Can a great slasher be truly great if it doesn’t feature a great scream? When the vibe is right, audiences take their lead from the emotions of the characters, and a proper expression of true horror can push movie-goes over the edge. Ahead of the release of I Know What You Did Last Summer this coming weekend, I’ll tease you with the fact that Madelyn Cline gets to deliver a true glass-rattler in the new 2025 film – but what you won’t know from watching the film is that getting the screen right was an arduous undertaking.
What made it so difficult? While speaking with the actress late last month during the legacyquel’s Los Angeles press day, I found out that the scene was filmed in the immediate aftermath of her having pneumonia (an infection of the lungs that can make it difficult to breathe at times let alone scream). The condition made it impossible for her to prepare for the scene in question in pre-production, and when the day came for her big moment on set, there were multiple takes that ended with coughing fits:
You know, I didn't practice it because I was coming off of having... when we started, I had had pneumonia for like a second. And so I couldn't do... The only thing that would like get that scream out is if I just fully sent it (laugh). I had to push as hard as I could. And then as soon as [director] Jen [Kaytin Robinson] called 'Cut,' I'd be like (turns to the side and coughs). And they were like, 'Are you okay?' I was like, 'No!' (Mimes using an inhaler) And then we would just go again.
Continuing, she added her two cents earned via experience for any actors who take on a role such as hers in a horror movie: it’s an absolute must to give it your all. Or as she put it,
I think, though, the thing is for a Final Girl scream or like for any like any Scream Queen scream, anything, like, you just have to send it. You can't hold anything back.
Without spoiling anything, the scream scene in question arrives in the first act of I Know What You Did Last Summer. Cline’s character, Danica, isn’t fully cognizant of the mission of revenge involving her and her friends that is unfolding in the town of Southport, North Carolina… but she starts to figure it out when she discovers one of The Fisherman’s victims.
Witnessing a gruesome, blood-soaked crime scene will obviously help any actor get to a proper head space of terror and ready to unleash a proper shriek, but Madelyn Cline insists regardless on 100 percent effort:
I mean, what I was reacting to too is pretty gruesome, so that also helps, but just: full send.
Audiences everywhere will be able to experience the upcoming horror movie themselves in the coming days, as I Know What You Did Last Summer will be arriving on the big screen this Friday, July 18. If you have sensitive ears, you’ve been warned!
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