Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)

A phrase often associated with the Golden Age of Hollywood is, “They don’t make them like they used to." In this age of remakes, reboots, and sequels, it is common to be overly nostalgic about the good ol' days of cinema; when Hollywood seemingly could no wrong and was consistently pumping out quality, and original, movies. Of course, this is one big lie - reboots, remakes, and sequels are nothing new to cinema; they go back to the very beginning of film itself. The 1940s, in particular, may have been of the most sequel heavy decades in movie history – and the studio that was pumping them out on a regular basis was Universal. Modern audiences groan on the endless string of Saw and Paranormal Activity movies, but Universal was basically doing the same thing with their classic Monsters line up - in 1940, they released The Mummy's Hand and The Invisible Man Returns (with Vincent Price); the former being a reboot of  the Boris Karloff classic, and the latter being a belated sequel to the 1933 film starring Claude Rains. In 1941, Universal added The Wolf Man to their monster line up and it proved to be a tremendous success; the character would pop up in four more movies throughout the course of the decade.

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man was the first movie to pair up Universal’s classic monsters, as well as being a sequel to both The Wolf Man and The Ghost of Frankenstein.  It is also marked the only time that Bela Lugosi would play the Frankenstein Monster. It is by no means a classic, and is heavily flawed, but it is a lot of fun. It may not up to par with Bride of Frankenstein, or The Wolf Man (which is arguable), but it is certainly not the worst monster movie to come out that decade. It benefits greatly from a first rate cast, beautiful cinematography (by George Robinson), and fast paced direction by Roy William Neill; its short run time, 74 minutes, doesn't hurt either.

Bela Lugosi's performance as the Monster has often been the source of criticism - it consists of stumbling through the scenery with his arms outstretched and letting out an occasional grunt. Though, in all fairness to Lugosi, it's not entirely his fault; the Monster stumbles about as a result of being blinded in the previous film, Ghost of Frankenstein, and, originally, Lugosi was given dialogue to perform. However, when the movie was finally released to the cinemas in 1943, all references to the Monster's blindness was deleted, as was all of Lugosi dialogue - though there are a few times in the movie where you can actually see the Monster moving his lips. There is also a moment in the finale, during an elaborate operation, where the audience is given an extreme close up of the Monster opening his eyes, indicating that his sight has been restored. It has often been reported that the reason for deleting Lugosi's dialogue was that a test audience found the idea of the Monster speaking with a Hungarian accent funny. I'm not sure if I believe this story, considering that the previous movie, Ghost of Frankenstein, ends with the Monster talking in the same Hungarian accent (Bela Lugosi dubbed Lon Chaney, Jr. in these scenes), so the studio must have known in advance whether or not audiences would balk at this plot point. I personally believe the Monster's dialogue was removed to tighten up the movie and, more importantly, because it was superfluous to the actual story line. 

To add further insult to injury, the Monster is often played by a stuntman; this  is especially obvious in the Monster's first scene. As a result, the characterization and the look of the Monster is pretty inconsistent throughout. The Monster is essentially reduced to a walking prop and, unfortunately, this would be the standard that the later movies in the series would adopt. Lugosi, despite his prominent billing, has less than ten minutes of actual screen time.

The story line itself is pretty dour; Larry Talbot is accidentally released from his crypt by a pair of bumbling grave robbers and, rather than having to endure an existence of living as the Wolf Man, seeks out Dr. Frankenstein (on the advice of the gypsy Melava), hoping that he can put him out of his misery.  That's right, Larry Talbot, merely wants to die. On his journey, he stumbles upon the Frankenstein Monster, preserved in a block of ice, underneath the catacombs of the Frankenstein castle. Odd, considering that in The Ghost of Frankenstein, the Monster met a fiery demise.  Talbot's learns that Dr. Frankenstein is dead, so he contacts Elsa, the doctor's daughter, hoping that she can lead him to her father's notes about life and death. Also thrown into the mix is Dr. Mannering, who has been searching all of Europe for Talbot; he thinks Talbot is in desperate need of medical help. Dr. Mannering agrees to help Talbot, and learns from Frankenstein's notes that he can drain the life out of Talbot and transfer into the Monster.  Then all hell breaks loose!

The character of Elsa Frankenstein is also a carry over from The Ghost of Frankenstein, except in that movie the role was played by Evelyn Ankers. Why Universal recast Ilona Massey in the role is a mystery? Perhaps, given that Ankers also played Lon Chaney, Jr.'s love interest in The Wolf Man, the studio was afraid that audiences might confuse the two characters. Massey, at best, has a superficial resemblance to Ankers, but otherwise they might as well be two different characters. What happened to Erik, Elsa's suitor in The Ghost of Frankenstein? 

