I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (1998)

 

(1998; director: Danny Cannon. Screenwriter: Trey Callaway.)

 

Review

A year after the events of the first KNOW film, Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt, from the first film) is traumatized by her friends’ murders. She and her ex-boyfriend, Ray Bronson, now have intimacy issues. The body of Ben Willis, a.k.a. the Fisherman, who tried to kill her and Ray, were never recovered─and there was that ham-fisted ending of the first film.

Julie and her friend, Karla Wilson (Brandy Norwood), win a radio contest for a vacation in the Bahamas, on Tower Bay Island. Karla brings her horny boyfriend, Tyrell (Mekhi Phifer), and Julie invites Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr., also from the first film). Unfortunately for Ray and his co-worker/friend, Dave (John Hawkes), they encounter the Fisherman─who may not be Ben Willis. . . Taking Ray’s place on the vacation is Will Benson (Matthew Settle), who wants Julie to ditch her long-distance flirtation with Ray.

When the four college students show up on Tower Bay Island, they’re told that their arrival falls on the last day of tourist season, an odd booking, made stranger by an impending tropical storm. The bearer of this alarming news is Mr. Brooks, their hotel manager, given fun, snarky life by the always-entertaining Jeffrey Combs (THE FRIGHTENERS, 1996). Also stuck on the largely deserted island with the Fisherman: Nancy the bartender (a smart, tough Jennifer Esposito); Estes (another hotel employee, played with gravitas by the inestimable Bill Cobbs, THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS, 1991); Titus Telesco, a white, dreadlocked drug dealer (an uncredited Jack Black, MARS ATTACKS!, 1996), and a few others.

This by-the-numbers, film-only sequel with its mostly dumb characters (especially Julie) is a silly and tired melodramatic mess with a few okay kill scenes and notable supporting actors (including Mark Boone Junior, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, 2007, as a pawnbroker, and Red West, as Paulsen, a fisherman).

Some viewers may be put off by three of the characters (who were racially inappropriate even in 1998): Titus (a white guy sporting bad dreads and a supposed-to-be-funny pseudo-Jamaican attitude); Karla, whose practical-for-a-player advice to dump Ray indicates deeper character flaws; and whinging, c**k-blocked Tyrell, a probable cheater who flirts with every attractive female within range. The first two KNOW films were obviously rooted in the 1990s, but these characters embody that point to the nth degree. 

Unless you’re a die-hard fan of any of its players, avoid STILL. Followed by I’LL ALWAYS KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (2006).

I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (1997)

 

(Director: Jim Gillespie. Screenwriter: Kevin Williamson.)

Plot: A year after a Fourth of July hit-and-run accident, those responsible for or witness to the death reunite, and are terrorized by a mysterious murderer bent on revenge.

 

Review

Loosely based on Lois Duncan’s 1973 bloodless suspense YA novel of the same name, this violent, R-rated film is considerably more violent when compared to Duncan’s book.

Kevin Williamson’s script (penned before he wrote SCREAM, 1996) is sometimes-clever, genre-knowledgeable and, for the most part, tight. Williamson fans may appreciate KNOW’s brief dialogue nod to one of his other creative gigs, DAWSON’S CREEK (1998-2003). Make no mistake—KNOW is nowhere near as good as SCREAM, but, judged on its own dumb-character merits and intended audience (horror-lite fans), KNOW mostly works.

The acting, often melodramatic (especially Jennifer Love Hewitt’s), suits KNOW and its late-adolescent audience, as does its now-dated 1990s soundtrack, settings (primarily Southport, North Carolina) and its overall look. Its stalk-and-slay scenes are effectively tracked and relatively bloodless, and while there are too many jump scares, the twists, for the most part, work, making KNOW a solid soft entry into the mainstream thriller genre for those who aren’t hardcore about their terror films—and, just as importantly, can forgive its young characters who do massively stupid things. (Thematically, Duncan’s relatively low-key KNOW was about young adults struggling to transition from high school to adulthood, something that gets less play in the noise of its cinematic counterpart.)

KNOW has a solid-to-good cast. Jennifer Love Hewitt played Julie James, the oft-hysterical embodiment of the hit-and-run group’s conscience. Sarah Michelle Gellar (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, 1997-2003) played Helen, the blond, uncertain opposite number of Julie. Freddie Prinze Jr., Gellar’s now-husband and co-star in the SCOOBY-DOO films, played Ray Bronson. Ryan Phillipe (Gellar’s co-star in CRUEL INTENTIONS, 1999) played an angry, alcoholic Barry Cox.

KNOW’s support players include: Anne Heche as Melissa “Missy” Egan, grief-haunted sister of David Egan─Anne Heche, in a later interview, said she was hired “to be scary,” and she is; Johnny Galecki (RINGS, 2017) as Max; Muse Watson as Ben Willis/Fisherman. An uncredited Patti D’Arbanville, seen briefly in one shot while Helen is on the phone, played Mrs. Shivers, Helen and Elsa’s mother.

The ending doesn’t ruin the movie, but it comes close. On a story level, it’s forced and perhaps studio-mandated, an unnecessary finish that demands an unnecessary sequel. Despite its unfortunate wrap-up and its melodrama, KNOW is a mostly solid entry in the barely-an-R-rated thriller genre, made for viewers who aren’t big horror fans and are fans of pretty actors.

Two sequels, I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (1998) and I’LL ALWAYS KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (2006), followed, as did an Amazon Prime/streaming show. A remake of the original is said to be in the works.