I Don't Care What You Did Last Summer
I don't know what is scarier, that they made a sequel to the rather generic "I Know What You Did Last Summer" or that Jack Black has a small role as a dreadlocked, drug dealing slacker on the island. Which ever, it's impossible to ignore the fact that "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" is as dumb and contrived as they come as it tries to continue from the last movie with a couple of the survivors and some new characters battling the fisherman with the hook.
As the 4th of July rolls around again Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt - Garfield) is still struggling with nightmares over the events of the past two years. She's not helped by the fact that boyfriend Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.) doesn't seem to care. But when her best friend Karla (Brandy Norwood) wins a weekend on the Bahamas for four she hopes that she can escape all her problems. Except her problems end up not just in her dreams as they become stranded on the small island with no way of getting off.
Right from the start "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" ends up feeling formulaic and as you would expect the sort of heroine from the first movie Julie is struggling to move on from the past. It's not a new concept, most horror sequels which feature a survivor tend to follow the same idea and what follows is as generic as it comes. Their is very little invention when it comes to trying to find a new storyline and a new location and a couple of generic characters, or should that be caricatures, adds nothing to make "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" feel like it's going to be a worthy sequel.
But it is the way that everything is so contrived which makes "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" feel so wrong. You don't really expect anything clever from a generic horror sequel but there are so many moments, plot twists, scenes designed to raise the tension which are so unbelievable that there are moments which are worthy of a horror comedy. It ends up all feeling rather dumb as it works through a few horror set pieces including a climax which is so weak it's boring. In fact and I don't care if I spoil things here, instead of delivering just one ending you get two and I bet you saw that coming. It's sort of pointless and laughable as well as they try to prolong the agony of bringing the movie to a close.
Part of the issue this time around is that those moments which made the original work are lost. The suspense over whether one of the many characters could be the murderer is not there and the ability to deliver frights through the occasional shock is replaced by horror which borders on gore as the hook goes through various parts of peoples anatomy. For some the more visual and semi brutal deaths will get them to the edge of their seats but it left me numb because it was all too obvious.
As for the performances well firstly lets just say the characters are generic, a varied bunch of horny, feisty, sweet and dumb characters which are the main stay of any teen horror and the performances fit them perfectly. There is plenty of over acting from pretty much all the cast and some, in particular Jack Black as Titus, seems to be going for all out comedy. At least Jennifer Love Hewitt manages to deliver that fragility again as the disturbed Julie and Bill Cobbs in a small role at least makes things a little creepy. But the likes of Freddie Prinze Jr., Brandy Norwood, Mekhi Phifer and Matthew Settle all end up going for over the top or dumb performances which makes it all feel a bit of a joke.
What this all boils down to is that "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" is both a poor horror and a poor sequel. It is so generic, contrived and dumb that many scenes end up being rather comical than scary. Plus with a bunch of generic characters, horror bordering on the gore and basically a dumb storyline there is little other than some decent production values to stop it from being a complete disappointment.