Ankers

Massey

The leading ladies in the Universal Monster movies usually had the thankless task of screaming and looking pretty- which Miss Massey does rather admirably. Elsa doesn't appear until the movie's halfway point  and most of her screen time is reaction shots; Larry Talbot freaks out, cut to a close up of Elsa looking confused. Dr. Mannering becomes fascinated by the Monster, cut to a close up of Elsa looking worried. She solely exists to show Dr. Mannering and Larry Talbot where her father hid his journal, then she is promptly shoved into the background.

Dr. Mannering is a bland character as well - I never bought his transition from concerned physician to mad scientist. He is initially going to drain the monster of all its power, but then decides, seemingly just for the hell of it, that he must see it at full strength. Patric Knowles is a serviceable actor, but he lacks the panache that Colin Clive, Basil Rathbone, and Cedric Hardwicke brought to the previous films. The best thing you can say about Knowles is that he doesn't get in the way of the proceedings. Thankfully, the movie only hints at a potential romance between Dr. Mannering and Elsa as opposed to turning it into a major subplot. It also should be noted that Knowles also appeared in The Wolf Man as Frank Andrews, Gwen's fiance and Larry's romantic rival. That might explain why Larry is so apprehensive towards Dr. Mannering - he reminds him of that dullard Frank.

 Lon Chaney, Jr. gives an effective performance as the gloomy Larry Talbot. The audience actually sympathizes with Talbot, because he doesn't want to harm anyone and is willing to take his own life rather than live a cursed existence. Chaney is actually at his best when silent - his sad eyes effectively convey the eternal guilt that haunts Larry Talbot. The Wolf Man was Chaney's best role, because, essentially he was playing himself - a seemingly decent man who was haunted by his own inner demons; in Chaney's case it was alcohol. By all accounts, when Chaney was sober he was one of the nicest men you could meet, but when drunk, he was extremely unpleasant and volatile to be around.

The movies gets a lot of mileage out of its great supporting cast:  Dennis Hoey is great fun as the dimwitted Inspector Owen. Comedy relief in old horror movies is usually painful, but in this case it is welcomed. Maria Ouspenskaya reprises her role from The Wolf Man, as Meleva, the sympathetic gypsy woman. She takes on a maternal role to Larry Talbot and hopes to end his torment. Lionel Atwill is amusing as the jovial mayor of Vasaria. It is interesting to see Atwill in such an inconsequential role as he was usually cast as either a stern lawmen or a shifty eyed villain. In the previous movie, Ghost of Frankenstein, he played the treacherous Dr. Bohmer - the man responsible for putting Ygor's brain in the Monster's body. Here, his main concern is keeping the anxious villagers under control. Rex Evans is easy to hate as Vazec, the belligerent innkeeper. Oddly, enough it is this character that resolves the plot and not Dr. Mannering. Finally, it's great to see Dwight Frye, co-star of Dracula and Frankenstein, in a small role as a paranoid citizen. Often, the difference between a bad movie and a watchable one is the cast, and, fortunately, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man has a lot of aces up its sleeve.

The direction by, the underrated, Roy William Neill is first rate. Neill's greatest feat is keeping the movie going at a swift pace. He accomplishes this by constantly having characters on the move; the movie begins in the Talbot family crypt, in Wales, and ends in an a dilapidated castle in Eastern Europe. Larry Talbot searches the countryside to find Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Mannering follows him. Neill also does a great job in handling exposition - while at a village festival, Talbot tells Dr. Mannering about Frankenstein's journal. Instead of doing this in a typical two shot, Neill places the two characters at the back of the frame, while in the foreground Vazec can be seen listening in on their conversation. This helps add tension to the scene and fuels Vazec's growing suspicions about Dr. Mannering,

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man is definitely a step down from the previous movies in the franchise, and it is certainly no classic, but there are far worse ways to spend 74 minutes. It is definitely worth a look for its interesting cast and atmospheric direction by Roy William Neill. Hell, it even has a catchy musical number at the midway point. "For life is short, but death is long. Faro - La Faro - Li."

Cast:  Lon Chaney, Jr. (Larry Talbot/The Wolfman), Patric Knowles (Dr. Mannering),  Ilona Massey (Baroness Elsa Frankenstein), Bela Lugosi (The Monster), Lionel Atwill (Mayor), Maria Ouspenskaya (Melava), Dennis Hoey (Inspector Owen), Don Barclay (Franzec), Rex Evans (Vazec),  Dwight Frye (Rudi), Harry Stubbs (Guno).

Director:  Roy William Neill
Screenplay: Curt Siodmak
Running Time: 74 min.

