She was portrayed by actress Sarah Michelle Gellar in the Kevin Williamson scripted feature film I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) as the Croaker Queen of the Southport 1996 Beauty Pageant.

While the film itself received mixed reviews, Gellar's performance was met with critical acclaim and the character has obtained a cult following in recent years.

Helen’s storyline has often been referred to as a highlight of the film and debate persists about whether or not she should have filled the role of the story’s final girl instead of the character Julie James.

She is depicted as a high school drop out from a large, financially struggling family who manages to launch a successful television career as presenter after submitting her photograph to the studio's beauty contest.

[3] She was involved in a hit-and-run accident of a cycling boy with her boyfriend Barry Cox, and friends Julie James and Ray Bronson.

She also suffers verbal abuse from her bitter older sister, Elsa, who is resentful of Helen's good looks and success on television.

After a series of bizarre encounters with the anonymous figure toying with them, Helen is confronted by Collingsworth at her apartment, who reveals himself to be the older half-brother of the young boy she and her friends accidentally ran over and killed.

A year later, she is revealed to have failed as an actress - much to the delight of her spiteful elder sister Elsa - and now works at her family's store.

Shivers makes a cameo appearance in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) in a photograph through use of Sarah Michelle Gellar's personality rights.

[7] Shivers is initially depicted as a vapid, egotistical beauty queen, but over the course of the film she is shown to be a very affectionate person despite her dysfunctional home life and overt loneliness.

"[9] However, she notes that this is a stark contrast to her profound personal struggles that are revealed later in the film: The character was spoofed in the form of Buffy Gilmore (a nod to Sarah Michelle Gellar's Buffy the Vampire Slayer), a character portrayed by Shannon Elizabeth in the Keenen Ivory Wayans directed parody film Scary Movie (2000) and by Julie Benz in Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th.

In an article for Rotten Tomatoes, April Wolfe states, "The key to Helen Shivers’ success as a sidekick is her unabashed and shameless vanity.

She's the woman with the plan to track down the killer and the guts to charge into the crowd of the Croaker Queen Pageant talent competition to save her friend.

Eggertsen praised Gellar for giving a "compelling" performance and for being able to transform Helen from a vapid self absorbed beauty queen to a fully realized and sympathetic character.