or redeeming moments and [[spoiler: the much nicer Helen gets killed off in favor of Julie living]]. It ignores that Julie is very much a NiceGirl at the start, and is later dealing with trauma that would make anyone snap.
47	* JustHereForGodzilla: No, Sarah Michelle Gellar is not the lead of this movie. But from how Helen is easily more popular than Julie, it's safe to say that a lot of fans wish she was.
48	* [[HoYay Les Yay]]: Helen tells Julie that she misses her at one point, and Julie is gushing over how good Helen looks as the Croaker Queen at the start.
49	* MemeticMutation:
50	** SOON
51	** '''[[NarmCharm What Are You Waiting For, Huh?! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!!!!!!]]'''
52	** The title.
53	** "Justice for Helen!" became one in the latter half of the 2010s, with reference to those believing Helen should have been the main character.
54	* {{Moe}}: Helen, with the exception of the hit-and-run scene. Creator/SarahMichelleGellar makes sure that all of her scenes before that have her displaying a fun, bubbly charm while her scenes afterward give her a strong sense of defeat and vulnerability as she's being bullied by her sister, stalked by a psycho, and unsuccessfully tries to reconnect with her best friend.
55	* MoralEventHorizon:
56	** Barry crosses the line because [[spoiler:he dives in after the body, to make sure it stays sunk. While there, he's the only one who sees the EyeAwaken of the victim, ''meaning he KNOWS that the victim is still alive''! He just swims away, then pressures the others to keep the secret when they start to relent.]]
57	** Any sympathy the fisherman had dwindles after [[spoiler:HE starts killing people uninvolved with the hit and run]].
58	* {{Narm}}: The killer's habit of silently moving bodies around at light-speed without leaving a shred of evidence behind, even in broad daylight. It almost makes sense that the direct-to-video sequel just turns them into a teleporting zombie.
59	* NarmCharm: As noted above, Julie screaming "what are you waiting for, huh!" at the sky is a little silly. But still perfectly reasonable, given the amount of stress the poor girl is under. Jennifer Love Hewitt even thought it was ridiculous when she was told to do it (it was thought up by a fan who'd won a contest) but later admitted it was an iconic part of the movie.
60	--> "And then we were doing it and it was amazing, and it looked cool, and now everybody loves it."
61	* NeverLiveItDown: To this day the film gets a lot of flak for [[spoiler: killing off its biggest star, Helen, after having spent so much of the movie focusing on her psychological torture by the fisherman]].
62	* ParanoiaFuel:
63	** The killer making it all the way into Helen's house without her, her father or sister knowing. None of them even heard him. Hell, the door wasn't even locked. [[spoiler: The only reason Helen didn't die then and there was because the killer wanted to torture her even further]].
64	** There's also the idea of being chased through town and no one hearing your screams for help, because it's after hours and everyone else is at the big parade.
65	* ParodyDisplacement: Many viewers admit to not being able to watch the scene of Julie finding the boot without thinking of the "where's the foot?" line from ''Film/ScaryMovie'' parodying it.
66	* PlatonicWritingRomanticReading: Julie and Helen spend more time with each other than their respective boys. In fact, more attention is given to the loss of their friendship than either of their break-ups.
67	* QuestionableCasting: Creator/FreddiePrinzeJr is seen as the weak link in the cast, coming across as quite unconvincing in emotional scenes and lacking chemistry with Creator/JenniferLoveHewitt.
68	* RetroactiveRecognition: Two Creator/{{CBS}} examples, Max is [[Series/TheBigBangTheory Leonard]], The Fisherman is [[Series/{{NCIS}} Mike Franks]].
69	* RonTheDeathEater: Julie has plenty of layered, intuitive, and sympathetic moments, but the fact remains that she's less interesting than Helen [[spoiler: but still lives while Helen dies, when most fans would have preferred for it to be the other way around, or for both girls to survive.]] Consequently, what moments of self-righteousness and helplessness Julie does display get heavily emphasized by those who think she shouldn't have been the FinalGirl. Her detractors also forget that the reason she doesn't want to associate with her former friends is that they forced her to help ''cover up a murder'', and even then she still accepts responsibility for her own actions.
70	* TheScrappy:
71	** Barry, basically being an ''very'' unbearable {{Jerkass}}. He's a ''little'' better in the movie where he's not as much of a {{Hypocrite}} and [[spoiler: dies trying to protect Helen]]. But still not very likeable.
72	** Ray isn't necessarily disliked but he's considered TheGenericGuy and the least popular of the four leads; partly due to Freddie Prinze Jr's weak performance and the character's lack of help in trying to solve the case. Especially since him [[spoiler: not telling the others that he was Billy Blue meant that Julie had to go all the way to Missy's and leave Helen and Barry without backup, as well as snaring Julie in Ben's clutches when she finds out]]. It can also be a sore spot for fans that [[spoiler: he survives, while the more popular Helen dies]].
