There’s a stretch of road in I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) that has more drama packed into it than some full-length horror flicks.

Julie James, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, spins around in the middle of the street, arms outstretched, voice breaking, and lets loose with a scream that somehow lands halfway between a nervous breakdown and a one-woman show:

“What are you waiting for, huh?!”

It’s chaotic. It’s emotional. It’s kind of hilarious.

This wasn’t your average horror-movie scream. It wasn’t a reaction to a killer popping out of the shadows or a final stab at survival. It was frustration boiling over into pure theatrics. A horror heroine ran and cried and yelled into the void.

That moment sticks out because it doesn’t play by the genre’s usual rules. It’s raw, yes, but it’s also a little weird. And in that weirdness, it found its staying power. While most slasher scenes are remembered for their jump scares or kills, this one lives on because it walked the awkward line between terror and camp, and then tripped over it spectacularly.

The Scene in Context: A Perfect Storm of Terror and Camp

The Setup: How the Film Led to This Moment

By the mid-’90s, slasher films had clawed their way back into mainstream theaters, and I Know What You Did Last Summer was riding that wave. Released hot on the heels of Scream, it brought the same glossy teen aesthetic and soap-opera-meets-slasher tone. But instead of going full meta, it played things (mostly) straight—at least until Julie’s breakdown.

The film follows four friends who accidentally kill a man and make the regrettable decision to dump his body instead of, you know, calling the cops. One year later, someone starts stalking them with increasingly aggressive flair. Tension builds through red herrings, mysterious notes, and shadowy figures, all leading up to Julie, now unraveling, stepping into the street, and screaming her lungs out. It’s meant to be a release of tension. Instead, it’s the moment everything gets… weirdly intense.

The Execution: Director Jim Gillespie’s Vision

Director Jim Gillespie approached the film with the idea of making a horror film that also leaned heavily into emotion and melodrama. In interviews, he talked about wanting the audience to feel with the characters, not just flinch at the scares. And Hewitt gave him exactly that.

Entertainment Weekly praised her performance, writing that “she knows how to scream with soul.” And to be fair, she was. There’s something undeniably sincere about how she delivers that line. The tension, the panic, the sheer volume—it’s all there. But there’s also this theatrical intensity that pushes it just past the edge. You don’t know whether to clap, cringe, or hit rewind. That blend is what makes it unforgettable.

From Scream to Meme: The Unexpected Afterlife

The Child Director Anecdote: A Happy Accident

According to Hewitt, the scene was directed by a child as part of a promotional contest tied to the film. The young fan won the chance to create a moment for the film—and this was it.

If that’s the case, the irony really stands out: a kid’s sense of drama, untethered by the rules of horror or filmmaking restraint, might have been exactly what gave the scene its now-iconic energy. It wasn’t polished. It wasn’t subtle. But that’s exactly why it worked. It went full operatic panic—something only a child director might have had the audacity to try.

The Birth of a Viral Moment

Years after the film’s release, the internet gave the scene new life. GIFs of Hewitt spinning and screaming started circulating. It got parodied in Scary Movie. Gwen Stefani parodied it in one of her songs. TikTok creators reenacted it dramatically while holding coffee mugs or standing on tables. Even The Simpsons took a swing at it.

It’s now one of those cinematic moments that have secured a kinda hall-of-fame status, next to the likes of Samuel L. Jackson’s death in Deep Blue Sea or the misty ending of The Mist. And it’s not so because it’s scary, but because it’s burned into collective memory. It’s the kind of scene that reminds us horror can be high-stakes and high drama, sometimes accidentally.

Legacy: Why the Scene Endures

Influence on Horror’s Self-Awareness

Whether intentionally or not, that scene opened the door for more self-aware horror. Scream had already set the tone, but Julie’s meltdown showed that the genre could fully embrace over-the-top emotion without losing its edge. It helped normalize those odd, slightly ridiculous beats that later films like Cabin in the Woods would lean into on purpose.

It became okay—cool, even—for horror to be a little theatrical, a little absurd, as long as it still made you feel something. The “What are you waiting for?!” scream lives at that intersection: sincere enough to be moving, bizarre enough to be unforgettable.

Hewitt’s Career and the Scene’s Shadow

For Jennifer Love Hewitt, the line became both a defining moment and an echo she couldn’t shake off. It helped cement her place as a horror icon—the soft-spoken final girl who, for one glorious second, totally lost it. But it also overshadowed a lot of her subtler work. She’s had a long, successful career in TV and film, but if you say her name, most people still hear that scream in their heads.

It’s the kind of role that leaves a mark. Not because it’s the best-written or the most nuanced, but because it hit a nerve—and then got memed into oblivion.

The Beauty of Unplanned Iconography

Some of pop culture’s most lasting moments aren’t carefully crafted or endlessly rehearsed. They’re accidents. Strange, impulsive, sometimes awkward accidents. A child-directed scream scene in a teen slasher wasn’t meant to go viral. But here we are—still quoting it, still laughing at it, still kind of loving it.

That’s the thing about iconic moments. They don’t need to be perfect—they just need to stick. And Julie James, mid-spin, mid-scream, arms flailing into the fog? That stuck.

Next time you’re feeling overwhelmed, dramatically underappreciated, or just wildly done with everyone around you—step outside, throw your arms out wide, and yell it out.

“What are you waiting for?!”

Turns out, it works.