10 Heart Stopping Horror Movie Chase Scenes You Can't Forget

If there's one thing Kevin Williamson can do, it's write a great chase scene. Yes, he gives several to Neve Campbell throughout the Scream series and makes sure Gale Weathers has quite possibly the most tense moment in Scream 2. but Williamson's tour-de-force arrived with the release of 1997's I Know What You Did Last Summer.

On the night of July 4th 1996, four recent high school graduates are celebrating their freedom in the small seaside town of Southport, North Carolina. However, their celebration quickly turns sour when they strike a man with their car on a deserted road. Fearing the consequences, the group decides to bury the body at sea and tell no one. One year later, group member Julie James receives an ominous note proclaiming "I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER!"

Soon, the group of friends are assaulted by a slicker-clad, gaffing hook-wielding fisherman and blood is spilled.

I Know What You Did Last Summer was the first film to break the box office in the wake of Scream's success. The fact both were penned by Williamson was played up no end by the media, and the film is a perfectly fine, if a little plodding, whodunit slasher. However, one reason this film stands tall among the Scream clones and is remembered so fondly can be attributed to eight minutes of sheer terror as Sarah Michelle Gellar's Helen Shivers is pursued all over the seemingly-deserted town by the ever-so-creepy fisherman.

As an audience, we know this woman is in danger, but it comes as a complete surprise that she is given the standout chase of the film - an honour usually reserved for the final victim.

The scene begins with a wonderfully textbook "he's behind you!" moment, as Gellar recognizes the killer and inaudibly attempts to warn a police officer, only to watch in horror as the officer takes a gaffing hook to the gut. Gellar's ditsy character shows her smarts by kicking her way out of the police car and heading across town. The sequence reaches its tense peak as Helen attempts to call the police from her family's downtown store, but after hearing her sister's bloodcurdling scream she timidly calls out.

The lights turn off and, with a sickening sense of realisation, we notice she is being watched. There, amongst the store mannequins, is the fisherman.

However, the reason this chase takes the top spot on this list is the outcome.

You see, despite putting up the best possible fight - including leaping from a second floor window and escaping into a maze of alleys - Helen doesn't survive. Just as she spots some fireworks that will lead her to safety, we see that familiar slicker appear over her shoulder.

It's heartbreaking. After watching this young woman fight tooth and nail to survive for almost ten minutes, the viewer is near tears when Gellar's heroic and brilliant performance is brought to an end.