Halloween: Resurrection (2002)

The only controversy that really surrounds Halloween: Resurrection is whether it is the worst or second worst movie in the franchise. Occasionally, a brave soul will come out of the woodwork and admit that they “kind of” liked it, but otherwise it’s greeted with absolute disdain from the fans.  I admit, while I find the movie terrible, I am compelled to watch it every now and again, but more on that later. The main reason for the hate is that it completely negates  the ending to the previous movie, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later –which saw Laurie Strode beheading Michael Myers with an axe. Halloween: Resurrection retcons the ending of the previous film, so that instead of beheading Michael Myers, Laurie Strodie mistaken decapitated a paramedic wearing the Michael Myers mask – he pulled the old switcheroo on Laurie. Laurie, haunted by the guilt of killing an innocent man, spends the next few years in a psychiatric hospital, convinced that Michael will come for her.  When audiences heard this explanation, they let out a collective groan. It is revealed that Michael crushed the man’s larynx, so he couldn’t cry out for help.  Okay, but then, why didn’t he just take off the mask?  A policeman does so later on without any effort – so why couldn’t he?  Granted, the filmmakers needed to find away to bring Michael Myers back, but this is so stupid that it is completely insulting.  

The only thing more cringe worthy is the unceremonious death of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis).  Laurie successfully snares Michael in a trap and is about to drop him to his death, when doubt begins to creep into her mind – she has to make sure that this is the right man.  She’s about to remove the mask, when Michael stabs her in the back, and then drops her to her death off the hospital roof.  Pretty pathetic!  This scene also undermines Laurie’s character arc in Halloween H20; in that movie Laurie has spent her adult life running away from her past – she fakes her death in car accident, relocates to Northern California, and changes her name to Keri Tate. After Michael has found her, and has killed a few people, Laurie chooses to stay behind and face him head on; her character becomes stronger as the movie progresses and she emerges victorious at the end.  Of course, that was until the filmmakers of Halloween: Resurrection said, “Too hell with Laurie’s character arc! Let’s have her institutionalized at the beginning!”  It was all a ruse!  

Oddly enough, the opening scene is rather superfluous to the actual movie itself; it exists solely to establish that Michael is still alive (and because Jamie Lee Curtis was contractually obliged to appear in it).  The movie could have easily opened with Sara sitting in her college lecture and no one would have batted an eye. Sure, someone in the audience might have wondered how Michael is still alive, but the filmmakers could have easily bullshitted their way through it. After all, in Halloween 4, the filmmakers made no effort in explaining how Dr. Loomis survived the explosion in Halloween II, or, for that matter, how Michael not only survived the same explosion, but also got back his eye sight (Laurie shot out his eyes in that film). 

I mentioned before that I am compelled to watch Halloween: Resurrection every once in awhile and that’s because I can easily imagine the thought process of the (original) screen writer as he typed up his script: 

This isn’t going to be your standard Halloween movie – it’s going to be a scathing satire on reality TV, man. Even though it claims to be real, it is completely fake. Well, I’m going to turn that on its head, dude. The participants are going to be on a fake reality show, only to find that the horror is real. Everything is staged, except the murder. Oh, the irony! 

Then, the screenwriter saw the actual movie and was horrified by what director Rick Rosenthal did with his concept.  The movie actually has an intriguing premise – six college students win a competition to appear on an internet reality show in which they will spend the night searching Michael Myer’s childhood home for clues that might explain homicidal tendencies. They are all equipped with head cameras and there are cameras stationed throughout the house as well; this gives the viewers the option of which point of view they want to follow.  I’ll give Halloween: Resurrection this – it accurately predicted the supernatural reality show; it was released two years before Syfy launched the TV show Ghost Hunters. Like that show, and many copycats, the characters spend most of the time scaring the living shit out of each other.  It turns out that many of the “clues” in the house have been planted by the director, Freddie Harris (Busta Rhymes), who also dresses up as Michael Myers at one point to scare the contestants.  Of course, everyone remains oblivious to the fact that the REAL Michael Myers is in the house until it is too late.  

