I Know What You Did Last Summer Sarah Michelle Gellar Death
Croaker, Queen: How Sarah Michelle Gellar Slayed Expectations with I Know What Y'all Did Terminal Summer
August 7, 2019 By Go DorsumWhen we first run across Helen Shivers, Sarah Michelle Gellar's character in teen horror flick I Know What You Did Concluding Summer (1997), she is centre phase. As she steps up to take function in the question and answer portion of Southport, North Carolina's annual Fourth of July beauty pageant, she beams, projecting beauty, grace and confidence. When she says, without irony, that she volition "serve her country" by becoming a "serious actress" on the New York stage, you're non only charmed, just intrigued. And when she takes home the Croaker Queen crown just moments afterwards, you can't assistance but be hopeful for her – and Gellar'southward – future.
Much similar Helen Shivers, I Know What You Did Last Summertime was poised for greatness when it was released in the autumn of 1997. Based on a script past Scream author Kevin Williamson (which was itself based off a book past Lois Duncan) and starring a cast total of upwardly-and-coming actors, including Gellar and her eventual hubby Freddie Prinze Jr., it had all the makings of the next teen horror sensation. And it made a pretty large splash at the box office, belongings the No. 1 slot for three weeks in a row subsequently its release. Only over fourth dimension, it has become a sort of second-runner up to more ground-breaking films of the time (think Scream, Final Destination), a footnote in the belatedly 90s, early 00s horror conversation.
The fact is, there has always been a fogginess to I Know What Y'all Did Terminal Summer'south PG-thirteen plot, which follows friends Helen, Julie (Jennifer Dear Hewitt), Barry (Ryan Philippe) and Ray (Prinze Jr.) as they attempt to proceed a damning underground while being framed and maimed past a mysterious claw-begetting villain ("The Fisherman"). (Remember the all-too-sudden seaside climax? Didn't think so.) But every time Gellar's Helen is on screen, this fog dissipates, making fashion for some moments of existent emotional weight.
Watching the first 10 minutes of I Know What You Did Last Summertime, you might think (or at least hope) that Gellar's blonde, bubbly Helen has a chance at condign the film's Final Girl. Sadly, Helen doesn't make information technology in New York, nor does she arrive to the film's finale. In what might exist one of the most gutting turns in modern horror history (seriously), Helen's best friend, good girl Julie, ends up sailing off into the slasher pic sunset (meet: airheaded, merely fun sequel) while Helen is brutally murdered only steps abroad from safe.
Yes, celibate and quiet Julie fits the traditional Concluding Girl archetype to a baby tee, a sort of watered down version of virginal babysitter Laurie Strode (1978's Halloween). Only you have to remember, I Know What You lot Did Last Summer came out in the autumn of 1997, almost a year subsequently Scream presented an empowering culling to the tired archetype (the sexually agile, self-motivated Sidney Prescott). What's more than, in the spring of that aforementioned yr, Gellar made her debut as a walking, talking, pun-hawking symbol of survival: Buffy Summers.
Like Gellar'southward signature grapheme on Idiot box's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Helen Shivers defies expectations at every turn. Ofttimes dismissed considering of their traditional good looks and passion for style, Buffy and Helen are truly complicated women with deep desires and obvious talents. They are the type of characters you naturally root for; the ones you lot want to see get a 2nd (or third or quaternary) take a chance.
Helen may not be blest with supernatural force, just she's clearly a fighter. She speaks up – nay, screams – when she sees someone in danger (See: Barry'southward balcony demise). She is unafraid to confront her feelings, as evidenced past her bawling admission to Julie that she misses her and wishes they hadn't grown apart (Julie, a sort of sociopath in overalls, says pretty much nothing in return). And while she could easily hide away later on her signature long locks are chopped off past The Fisherman, Helen holds her caput high and makes her scheduled advent at the Croaker Festival. This includes the pageant portion, where she knows she will exist forced to surrender her crown to a new Croaker Queen. (Surely it helps that she, and Gellar, actually wait neat with a long bob.)
Unfortunately, Helen is non Buffy and thus, cannot escape her fate. After watching her ex-boyfriend and a cop dice in front of her eyes during and following the pageant, she becomes a victim herself. Helen'due south death takes identify in and around her family's store, the identify she ended upwards working after her New York dreams were crushed (of course she was relegated to "women's fragrances"). At that place, she witnesses yet another death (this time, information technology's her jealous older sis played past Bridgette Wilson).
Helen is eventually chased out of the store and into a nearby aisle by The Fisherman. Her final moments may be set to fireworks and the cheery fanfare of a nearby marching band, simply the fact is, she is hacked to pieces surrounded by garbage cans and discarded tires. It'southward a sort of fell metaphor for consumerism, shedding light on its inherent misogyny and how club has been brainwashed into thinking women have a limited shelf life that can mayhap be extended with the right clothes, makeup and hairstyle.
Helen'south death is the motion-picture show's nigh effective scene and Gellar plays it – and, really, all her scenes – with more than emotion and subtext than a traditional slasher sidekick. Y'all actually are sad to run across Helen get, to know that she won't ever make good on her promise to heal the world through art. In fact, sometimes when I re-watch the film, I turn it off after she dies, as the scenes that follow (yes, including the showdown between Julie and Ben Willis – a.yard.a. The Fisherman) are both rushed and unrewarding in comparison.
She might not be I Know What You Did Last Summer's Terminal Daughter, merely Gellar definitely solidified her status every bit a scream queen by playing (and dare I say, slaying) Helen Shivers. It is arguably her second-all-time career performance (tied with her stellar turn as the dubious Kathryn Merteuil in the 1999 Les Liasions Dangereuses adaptation Brutal Intentions) and should exist celebrated by horror fans on an annual basis (no fireworks please). At the very least, it should be considered I Know What You Did Terminal Summer's crowning accomplishment.
Helen may not have survived the Southport massacre of 1997, simply she lives on through Gellar's killer turn, and this we will always know.
Observe the next playtimes for I Know What You Did Last Summertime (1997) on Hollywood Suite.
Source: https://hollywoodsuite.ca/how-sarah-michelle-geller-slayed-expectations-with-i-know-what-you-did-last-summer/
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