‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ Author Was ‘Not Happy’ About Movie’s ‘Sensationalized Violence’ After Her Daughter’s 1989 Murder

Writer Lois Duncan, recognized for her novel I Know What You Did Last Summer, stated years earlier than her demise that she was “horrified” with the unique movie’s adaptation of her guide.

In Clark Collis’ forthcoming non-fiction guide, Screaming and Conjuring: The Resurrection and Unstoppable Rise of the Modern Horror Movie, he writes that the late creator was “unaware” of all of the modifications made to her 1973 novel earlier than going to see the 1997 horror flick.

Duncan’s unique story follows 4 teenage pals who by accident kill a bike owner and in the end cowl up their crime. A yr later, the group is taunted and blackmailed by a mysterious determine who is aware of concerning the incident.

Quick ahead almost 25 years, and the story was tailored by screenwriter Kevin Williamson, directed by Danny Cannon, and starred Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Johnny Galecki, Ryan Phillippe, and Freddie Prinze Jr.

Not like the guide, Williamson added the villain, “Fisherman,” to create “an iconic killer, à la Jason and Michael Myers,” he stated in an excerpt of Screaming and Conjuring obtained by Variety.

Within the guide, Williamson explains that he comes “from a fishing neighborhood in North Carolina” and used his background whereas making an attempt to brainstorm methods to vary the unique supply materials.

“I went to my dad, and he walked me across the boat, and he confirmed me the A-frame, and the way somebody could be jerked as much as the highest,” Williamson says within the guide. “Then I wrote it, and he went, ‘Kevin, that may by no means occur.’ I stated, ‘Sure, however it’s within the film, Dad.’ ”

Williamson then wrote the script earlier than going again and doing “a set of rewrites,” he says within the yet-to-be-released guide.

“We added Johnny Galecki’s demise scene on digicam, and we modified the ending,” he explains. His artistic decisions had been successful with audiences, and the movie grew to become a cult basic.

Nevertheless, throughout a “Q&A with fellow younger grownup creator Barry Lyga printed within the 2010 version of I Know What You Did Final Summer time,” Duncan “revealed that she first realized concerning the character of the Fisherman when she noticed the completed film,” per Collis’ guide.

“It was my characters and my plot gimmick, however then it went in all instructions,” she stated on the time. “I used to be fairly horrified by the sensationalized violence.”

“A number of years earlier, my very own teenage daughter, Kait, had been chased down in her automobile and shot to demise, and I had seen, proper in entrance of my eyes, what actual violence is. To have folks screaming and laughing about it didn’t go down nicely…,” the excerpt continued.

Whereas she “was not proud of the film,” she was admittedly “proud of the truth that the guide had been made right into a film, as a result of that made all my backlist out of the blue extremely popular.”

“It was like getting a rebirth, however in a really unusual means,” she added on the time.

Duncan’s daughter, Kaitlin Arquette, was shot to demise in 1989 at age 19. She was murdered the summer time after she graduated from highschool. On the time of her killing, she was driving residence from a pal’s home when she was struck within the head by two bullets that entered the driving force’s facet of her pink Ford Tempo.

It wasn’t till July 2021, 5 years after Duncan died, that Paul Apodaca confessed to a few rapes and three murders, one among which was the homicide of Arquette, per Rolling Stone.

Apodaca was sentenced to 45 years in jail in January 2024, per the Albuquerque Police Department.

The discharge of the Screaming and Conjuring excerpt got here days earlier than the I Know What You Did Final Summer time sequel premiered.

The upcoming movie consists of Prinze Jr. and Hewitt reprising their roles as Ray Bronson and Julie James, respectively. The brand new movie stars Chase Sui Wonders, Madelyn Cline, Sarah Pidgeon, Tyriq Withers, and Jonah Hauer-King.

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I Know What You Did Final Summer time premieres in theaters on Friday, July 18. Screaming and Conjuring: The Resurrection and Unstoppable Rise of the Trendy Horror Film will hit cabinets on Tuesday, Sept. 2.