What exactly went wrong? Well, despite the interesting premise, the movie doesn’t do anything interesting with it.  The only thing Rick Rosenthal can come up with is to cut to different camera angles; the point of view seems to shift every ten seconds. This, in theory, should ratchet up the tension, but it quickly becomes a distraction, not to mention redundant, and is simply irritating. Also, it’s amazing that, given the number of cameras in the house, Michael Myers is able to glide through the house undetected. It also interesting that not once, but twice in the movie, characters manage to look away from the TV monitors at just the right (wrong) time – at the psychiatric hospital, a security guard is called away from the monitor, which allows Michael to sneak in undetected. Later on, Michael kills a crew member, with the tripod of a camera, while Nora, Freddie’s producer, makes herself a Cappuccino.  She sings and shakes her booty to a song on the radio, while making her Cappuccino, meanwhile Michael is very slowly dragging the corpse out of the house. Simply amazing! It should be noted that Rick Rosenthal also directed Halloween II, where he was content in aping John Carpenter’s style. This is not a bad thing, considering that Halloween II directly picks up where the first one left off, so at least, visually, it is consistent with the first movie.  In Halloween: Resurrection, he seems to take many of his visual cues from The Blair Witch Project; he even references the most famous moment in that movie – the close up of the girl’s eyes and nose as she apologizes to the camera.  

Then there’s the characters, oh boy, the awful, awful characters. Let’s take a look, shall we?

Sara - The poor man’s Laurie Strode. She is a fairly pretty, but socially awkward girl.  She isn’t the worst leading lady, just forgettable. It’s hard to distinguish her from all other attractive, but bland attractive women that have dominated modern horror films; the movie is set in the Midwest, yet Sara looks like she’s wandered off the set of Dawson’s Creek. Sara is, supposedly, the movie’s protagonist, but too often she gets lost in the shuffle.  Hell, she even botches her one true heroic moment; she comes after Michael with a chainsaw, but gets it tangled up in wires hanging from the garage ceiling and it dies on her. Luckily, Freddie arrives in the nick of time to save her. 

Jen – Sara’s best friend and complete smart ass. She specializes in annoying the shit out of other people, which means, her time on earth is fairly limited.

Rudy – Sara’s other friend and gourmet enthusiast. He talks about food nonstop and his good for a few laughs, but that’s about it.

Bill – The most obnoxious character in the entire movie. It doesn't help that he is played by Rookie of the Year (and American Pie) star, Thomas Ian Nicholas. He is slightly nerdy, but, more importantly, a complete pervert. He constantly throws all sorts of stupid innuendos at Jen. Thankfully, he only has about ten minutes of actually screen time.

Jim – He is a horny musician with a morbid sense of humor. He spends most of his time trying to bed the attractive red head, Donna, and nearly succeeds. 

Donna – The flakiest psych major in movie history.  She spends the entire movie putting down Jim, but then, rather unexpectedly, throws herself at him in the next scene. There is literally no transition – one minute she finds him disgusting, then seconds later she wants to have sex with him. Hmmm….. I wonder if she’s going to survive the night. Her main function is to provide the gratuitous nudity (we get a brief flash of her breasts).  

Freddie – The flamboyant reality show director. He is a kung fu enthusiast and provides much of the comedy relief.  He utters the catchphrase, “Trick or treat, mother fucker!”  He is one of two characters that are given a character arc – he learns that it is wrong to sensationalize a serial killer like Michael Myers.

Nora –She has no real narrative purpose. She is just there.

Myles – Easily the best character in the entire movie. Myles is Sara’s online chat buddy; he never actually meets her and they only interact through online messaging. Though, in an alternate ending, he does show up and save Sara. In fact, it is better than the actual ending that was tacked on for the theatrical release. He is the other character that is given an arc - he goes from being a complete outsider to the life of the party (literally).  

The subplot involving Myles (his screen name is Deckard) may be the only part of the movie that actually works for me.  He is at a Halloween party, but separates himself from every one else so he can watch the broadcast, in a study room, on a big TV screen. As the movie progresses other party goers begin to trickle into the study room to watch the broadcast with him. When the bodies begin to pile up, the other party goers thinks it is all a hoax and laugh it off. Myles, on the other hand, believes the murders are real and even tries to contact the police.  When Sara is the only survivor left, she uses her Palm Pilot to contact Myles and he helps navigate her through the house, using instant messaging.  It is the one moment where Sara actually displays common sense – using modern technology to her advantage. Though, I’m still confused as to why Myles needs to change the font every time he messages Sara. 

The movie lacks a proper foil for Michael Myers; Sara is too dull and Freddie is a living cartoon. Busta Rhymes is clearly having fun with the role, but he is just silly. Laurie Strode is killed off early on and, sadly, Donald Pleasence passed away in 1995, so there’s no Dr. Loomis to liven up the proceedings.  One of the few positives you can say about Halloween: Resurrection is that it makes you appreciate Donald Pleasence’s performance in the earlier entries.  Dr. Loomis was a unique character and really is what separated the Halloween series from all the other Slasher movies

The bland cast would be forgivable if Michael Myers was scary, but that is simply not the case. In the original Halloween, there was a childlike simplicity to Michael Myers – he viewed everything as one big game; he dresses up as a ghost to trick Lynda and constantly plays dead to fool Laurie. Here, he is just another superhuman psychopath that stumbles through the scenery while butchering attractive people in gruesome ways.  The original Halloween was innovative, Halloween: Resurrection, other the hand, is pretty indistinguishable from all the other Slasher movies that were popping up in the early 2000s.  

