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 cut backs 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 Espositio (Nancy), John Hawkes (Dave), Jack Black (Titus – uncredited), Benjamin Brown (Darick).

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