Ah, that last summer of fun — after high school, but before heading off to college. Cramming as much excitement as you can into those last days of “immature, adolescent decadence.”

Hanging out at the beach. Driving along lonely sea-side highways. Hitting a man with your friend’s brand-new BMW and throwing his dead body off a pier to avoid trouble, then vowing to take the secret to the grave.

Ah, summer.

That’s the premise for “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” a movie that scores high on the fun scale but low on the credibility scale. (Credibility in a slasher flick — who needs it?)

The movie starts with four friends, each with big dreams and bright futures. They’re out spending one last night of fun together, telling scary stories around a fire, drinking too much and having sex on the beach. (Didn’t they see “Scream” for God’s sake? Never have sex in these movies or you’re dead!)

On the way home, they run over a man along a lonely stretch of road. They can’t go to the cops or they’ll get in trouble and ruin their lives.

So they decide to throw the dead man off a pier and keep the incident a secret. Only one problem: the victim isn’t dead when they push him into the ocean.

Suddenly, the man’s death is murder, not an accident.

The summer after the incident, someone is threatening the four friends. Someone saw what they did and is seeking revenge. Someone they call The Fisherman is messing with their minds and trying to kill them with a huge hook.

Who is The Fisherman? The victim’s weird, mentally imbalanced sister? His mysterious best friend? The suspicious town outcast? The scorned boyfriend?

I really like the way The Fisherman did more than just kill off people. He screwed with their heads first.

For example, instead of killing the beauty-queen member of the group, the Fisherman first sneaks into her room, destroys her most- prized possession (her hair) and writes “soon” on her mirror.

The movie is not without problems, however.

First of all, when the identity of The Fisherman is revealed, I didn’t buy him/her (Why spoil it for you?) as the type of person who would take the time to mess with his/her victims. He/she seemed more the just-hook-’em-and-kill-’em type.

Also, I wish the movie would have stopped a few minutes before it did.

Because at the end there might as well have been a big “to be continued” notice, which kind of spoiled it for me.

Normally, I don’t like these kinds of movies. But I must admit I had a good time during this one. It is full of lots of morbid laughs and several big scares.

In short, “I Know What You Did Last Summer” does what a slasher flick should do. It makes you laugh, it makes you scream and it makes you nervous about walking home alone.

3 1/2 stars out of five.

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Mike Milik is a senior in advertising from West Des Moines.