Credits

Cast: Busta Rhymes(Freddie Harris),  Bianca Kajlich (Sara Moyer),  Jamie Lee Curtis (Laurie Strode), Brad Loree (Michael Myers), Ryan Merriman (Myles Barton), Sean Patrick Thomas (Rudy), Katee Sackhoff (Jen),  Luke Kirby (Jim), Daisy McCrackin (Donna), Thomas Ian Nicholas (Bill), Tyra Banks (Nora),  Billy Kay (Scott),  Gus Lynch (Harold), Dan Joffre (Willie), Haig Sutherland (Aron), Natassia Malthe (French Maid), Lorena Gale (Nurse Wells), Marisa Rudiak (Nurse Philips), Brent Chapman (Franklin), Kyla Labine (Teen Party Guy), Rick Rosenthal (Professor).

Director: Rick Rosenthal
Screenplay: Larry Brand, Sean Hood.
Running Time:  86 min.

The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)

The Town That Dreaded Sundown is one of the most infuriating horror movies ever made! It is the classic case of a hack director (Charles B. Pierce) taking a surefire premise and some how botching it. The Town That Dreaded Sundown has the makings of a classic horror movie - a genuinely scary villain (the hooded menace known as "The Phantom Killer"), a great setting (Texarkana, 1946), and even a few strong performances to boot - and, yet, Pierce manages to undermine it every step of the way. This is characteristic of most of Pierce's works; his most famous movie, The Legend of Boggy Creek, starts off as a compelling documentary on the Fouke Monster (a Bigfoot like beast the supposedly stalks Fouke, Arkansas), but is quickly done in by ponderous narrations, an overbearing blue grass soundtrack, and truly bad acting. There is a genuinely creepy scene in which the monster attacks a family in a trailer home, but the rest of the movie is pure schlock.

Pierce must have felt that his horror movie just might be too grim for audiences, so he decided to lightened the tone by shoe horning in as much comedy relief as possible; provided by the bumbling patrolman "Spark Plug" Benson (played by Pierce).  Unfortunately, the transition from horror to comedy is completely jarring - in the blink of an eye the movie goes from genuine terror to horrible comedy. There's even a lengthy car chase scene, with goofy music on the soundtrack, that is more befitting of Smokey and the Bandit than  a horror movie. Granted, humor isn't anything new to the horror genre; the Friday the 13th series are filled with comedic moments. However, the difference between the Friday the 13th series and The Town That Dreaded Sundown is that the humor in the former feels organic to the story, whereas it comes off as being extremely forced in the latter. When you get a group of teenagers together there is always going to be a few funny moments, but it seems out of place for the Texarkana police department to be in such good spirits, considering that their town is being terrorized by a serial killer.

The other major flaw of the movie is that it really lacks a strong central character; Ben Johnson is a fine actor and delivers a solid performance as Texas Ranger, J.D. Morales, but the character is too distant for an audience to truly empathize with, and is off screen for long portions of the movie; he first appears at about the thirty minute mark of the movie.  Deputy Norman Ramsey (Andrew Prine) is, theoretically,  the movie's protagonist, but he lacks a personality and, essentially, gets shoved into the background once Morales enter the picture.  The most sympathetic character is Helen Reed, played by Dawn Wells of Gilligan's Island fame, where she played the "All American" Mary Ann. Reed is an average woman (she is first seen grocery shopping) that finds herself the target of a crazed killer; it's a truly terrifying scene. She is shot twice by the Phantom Killer, but manages to crawl out of her house and into a cornfield - this one of the movie's few effective scenes. The killer stalks Helen through the cornfield and we are genuinely afraid for her, hoping she will make it out alive. We breathe a sigh of relief when she finds refuge in a neighbor's house. It's an effective performance by Wells (effectively playing on her "All American Girl" image), but her role amounts to nothing more than a cameo - she has about, roughly, ten minutes of screen time.

There are a few scary moments in the movie; the aforementioned cornfield scene and, most notably, an extreme tense moment when the killer ties a pocket knife to a woman's trombone and then  "plays" her to death.

These are genuinely haunting moments, but Pierces diffuses the tension by cutting to a shot of "Spark Plug" Benson bumbling his way through scenery. In the hands of a more gifted filmmaker, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, might have been a classic, but with Charles B. Pierce at the helm, it is simply mediocre.

