"I Know What You Did Last Summer......" The Classic Slasher Film

I chose to watch the classic teen slasher movie I Know What You Did Last Summer. This movie is about four teenage friends, Julie James, Helen Shivers, Bary Cox, and Ray Bronson who are partying on July 4th in their hometown. On their way back from the beach, Ray was driving because Barry was drunk. Because of Bary's drunk distractions, the group ends up hitting a fisherman with their car and they believe he's dead. To avoid getting in trouble, they decide to dump his body in the ocean. They make a pack to never talk about this night again. One year later, these friends decided to go their separate ways, each haunted by what happened that past summer. However, they come together again when they believe that someone is trying to kill them because of their hit and run. As the movie plays out, the man that they killed did not in fact die and he murders Helen and Bary, and attempts to murder Julie and Ray but in the end does not succeed. The story ends with Julie back at school about to take a shower and in the steam written on the glass are the words "I STILL KNOW" and then something jumps out at her.


Although this movie premiered in 1997, it portrays very old-fashioned gender representations. Throughout the entire movie, the males in the story are desperate to protect the females. The females are portrayed as weak, and not being able to really handle themselves until the very end of the movie. For example, in the beginning of the movie Helen Shivers is in a beauty queen contest within her town, and she is already objectified in a revealing bathing suit. Her two friends, Bary and Ray, have a discussion in front of Julie about how big her breasts look in her suit. Later that night, when they hit the man with the car, Julie and Helen become hysterical while Bary screams at them, telling them they're stupid, and to let him handle it. Again male dominance is shown within this movie.



Regarding Carol Clover's article, there are many gender stereotypes. One specifically was the focusing on the female victim being killed. For example, When Bary Cox was killed, it was short and sweet and the camera did not focus on it for very long. However, when Helen Shivers was killed, it was a long, drawn out scene where she fought until the very end, where the camera focuses on her getting stabbed with the hook repeatedly. In today's society, there is a fascination with female death that is not necessarily there with male death.

Another idea brought up by Carol Clover is the idea of the last girl. In this case, the last girl would be Julie James, who is the last one left with the killer. Even though Ray is still alive, he is knocked unconscious. She fights him till the very end, and finally shows her courage that was so weakly portrayed throughout the film. Although Ray wakes up to help at the end, Julie and the killer battle for a while, hence how most horror movies tend to have the last victim, or person to stop the killer, be a girl.

There are many different gender stereotypes demonstrated throughout this film, and it was easy to pick out the old-fashioned vibe this film gave off. It will almost be twenty years old soon, and the change in gender stereotype has made big strides, but has not done it's full job yet. Horror films should make girls just as strong willed as the men, and not make them out to be helpless creatures as they are usually portrayed as.