With a interesting story line, the makers of this movie have combined a kind of scary movie with a mysterious movie. You think you know what happened but you really don't. This movie will make you want to watch the whole thing the whole way through. You'll never get bored and will keep you on thre edge of your seat.
I Know What You Did Last Summer
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Is it age appropriate?
About our ratings -
Is it any good?
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Common Sense says
This horror movie is too intense for kids.
Why We Rated This 
for Ages 16–18
What to watch out for
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Violence:
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Sex:
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Language:
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Consumerism:
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Drinking, drugs, & smoking:
What Parents Need to Know
This review of I Know What You Did Last Summer was written by Charles Cassady Jr.
Parents need to know that the movie contains very strong language and very graphic violence. It is too intense for kids.
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More on I Know What You Did Last Summer
What’s the Story?
Four graduating high-school seniors, couples Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.), and Helen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Barry (Ryan Phillippe) in a seacoast town are looking forward to graduation and promising young-adult lives as beauty queens and football heroes. But, driving recklessly after a night of drinking and cuddling on the beach, they run over a stranger. Hothead Barry, perceiving their bright tomorrows in jeopardy, has them dump the body in the sea and swears them all to secrecy. Horrifically, the mangled victim, going under, appears to be still alive. A year later college-student Julie gets a ransom-style note reading "I know what you did last summer," which compels her to reunite with her since-estranged friends, who claim ignorance about who could have sent the note and why. Barry suspects it came from a much-disliked schoolmate who had encountered them that grim night, and he tries to intimidate the kid with bullying. But then this suspect turns up murdered himself -- just the opening of a series of stalkings and killings.
Is It Any Good?
Early in this youth-oriented thriller a group of teenagers tell each other scary "urban legend" stories about maniacs with hooks for hands. As much as parents might prefer kids sit around at night with flashlights, wide-eyed and trembling, reciting tales from the Bible, the Arabian Nights, Twain, Dostoyevski or F. Scott Fitzgerald, young people always seem to go back to the thrill of morbid stuff with the hook-handed maniacs. And this holds true whether they're gathered around campfires in the woods or the cool fire of home video. I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER was a popular hit tapping into that spook-story appeal, with a good-looking cast who had been reigning on popular TV shows of the time. But there's not much under the surface (or even on the surface, for that matter) besides a familiar setup. It derives from a Lois Duncan YA novel of the same title that's been avidly read ever since its publication in 1974, but the bulk of the story deviates.
But what I Know What You Did last Summer does have is a sort of morality -- insofar as the youths' covering up their misdeed has negative repercussions, and not just the obvious, gory ones. Under the cloud of what They've Done Last Summer, the once-close quartet drift apart. Their suspicions, eventually directed against each other, make them easier targets for the real villain. It might be noted that the burden of guilt gets lightened a little bit by a surprise plot twist: the road accident had actually interrupted a murder-in-progress, and the victim was doomed anyway. Alfred Hitchcock this isn't, although scriptwriter Kevin Williamson came closer to that lofty ambition with the similarly bloody, but dark-humored Scream and its sequels, effective whodunits styled as semi-humorous takeoffs on slasher movies like this one.
Movie Details
Studio: Columbia Tristar, Director: Jim Gillespie
Run time: 101 minutes
Theatrical release: 5/4/1997, DVD release: 6/16/1998
MPAA Rating: R for strong horror violence and language
Run time: 101 minutes
Theatrical release: 5/4/1997, DVD release: 6/16/1998
MPAA Rating: R for strong horror violence and language
Our Members Say
See all 13 member reviews
Most Recent Reviews
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I rate this title iffy for age 11 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- Negative role models
AWESOME MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I rate this title iffy for age 15 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
- Inappropriate language
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- Negative role models
Not as good as the Book
This was nothing like the book, but it was still a great movie. This movie contains 10-15 f-words (really only in first half)and other PG-13 words. There is drinking at the beginning, and the role models are extremly bad. This whole movie revolves around violence. But i have to say its not as gory as everyone is saying. Yea, there is blood. But nothing compared to MIRRORS.
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I rate this title on for age 15 and give it
Really gorey
I agree, this movie is really intense and really, really, gorey.
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I rate this title pause for age 0 and give it
it is not that bad. i read the book first before i saw the movie
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I rate this title off for age 0 and give it
what kind of horror is this! a good one!
this movie is unenjoyable -- but I am older than your kids
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I rate this title off for age 0 and give it
awesome
it was awesome
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I rate this title pause for age 0 and give it
um.....
I thought it was an ok movie but being a big fan of the book i didn't like it much myself because it didn't follow the book well at all it was not a bad movie but i wouldn't recommend it to anybody under the age of 11 or 12 peace out.....
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I rate this title off for age 0 and give it
creepy
Most people didn't find this movie scary but I know I did. It's a fun thing to watch late at night with your friends. It definently makes you jump. Not appropriate for kids though. Some parts were too gorey and made me cringe.
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I rate this title pause for age 0 and give it
great for about 13+ depending on your kid.
good movie. not as violent as the SCREAM trilogy.
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I rate this title pause for age 0 and give it
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I rate this title pause for age 0 and give it
Very intense
Bad language is probably the main reason for the "R" rating. Most expletives are obscenities used by the least-likable member of the group, but other protagonists use occasional obscenities. This movie has a lot of PG13-grade cussing, also. There are probably around eight or nine "A" words, and almost as many "S" words. The movie isn't continuously violent, but there are three scenes where the violence gets gross. One guy gets hooked in the throat, and then dragged off by the hook in his neck. Another guy gets hooked in the midsection and blood seeps out of his mouth. One character's blood is seen splashing against a glass door, then you see her getting dragged off by a hook. Those three scenes are the only ones that get really graphic. If you could handle the violent scenes in Final Destination, you can probably handle I Know What You Did Last Summer.
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I rate this title on for age 0 and give it
One heck of a film!
Now this is a film that is worthy of being watched. I really enjoyed this movie!
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I rate this title pause for age 0 and give it
Great Scare, but not the best!
This movie gives you a good scare the first time you see it but is just an average movie afterword
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