Credits

Cast: Ben Johnson (Captain J.D. Morales), Andrew Prine (Deputy Norman Ramsey), Dawn Wells (Helen Reed), Charles B. Pierce (Patrolman A.C. "Spark Plug" Benson), Jimmy Clem (Sgt. Mal Griffin), Jim Citty (Police Chief R.J. Sullivan), Robert Aquino (Sheriff Otis Baker), Cindy Butler (Peggy Loomis), Christine Ellsworth (Linda Mae Jenkins), Earl E. Smith (Dr. Kress), Steve Lyons (Roy Allen), Bud Davis (The Phantom Killer).

Director: Charles B. Pierce.
Screenplay: Earl E. Smith
Running Time: 90 min.

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)

WARNING: This review has nothing but SPOILERS in it! So, if you haven’t seen the cinematic atrocity that is I Still Know What You Last Summer, then I suggest you skip the review altogether. On the other hand, if you have seen, or really don’t care, then please read on. 

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is one of the most ridiculous sequels in the Slasher genre, which is saying quite a lot.  It is so bad that it makes the first movie look like an absolute masterpiece. What ever flaws I Know What You Did Last Summer had, it was at least a serviceable horror film with solid performances from Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sarah Michelle Gellar, and a few scares to boot. There was at least an attempt by the filmmakers to build suspense and give the characters an arc; the sequel tosses all of that out the window and replaces it with a higher body count and a horribly contrived script.  The first film was riding on the coattails of Scream; when Wes Craven’s self aware horror film became a huge hit at the box office, and with critics, it led to an entire spawn of copy cats, I Know What You Last Summer being one of them. The other connection that the first film had with Scream is they shared the same screenwriter, Kevin Williamson.  The movie proved to be a hit at the box office, if not with the critics, and domestically grossed $72 million against a $17 million budget; a sequel was only inevitable. It certainly didn’t hurt that I Know What You Did Last Summer left itself open for second movie.

In an interview for Cinefantastique (December 1998), one of the producers, Stokely Chaffin,  plays down the slasher element and laughably attempts to sell it as a psychological thriller,
 “Plus there is a thread of surreal weaving in and out of the story. Is what seems to be happening really happening? How much of what is going on is a projection of Julie’s emotional state?”
This might be true if many of the scare scenes were shot from Julie’s point of view, but this is not the case, and too often the audience is tipped off to the reality of the situation.  There is a fairly silly scene in a night club where Julie sees Ben Willis, the killer, standing by the  railing on the second floor, staring at her. This could be dismissed as a hallucination, except that a second later Julie is in the foreground facing the camera when, suddenly, Ben Willis’ shadow materializes in the background.

 Of course, this begs the question, “How does a middle aged man wearing a slicker not call attention to himself in a night club?”  In the first film the slicker made sense as it was set in a fishing community and practically every other citizen wore one.  In the sequel, it is baffling as to why Ben Willis would still don it, considering that it has no practically purpose - his identity is well known to Julie, so it is not like he is trying to retain his anonymity.

Also, Ben Willis’ master plan is overly complicated and makes no sense; Julie and her roommate, Karla, receive a phone call from a local radio station and will win an all expense paid vacation to the Bahamas, over the 4^th of July weekend, if they can name the capital of Brazil. They, wrongly, guess Rio de Janeiro, but the deejay says they are correct and sends them the tickets. Of course, this turns out to be an elaborate ruse by Ben Willis to spring his trap on the unsuspecting Julie.  Think about that for a minute – Ben Willis’ gives Julie and friends an all expense paid trip to the Bahamas just so he can exact his revenge on her!  Couldn’t he have just snuck into her dorm room and bumped her off there?  Where is he getting the money to fund such a scheme?  What if Julie had other plans and couldn’t go on the trip? It is an extremely flimsy framework to hang your horror film on. It even makes less sense once it is revealed that Will Benson, the dreamy boy that has eyes for Julie, is, in fact, Ben Willis’ son (“Benson. Get it? Ben’s son!”), and has been in on the ruse from the get go – he supplied the voice of the obnoxious deejay.

In the same Cinefantastique article, director Danny Cannon explains, “The idea of a residence being menacing has been a pet project of mine for a long time, because I’ve always been fascinated by the haunted house idea. I wanted to stay away from the typical haunted house, though. You know the kind I’m talking about: some gothic monstrosity with the turrets and gloomy clouds constantly overhead. I had to try something different.” 

 Unfortunately, for Cannon and company, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is essentially your average slasher movie, complete with a thunderstorm, set on a tropical island; there is absolutely nothing that differentiates it from previous efforts.  If Cannon wanted to make a “haunted house” type movie, then why have the plot be so needlessly complicated? Instead of Julie and friends “winning” a trip to the Bahamas, why not have Will invite his friends to spend the weekend at his house?   While Julie has no romantic interest in Will, she does regard him as a FRIEND (the true horror to any male watching the film), so it isn't a stretch to believe that she would be willing to go along, especially after her fight with Ray.

