Hook of ‘Summer’ Is Lost on Some

In “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” four friends try to cover up a hit-and-run the summer after high-school graduation, only to be stalked a year later by a mysterious fisherman with a hook. (Rated R)

Waiting in line, Sarah Howard, a polite 12-year-old from Santa Ana, thanked her mother for coming along so she could see this popular teen slasher picture. As she should.

In the early days of the rating system, parents who allowed their under-17s to see an R-rated scream-a-thon could just buy them a ticket and wave goodbye at the box office. Now that theater guards are actively checking ticket stubs and turning away underage kids at the entrance--at least at the Edwards 21 Megaplex--indulgent parents actually have to go in and see the thing.

When they came out 90 minutes later, Sarah was still grateful, even though the movie wasn’t up to her standards of gore and intrigue set by the classics “Psycho” and “The Exorcist.” (More from her mother later.)

“I thought it was going to be scarier,” she said with some disappointment, adding, “I’m not easily scared.”

Her 11-year-old brother, Cash, on the other hand, was frightened enough for them both.

“It was scary. Really scary. I just came in from buying some candy, and I ate, like, 10 pieces during the previews, and then when the movie started, I was, like, so scared I couldn’t eat anymore,” he said, polishing off the rest of the treat with a renewed appetite.

The movie opens with a parents’ nightmare. After a beach party, marked by lots of drinking and implied sex, the four friends, Helen (Sarah Michelle Gellar from TV’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt from “Party of Five”) Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and Barry (Ryan Phillippe) get in a car on a dark, narrow and winding mountain road.

The car strikes a man. He appears to be dead. Their debate over what to do shines a clear light into the inner workings of teenage minds: No matter who was driving, they’re all going to fry. The car could be traced, so they can’t just leave him. They can’t admit to it because, though the rich kids would get off, the poor ones wouldn’t. The smart girl’s college scholarship, her whole future, would be over.

They agree to dump the victim into the ocean, hoping they’ll get lucky with a shark, and make a pact to take the secret with them to the grave.

The heart-thumping fright starts a year later with mysterious notes (“I know what you did,” etc.), a series of gruesome deaths and squeaky violin sounds.

Who is the shadowy figure that stalks them, jumps out from the dark and surprises them with bodies covered in crabs? Could it be Max, their wannabe friend? David Egan, a would-be suicide out on the road that night? His crazed mother? A jealous sister?

While some disagreed, Holly Mendoza, 15, of Lake Forest found this movie scarier than the year’s other teen hit, the more nuanced “Scream.” Mostly, she said, it was the hook.

“I’d like to know if actors and actresses get scared actually doing the movie,” she said.

But Sarah wanted more. “More chopped heads. More blood. Maybe a longer chase scene. I liked the part when she found the bodies in the ice. Then I liked the part--because it scared my mom--when he was dragging the girl down the hall.”

What she didn’t appreciate was the strong language, especially for younger children, and the implied sex. Still, she and her brother agreed the movie certainly didn’t leave them with the impression that drinking and driving is OK.

Considering what unfolded for the friends, Cash said, “The movie actually taught you a lesson--not to drink and drive.”

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Parents’ Perspective: If she had previewed the movie, Michelle Howard said, she wouldn’t have allowed her children to go. Not only was the language and the gore worse than other R-rated movies she’d taken them to, she didn’t appreciate the bare midriff, tank top, Wonderbra costuming of stars Gellar and Hewitt.

“It was pretty base compared to other R-rated movies, like ‘Air Force One,’ ” she said. “I thought R was R. I’m rethinking this R stuff.”

* FAMILY FILMGOER, Page 19