There’s nothing better in a slasher than a well-done chase scene. The most famous example goes to Halloween’s third act, when Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) runs into Michael Myers and has to flee for her life. John Carpenter made the moment perfect, but with Laurie being the final girl, we know she’s going to be okay. A less talked about example goes to another Curtis film, Prom Night. Its best scene has the masked killer stalking a victim in a drawn-out moment through a high school, but with this character not being Curtis, we know she’s a goner, thus removing part of the tension. Then there’s 1997’s I Know What You Did Last Summer. When the killer hunts down Helen Shivers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), it’s not only a thrilling, nearly 10-minute chase, but it messes with the audience, because director Jim Gillespie convinces us that she’s going to make it, only to have her killed feet from safety.
Sarah Michelle Gellar Was Cast Because of the Police Car Scene

In I Know What You Did Last Summer, a group of teenage friends are stalked by an unknown killer a year after covering up a hit-and-run death. Jennifer Love Hewitt might be the star as Julie James, but Sarah Michelle Gellar is right there beside her as Helen Shivers. She’s an important part of the plot, making it 75 minutes into the runtime before everything goes to hell, as the killer attacks during a pageant she’s competing in. Not finding a body, and thus not believing her, a police officer gives Helen a ride home. It’s then that the fisherman appears, killing the cop, and sending Helen on the run. In a 2022 interview with Toofab, Gillespie said the police car scene is how Gellar was cast. While looking for his Helen, he saw many young actresses, including two who went on to become Osar winners. Gellar was among the last, as she was shooting the pilot for her star role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Gillespie brought her in to screen test the police car scene with two other actresses, but the director admitted, “She wasn’t my favorite going in of the three. I thought I knew who it was going to be. But as soon as she was on film, it wasn’t a question it was her.” You can see why Gellar was cast. Helen might be the pretty girl who competes in beauty pageants, but she’s not a stereotypical ditz. She cares about her friends, her wide eyes convey fear without saying a word, and she’s strong and smart, telling the cop that he will die if he doesn’t do something. When he’s killed, Helen is put on her own in a chase that lasts a whopping seven minutes.
The ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ Chase Scene Is Like a Puzzle

Most slasher chase scenes are a simple move from Point A to Point B, but I Know What You Did Last Summer has several set pieces. It starts with the police car, which screenwriter Kevin Williamson envisioned ending with the killer taking the car with Helen in it. Gillespie disagreed, thinking the scene was impossible, which is why he believed Williamson used it for Scream 2. I Know What You Did Last Summer didn’t need this. A police car fight scene only gets in the way when the thrill is in the chase. We first get the great cinematography of Helen running through the night, the white background of a dilapidated house behind her making Helen and the killer closing in stand out as the score begins to intensify. Helen almost finds safety when she makes it to her family store in a suspenseful recreation of the aforementioned Halloween chase, only to get inside and see her sister (Bridgette Wilson) be killed. She then must run through the dark maze of the store, which includes mannequins covered in plastic, to escape.

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What am I waiting for? A less underwhelming requel.

Gillespie again had to disagree with Williamson, who wanted Helen to discover different weapons to use. The director said, “It was a little more comedic.” He didn’t want to have comedy or be like Scream. Instead, he was focused on the “real jigsaw puzzle of pieces” of the setting, with the surroundings becoming its own character. At one point, when Helen is seen grabbing the rope for an elevator, Gellar cut her hands on the rope for real and kept going. It might not be a moment we notice in the final product, but Gellar’s commitment bleeds through. She makes the character believable, so we root for her to make it, rather than assuming that she’s just more fodder.
Jim Gillespie Tricked the Audience Into Thinking Helen Would Live

Image via Columbia Pictures

The chase moves from the store to outside in the dark again in an alleyway as Fourth of July fireworks go off in the background. Helen has gone from silhouetted in the dark to shown in a bright light. Does that choice foreshadow her making it out of this alive? Nope. Just feet from safety, with a parade in sight, the fisherman kills Helen behind a stack of tires. Although not graphic, it’s an emotionally brutal kill because she was so close. That’s exactly what Jim Gillespie wanted from us, telling Toofab, “How can you go through seven minutes of hell and she gets killed anyway?” He also purposely frustrated the audience by cutting back to Jennifer Love Hewitt a few times during the chase to raise the tension. Not knowing what’s happening when we’re not watching is unbearable. The chase scene in I Know What You Did Last Summer works on every level. It has suspense, elaborate set pieces, a sense of hope in the darkness, and maybe most important of all, a protagonist so likable that we’re begging for her to live, and we’re devastated when she doesn’t. Future slashers, take note. This is how it’s done.