The last scene of the movie only expose how ridiculous Ben Willis’ master plan was all along;  he rather easily sneaks into Julie and Ray’s house (some how having survived being shot EIGHT times), hides under their bed, and drags Julie underneath before she has time to react.  Why didn’t he do that in the first place? He could have saved himself a lot of time, money, and effort. Not to mention, there would have been a significantly smaller body count.  Many people have interpreted this ending as a being a dream, but I highly doubt that as it is clearly set up that Ben Willis is physically in the house;  the camera lingers over a track of muddy boot prints that Julie some how fails to notice.  Plus, someone closes the bathroom door while Ray is brushing his teeth.

I must admit that I loathe this ending, as well as similar endings in other horror films.  The original Halloween had an open ending, but that was genuinely creepy; the thought that Michael Myers is still out there is scary.  He could strike at any minute.  The ending to I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, however, is silly and just a cheap shock – it’s the equivalent to being started at a haunted attraction when a teenager in zombie make up jumps out from behind the bushes. It may get a jump out of you, but it has no real lingering effect.  Were the filmmakers setting up a third Last Summer movie?  Jennifer Love Hewitt, in her interview with Cinefantastique, seems to suggest this,

“The ending of the film is something I don’t believe anybody is going to be laughing at, though. It’s a real shocker. Depending on how well I STILL KNOW does at the box office, there just maybe a third film in the series – maybe I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER AGAIN.”   Sadly, there was indeed a third film in the series, the direct to video, I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, though Hewitt was not involved with that movie.  Good for her!  

The first film benefited from its rather simple premise; a group of friends, after a night of partying on the beach, accidentally run over a pedestrian and, fearing the repercussions it might have on their futures, dump the body in the ocean, promising each other never to talk about it again.  A year later, Julie, reluctantly returns to her hometown after finishing her freshman year of college and receives a letter that reads, “I know what you did last summer.”  The rest of the film concerns the efforts of Julie and friends to find out the identity of their stalker before it is too late.  It is a movie that is not without its flaws, but it is slickly made that it is easy to overlook them.  I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, on the other hand, is so absurd that you will either find it funny or extremely irritating.  I belong in the former category.

Ben Willis also has some incredible foresight; in order for his scheme to work, he must get Ray, Julie’s blue collar boyfriend, out of the way.  Julie initially invites Ray to go on the Bahama trip, in hopes that they can patch up their relationship. At first, Ray is absolutely against it, slightly peeved that Julie was so quick in turning down his offer to come back home on the fourth, but having no qualms in going to the Bahamas with her friends.  However, his best friend/comedy sidekick, Dave, tells him to lighten up, and convinces Ray to drive up and surprise Julie.  The two of them get in Ray’s truck, and, after a “hilarious” sing a long to White Snake’s “Here I Go Again,” come across a body lying on the side of the road. Ray pulls over to investigate, much to the displeasure of Dave.  Sadly, Dave’s apprehension proves to be correct as it turns out to be one big trap. The body is really a mannequin and Ben Willis takes no time in disposing of Dave. He then gets in the pick up truck and runs Ray off the road. Ray survives the ordeal and ends up in the hospital.  Again, it is incredibly uncanny that Ben Willis knew which route Ray and Dave were going to take.  What would he have done if Ray had not changed his mind? Did Ben Willis set up this trap knowing Ray would come this way or did he just assume it? What if he set up this trap and Ray never came? Wouldn’t that be embarrassing?  What if someone else happen to pull over before Ray?  It is a scene that offers up more questions than answers. 

In this movie’s defense, this kind of scene springs up in practically every Slasher movie. The most famous being the canoe scene in The Burning. In that movie, a group of camp counselors on a raft come across a supposedly abandoned canoe in the lake and paddle over to retrieve it.  They get closer and closer, and suddenly the killer, Cropsey, springs up from the canoe and kills them with a pair of garden shears.  After this viewing this scene, I kept asking the following questions: How long was Cropsey in that canoe?  How did it not tip over when he sprang up to surprise the counselors? What if the people on the raft said, “To hell with the canoe,” and kept on padding?  However, the difference between The Burning and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is that in 1981 this scene was genuinely surprising and blindsided many people in the audience, but by 1998 it had become a cliché.

I personally theorize that Ben Willis is really a fallen super hero, it would explain not only his incredibly foresight, but his amazing regenerative powers as well.  Throughout the course of the two movies the following happens to be Ben Willis:

1)      He is run over by a car at a high speed and then dumped into the ocean.

2)      His hand right hand gets lopped off and once again he is dumped into the ocean.

3)      He is shot EIGHT times by Julie, falls into an open plot in the rain, and slowly gets consumed by mud.

Yet, not only does he survive these ordeals, but has a speedy recover each time.  There is no hint that he is supernatural entity, therefore he must be a mutant; one of Charles Xavier’s pupils that turned bad and made it his goal to torment humankind. It explains so much!  Also, if Willis’ main beef is against Julie, then why does he bump off the entire hotel staff?  What does he hope to gain? After all, the entire point of his plan was to get back at Julie, so there is absolutely no reason for him to be taking his wrath out on everyone else. 

Jennifer Love Hewitt was a rather effective heroine in the first movie, however, in the sequel her performance is far more pronounced; it often feels like she’s doing a parody of her character in the first film. She does a lot of screaming, shouting, and is very high strung through out; there are very few subtleties in her acting. In the first film, there is this brief moment when Julie is being hit on the geeky Max (Johnny Galecki) and while she puts on a friendly demeanor, you can tell she is uncomfortable simply by her body language, and by the look she gives Helen (Sarah Michelle Gellar).  Julie is a goody two shoes and it is simply not in her character to tell anyone off, no matter how annoying that person might be.  The whole point is that the character actually gets stronger as the movie progresses, whereas in the sequel, she pretty much remains paranoid and angry; there is no room for character development. 

Freddie Prinze, Jr. was rather ill served by both of the Last Summer movies; in the first movie he is a red herring and the audience is misled into believe that he had in part in writing the letters.  In the sequel, his role is reduced to that of an extended cameo – the movie occasionally cuts back to Ray as he scrounges the resources that will take him to Julie; he pawns the engagement ring he bought Julie for a gun and manages to commandeer a boat. His total screen time adds up to a little over ten minutes.  The only reason Ray is in the sequel is to provide the gun that Julie uses on Ben Willis at the end, otherwise, he is a fairly useless character.

Though as pointless as Ray is, he is not nearly as inept as Julie’s best friend, Karla, played by popular singer, and Moesha star, Brandy.  The characters two defining characteristics are that she is sassy and a complete enabler; she encourages Julie to cheat on Ray with Will. Brandy does the best she can with the material that is given her, but there is very little for her to do, except scream and offer up a few quips.

I like Mekhi Phifer as, Karla’s constantly befuddled boyfriend, Tyrell. He is a perfect audience surrogate - he shifts from sheer disbelief to complete frustration at all the nonsense that is going on right in front of his eyes.  You’re not the only one, Tyrell!  He is also given the best line in the entire movie, “All I know this is the worst vacation of my life. I’m tired, I’m hungry, I’m fucking horny, and I aint seen one goddamn psycho killer.”

Matthew Settle is appropriately bland in the early scenes, but once Will Benson's true identity is established, the limitations of his acting are cruel exposed; he sports a Cheshire Cat grin, does a lot of shouting, and offers up a few quips. It is  reminiscent of Timothy Olyphant's performance in Scream 2; the only difference being that Olyphant has a much greater screen presence.

There are few other flourishes that I like, particularly Jeffrey Comb’s offbeat performance as the uptight hotel manager – his awkward exchanges will Julie and friends are easily the highlights of the movie.

Muse Watson is a genuinely creepy villain and has great screen presence, unfortunately, his screen time is limited to the last minutes.  Jack Black has an amusing cameo as a stoner pool boy, who, when he’s about to meet his untimely end, tells Willis, “Don’t do that!”  The opening, in which Julie goes into a confessional and discloses her sins to a priest, is genuinely unnerving and fairly well played by Hewitt.  A nice sense of dread hangs over the proceedings, unfortunately, the filmmakers ruin it when it is revealed that the priest is really Ben Willis and that, in a not surprising twist, the whole thing was a nightmare.  Unfortunately, the bad greatly outweighs the good and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, despite what  its director and producer claims, is your quintessential Slasher movie with very few surprises and even less scares.

Credits

Cast: Jennifer Love Hewitt (Julie), Freddie Prinze, Jr. (Ray), Brandy Norwood (Karla), Mekhi Phifer (Tyrell), Muse Watson (Ben Willis), Jeffrey Combs (Mr. Brooks), Matthew Settle (Will), Bill Cobbs (Estes), Jennifer Esposito (Nancy), John Hawkes (Dave), Jack Black (Titus – uncredited), Benjamin Brown (Darick).

Director: Danny Cannon
Screenplay: Trey Callaway.
Running Time: 100 min.