73	* [[SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct She Really Can Act]]: While Sarah Michelle Gellar's acting has rarely been in doubt to ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' fans, people often tout her as being good at only playing roles that evoke Buffy in some way; she herself says that she often just plays herself in a costume whenever she acts. Her work as Helen however is considered quite underrated, as she goes [[PlayingAgainstType against type]] to play a meeker GirlyGirl who's less of a snarker. Indeed, her performance largely contributes to Helen's popularity among the fandom.
74	* SignatureScene:
75	** One of the most remembered bits is Julie screaming at the sky saying "what are you waiting for!" and twirling around in the middle of the road.
76	** A close second is [[spoiler: Barry being murdered while Helen watches from the stage and screams]].
77	** Then of course the extended [[spoiler: chase of Helen through the town, into her family department store and back out into the alleyway]]. Often touted as one of the most memorable slasher movie chase scenes.
78	* SpecialEffectsFailure:
79	** Minor example. But in the otherwise tense scene of Helen walking around her room with the killer hiding in the closet, it's easy to spot where Sarah Michelle Gellar's hair is clipped into the hair pieces - making it look like all the killer did is just cut Helen's [[FakeHairDrama extensions out]].
80	** The mannequins used for the corpses have aged ''really'' poorly and look extremely fake. The one seen in Julie's truck is barely recognizable as the intended victim.
81	* SpiritualAdaptation: Chris Stuckmann commented that this film felt more like an adaptation of one of the ''Literature/FearStreet'' books. Indeed, the eventual [[Film/FearStreet first film adaptation in that franchise]] was a GenreThrowback to the likes of ''I Know What You Did Last Summer'' and ''Scream''.
82	* TheyCopiedItSoItSucks: Quite a few people - most notably Creator/MelissaJoanHart - mocked the film for having come directly after ''{{Film/Scream 1996}}'' and being a teen slasher film with GenreSavvy characters written by Kevin Williamson. They do admittedly share a lot of aesthetic similarities - such as the killer being masked, the FinalGirl being a brunette with a dead parent, the best friend being blonde and the boyfriend being a suspect. Interestingly enough, this screenplay was written first (and the book was written in the 70s) but got picked up after ''Scream''.
83	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
84	** Helen, as most fans feel she should have had Julie's FinalGirl arc (or at least something in the climax). The storyline of a high school beauty queen becoming a FallenPrincess and having to [[TookALevelInBadass take a level in badass]] to confront her past mistakes is actually very interesting in its own right.
85	** Barry too had big potential for a redemption arc, as he suffers from BreakTheHaughty when he's ambushed at the gym, and seems to [[TookALevelInKindness become nicer as a result]]. Unfortunately, any potential CharacterDevelopment he may have gone through is kept to the sidelines.
86	** In fact, there were ways to avoid Julie being UnintentionallyUnsympathetic, had the movie properly incorporated those elements into her character; that although she acts more moral than her friends, she was still going to dump the body in the ocean when she thought he was definitely dead (and she seems to agree when Barry reminds her that she could be messing up her future). The movie could have also pointed out that she had a whole year to come forward and chose not to until it seemed she might get caught.
87	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
88	** After the film builds a nice amount of tension over who the killer is, he turns out to be [[spoiler:someone we've never heard of]].
89	** While the film is thought to be a good one, there are some who feel that an adaptation of the book's plot would still have been good. Though admittedly hard to pull off [[spoiler: with the double-identity twist]].
90	** By not having [[spoiler: Helen ]] pull a NotQuiteDead in the climax due the freezer having slowed [[spoiler: her]] bleeding, with a ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' ShoutOut.
91	* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic:
92	** Max is presented as a DoggedNiceGuy. He makes a move on Julie - when he knows she has a boyfriend - gets very pushy when she politely turns him down, and acts like a jerk to Ray (who is also nothing but nice to him).
93	** Julie herself may fall into this for some viewers, given her dour nature, the way she seems to blame her three friends for the accident while maintaining her own self-righteous attitude, and particularly her treatment of her former best friend Helen. Helen makes several attempts to reconnect with Julie over the film, even flat-out saying that she misses Julie, to which Julie responds with hostile silence.
94	* ValuesDissonance:
95	** Helen is casually seen smoking, and no characters bat an eyelid at this. Especially given that she was established as a beauty queen - but in the 90s and 2000s, a lot of female celebrities took up smoking as a way of staying thin. These days, it would be surprising for a teenage character to be shown smoking without it being commented on.
96	** The party scene at the beginning has the following series of actions - Julie is asked out by a guy who knows she has a boyfriend, creepily says "you can't leave without saying goodbye" when she politely says no, and gets into a fight with Barry when he tells him to "take a hike". ''Barry'' is presented as the {{Jerkass}} in this situation, rather than Max, who was being an absolute creep to Julie and wouldn't take no for an answer.
