I Read That Movie: I Know What You Did Last Summer

I  read that movie is a feature where we compare movies or TV series, and the books they're based on.

I Know What You Did Last Summer 

Title: I Know What You Did Last Summer
Author: Lois Duncan

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Publishing Date: October 5th 2010 (first published 1973

Pages: 224

Length of Audio: 4 Hours 51 Minutes

Genre: YA Horror

Series:  Standalone

Source: Audio
 

  They didn't mean it. They didn't mean to hit the boy. There was a party, and it was an accident...that wasn't who they were. They were pre-law, a football player, bound for New York. No one could know, so Barry, Julie, Helen, and Ray swore one another to secrecy. But now, a year later, someone knows. Julie receives a haunting, anonymous threat: "I know what you did last summer." The dark lie is unearthed, and before the four friends know it they need to outsmart a killer...or they will be the next to die.Leave the lights on when reading this classic thriller! This new edition features modernized text and a new introduction by Lois Duncan, the master of teen horror.

Mini-review:

I came across this book on audible. I thought hmm didn’t know this was a book first. Sounds like it could be a could read, so I grabbed it and listened to it. the read was okay. I was hoping for more slasher elements and more suspense like on the movie. The book was okay. I am thinking for the time it was written maybe the suspense was good maybe even great. But the book didn’t really do anything for me. like I said it was just okay. 

I was interested in the who so I kept reading. And for the most part I wasn’t bored, it just wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t care for any of the characters. They were pretty flat and cliché. which normally in a horror doesn't bother me so much but I just didn't like them at all. The only one that had any redeeming qualities was Ray. The other two Helen and Barry, so self-absorbed and annoying. Julie wasn’t bad but a little whiny and annoying at times. I did like Ray though. I felt he really cared about what happened and about Julie. 

I just feel like there should have been some remorse by more of the characters for hitting a child on a bike the year prior. They were just not good people.

The main issue I think I had though... I was going in for slasher elements. There was no killing just suspenseful stalking. I did like the ending… finally a little bit of action. I do like who and why reasoning and how it came together.

I did read the version that was updated to have some modern elements like cellphones and such. This may have helped the book or not. I can't really say, but I feel like maybe it would have been better in its true original form. 

Overall I really just didn't enjoy this book as much as really wanted. 

Release Date: October 19th, 1997Cast: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinz Jr., Ryan PhillippeScreenplay by Kevin Williamson
 

Mini Review:

I wasn’t a big fan of the movie but I did enjoy it for what it was in the 90’s. I like slasher movies… I need to be in the mood for them, but when they are done well they can be good. I have my favorites and this one is not one of them but I did enjoy it. 

There was quite a few slasher moments, suspenseful moments, and of course dumb move moments. It has the true form of what it was meant to be. Lots of blood and not much of anything else... This one did have a good story though. I mean I liked that they are being hunted for a sin they didn't seem to mind hiding. Shame on them. Did they deserve the killing um no, but it was a good story to have them sweating a bit for what they did. 

Let's compare:

I saw the movie way before I ever read the book. I think I watched the movie when I was a teenager. I sometimes think that this effects which I like better, I generally like what I watched or read first. I think this one is a bit hard to choose what I liked better only because they had a different feel to them. I think though I liked the movie just a little better. If I had read the book first, it may have been different. 

The movie followed some parts of the book very well. The characters, their names, looks, personalities. Done very well. The person they hit at the beginning of the movie does not follow what happened in the book. In the book, it was a boy on a bike, which I felt was more extreme and fit better into the story. The movie did change the who and they why quite a bit. The movie also had a killer, not a stalker and all the events were changed. So really the characters and the hitting someone with a car was the only thing that was similar to the book.

Interesting Fact: 

Lois Duncan has stated openly that she hates the movie because the filmmakers turned her book into a slasher film. She especially detested it in the wake of her 18-year-old daughter's murder in 1989.       

Original Trailer: