Is Harper's Island an Act of Plagiarism?

Anyone who happened by the Castle last summer surely knows that I had a complicated relationship with the show ‘Harper’s Island’. I loved the amazing premise and hated the terrible, terrible execution.

There’s something I neglected to mention during the extensive, some might say comically exhaustive, review of the series, and that’s just which film the series elected to rip off when it was developing the plot.

That film? I Still Know What You Did That Summer.

Don’t believe me? Let’s take a walk through the series…

These are our main characters-

L: Abby Mills R: Jennifer Love Hewitt

Who go on a boat trip to a mysterious and foreboding island-

Top: Harper's Island Bottom: Isla Nublar

Somewhat nervous girls, each one still bears the psychological of a near-fatal run-in with a fishing-themed serial killer-

L: John Wakefield R: Steve Hookman

Who was motivated to go on this killing rampage by A: the loss of a child, and B: almost getting killed during a previous rampage.

Abby/Jennifer also have on-again-off-again relationships with local lower-class fishermen who frequently serve as red herrings-

L: Fake Freddy Prinze Jr R: Freddy Prinze Jr

Accompanying Abby/Jennifer on her island adventure is a good friend:

L: Henry Dunn R: The Dad From Gossip Girl

Who will later turn out to be the fisherman’s secret son, and his partner in all the murdering.



Before one of them kills the other with a stab while the other holds up a victim for the first to finish off.

Top: Son purposefully stabs Father
Bottom: Father accidentally stabs Son

You know, there were a whole lot of movies in the post-Scream slasher revival that you could have ripped off without anyone but slasher nerds noticing. So why on earth did you pick this, one of the least of them?

Hell, you would have been better off cribbing from Urban Legend.