97	* ValuesResonance: Minor example. But in the opening, Julie is established to have some strong feminist beliefs, while also being happy for Helen and supporting her in the pageant; in the 90s it was rather common to have a StrawFeminist protesting a BeautyContest, but Julie supports Helen because it's what her friend is happy to do. Likewise, both the girls are quite sex positive, implying that they have sexual relationships with their boyfriends and not being demonized by the narrative for it. In fact, it's both the girls that initiate it, and they're still shown as rounded and virtuous characters.
98	* VanillaProtagonist: Julie's status as the moral one of the group makes her seem a little dull and UnintentionallyUnsympathetic (see above). Plus some of her more interesting character traits from the book are removed (there she was a slacker who used the accident to motivate herself to improve her schoolwork, and she's actually dating [[spoiler: the brother of the boy they killed]]) - not to mention the book is more of an ensemble, while the film treats Julie as the lead. This results in a lot of people wishing Helen had been the FinalGirl, as she has a far more compelling narrative and seems like a more layered character.
99	* TheWoobie:
100	** Helen's attempts to become an actress failed, she's become distant from her best friend and boyfriend, she clearly has at least some guilt about the accident, and she's reduced to working in the family store (which her sister loves to gloat over). That's not to mention that the killer seems to love torturing her psychologically. And she sees multiple people close to her be killed by the Fisherman.
101	** Missy Egan is quite lonely by the time we meet her, having lost her brother she believes to suicide (which is bound to make her feel all sorts of guilt for not seeing signs) and her parents being gone too. Julie starts crying at how their actions have affected Missy's life.
102
103	!!The novel:
104
105	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Although Elsa's jealous towards Helen, there are the occasional PetTheDog moments - and Helen even thinks back to a "rare moment of sisterly friendliness" when Elsa suggested they move in together. That raises the question of whether Elsa wishes to mend the rift between her and Helen - or she's just TheSociopath who wants to impose on her.
106	* HarsherInHindsight: Lois Duncan would later lose her own daughter Kaitlyn Arquette to murder in 1989, in a case that remains unsolved and which Duncan spent the rest of her life trying to reopen, believing that it was related to organized crime in the Albuquerque area. It was a major reason why she hated how the movie made it a teen slasher story.
107	* MagnificentBastard: [[BigBad Collingsworth "Collie" Wilson]] returned from fighting overseas to learn that his little brother David was killed in a hit-and-run and his family shattered by the ordeal. Discovering who the culprits were through the flowers sent to his brother's funeral, Collie vowed to kill them for killing David. Integrating himself into his targets' lives with separate identities, Collie then sends three of the perpetrators notes and newspaper clippings to remind them of the accident and ascertain their guilt, then lures out the other perpetrator by [[{{Blackmail}} insinuating that there were photos taken of the accident]] before shooting him, nearly paralyzing him. Collie then attempts to kill two of the perpetrators before being beaten unconscious and arrested, frightening two of his targets into confessing their crime.
108	* MoralEventHorizon:
109	** [[spoiler: Barry's the one most responsible, as he was driving, but he's the least affected--his sole concern is covering it up. Then after he's shot, despite knowing full well that the perpetrator is the person who has been stalking the group, thanks to the threatening phone call he received just before it happened, flat-out lies about it, first by claiming that the call was from Helen, thus allowing his parents to blame her for his injuries, then lies to Ray and claims it was a random mugging gone wrong, thus allowing everyone's life to be in danger, proving that he really doesn't care about anyone but himself. It's hard not to feel sorry for a guy who might be paralyzed for the rest of his life, but Barry pushes it pretty close.]]
110	** Some might say [[spoiler: Collie crosses this when he shoots Barry. There's no doubt that he has every right to be angry at the group, but turning them in would be a lot more tolerable than taking the law into his own hands and deciding to KILL THEM all, especially considering that three-fourths of them were genuinely shaken up and sorry about what had happened]].
111	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The book dates itself to the 70s with a lot of the dialogue - a lot of "golly" in there for instance. Helen's apartment block is supposed to be the posh place in town because it has a TV in its rec room, this being before apartments would be expected to have their own individual televisions. And of course one major character is a returning veteran from Vietnam. The original cover even has a girl with obvious SeventiesHair. But in the 2000s, Lois Duncan had her work undergo a SettingUpdate - updating the slang and clothing descriptions, having the above-mentioned veteran be returning from ''Iraq'', and inserting mentions of the characters having computers and cell phones. She commented that very little overall plot points had to be changed, and she merely found ways for the characters to not have their cell phones when they would have broken the plot.
112	* TheWoobie: Helen's from a poor family and continually tortured by her jealous older sister, and in a relationship with a guy she loves but is seeing other people behind her back. She's kind and good to everyone but everyone hates her [[SoBeautifulItsACurse because of her beauty]]. While her part in the accident doesn't make her 100% sympathetic, she still goes through a lot.

Context YMMV / IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer