After the massive success of Scream in late 1996, movie studios rushed to find similar horror properties. One of the first to make it to screens arrived in fall 1997 via I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Across the Fourth of July holiday, a group of recent high school graduates celebrate. As they drive home, they strike and apparently kill a man (Muse Watson) who stands in the middle of the road.

It turns out this man clings to life but the teens panic and dump him in the ocean anyway. This move comes back to haunt them in violent ways.

It seems easy to assume that Summer sprang into existence solely as a Scream wannabe. Another cast of attractive young people who get gradually picked off by a maniac, another Kevin Williamson script, and even another Party of Five castmember, as Summer “replaces” Scream’s Neve Campbell with TV co-star Jennifer Love Hewitt.

To be sure, Summer did become a hit, albeit not on the same level of Scream. Still, it turned a sizable profit and inspired a mini-franchise that bounced back with a 2025 reboot/sequel/remake.

Although one might presume that the producers of Summer hired Williamson right away to give them new horror fodder, his screenplay for this film actually predated his script for Scream. Moderately based on a 1973 Lois Duncan novel, studios initially passed on Williamson’s version and only pushed it into production to cash in on the success of Scream.

As noted, the suits got their profits from Summer. However, they didn’t put out a memorable movie.

If one expects the clever and witty Williamson of Scream, one will encounter only disappointment. Despite a premise with a mix of opportunities for the same kind of “meta” vibe found in the 1996 movie, Williamson’s Summer script plays it safe.

At the movie’s start, we get allusions to the famous urban legend of a hook-handed murderous maniac. Given that Summer eventually manifests a hook-handed murderous maniac, one might expect it to have fun with this well-trodden myth.

Nope. After that opening, the topic comes up briefly but at no point does Summer do anything to take real advantage of the concept’s potential.

Instead, Summer soon develops into Yet Another Standard Slasher Movie, one that disappoints due to its lack of imagination. Even if we accept the manner in which Williamson casts aside the urban legend element he introduces, he lets other promising themes go by the wayside as well.

In particular, Summer neglects the psychological horror it could develop. A better made film would capitalize on the trauma that torments the four lead characters.

Unfortunately, the movie just pays lip service to these domains and fails to go anywhere with them. We see minor reflections of the way their guilt impacts them but these components add up to little.

Perhaps a talented director could’ve done something with Williamson’s limp script. However, Scottish filmmaker Jim Gillespie wasn’t the right man for the job.

Oddly, Gillespie followed his Big Hit Horror Flick with nothing for five years until he returned for the long-forgotten Sylvester Stallone flop D-Tox. A failed slasher movie called Venom - no connection to the Marvel Comics character - arrived to no acclaim in 2005 and then Gillespie’s career revived and apparently ended with 2016’s similarly ignored thriller Billionaire Ransom.

Because Gillespie’s 1985 film Restless Natives came with a soundtrack by the great band Big Country, I don’t want to come down too hard on him. And maybe he created some good movies before he went Hollywood.

Unfortunately, Summer demonstrates no glimmers of cinematic skill. Gillespie directs the film in the most flat and lifeless way imaginable.

Even though I put most of the blame for this movie’s mediocrity on Williamson’s tedious script, I nonetheless think a better director could’ve made something out of it. Gillespie couldn’t, so the final product becomes a dull journey into the inevitable deaths and screams.

Silliness abounds. This is the kind of movie in which someone chops off a character’s hair and yet the “butchered” ‘do looks like something she spent lots of money to get done at a salon.

On the positive side, Jennifer Love Hewitt looks amazing here. Given she was barely 18 during the shoot, this comment might make me look like a perv, but I can’t deny how sexy she is in the film.

Add Sarah Michelle Gellar and Bridgette Wilson and Summer sports some fine eye candy. However, the film does little else right and becomes a sluggish addition to the slasher genre.

I Know What You Did Last Summer appears in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. While not a bad presentation, the image seemed inconsistent.

Overall sharpness worked fine, though not without variations. Although the movie usually boasted pretty good delineation, occasional slightly soft shots materialized.

Neither jagged edges nor moiré effects occurred, and I saw no obvious edge haloes. Print flaws remained absent, but the unusually grain-free presentation felt somewhat “smoothed out” and probably used a bit too much noise reduction.

Colors leaned toward the subdued side of the street, with a moderate emphasis on blues. These seemed positive within palette choices, albeit without a lot of sparkle.

Blacks seemed reasonably deep, while low-light scenes appeared acceptably full. Nothing here stood out as impressive, but the movie came across as more than watchable.

As for the film’s Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, it came with two notable strikes against it. First, no Blu-ray should stick only with lossy audio, especially not one that hit the streets in 2019.

In addition, the audio suffered from mastering at an extremely low level. I needed to crank the volume substantially higher than usual to get to a listenable range.

Even without those factors, this became an unremarkable mix, one that sported a surprisingly lackluster soundscape. Much of the track focused on the forward channels.

That domain offered decent involvement, with music that enjoyed nice stereo spread. Effects also broadened across the channels in a largely positive way.

Surround usage seemed less prominent, as the back speakers failed to provide much involvement. At times, the soundfield mustered decent information from the back speakers, but don’t expect much.

At least audio quality seemed satisfactory, with speech that appeared natural and concise. Music sounded largely lush and full.

Effects came across as accurate, though they lacked great depth. This turned into a listenable soundtrack but not one with real strengths.

No extras appear here.

As an entry in the post-Scream horror universe, I Know What You Did Last Summer seems functional but without much inspiration. It fails to stand out as anything special. The Blu-ray brings generally decent picture and audio but it lacks bonus materials. This turns into an acceptable release for a lackluster movie.

Note that this version of Summer comes as part of a three-film "Queens of Scream" package along with 2006’s When a Stranger Calls and 2007’s Vacancy. Summer has enjoyed approximately 283 Blu-ray releases and as far as I know, the rest come with supplements absent here.