Director Danny Cannon and writer Trey Callaway pump up the humor and simple slasher pleasures in the sequel to 1997’s “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” which popularized straight-down-the-middle slashers (as opposed to winking examples like “Scream”) for a new generation. Hey, you have to have a sense of humor when your movie is called “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer” (1998).
J-Love takes center stage
I have a soft spot for this movie, even though I now realize my A-rating from November 1998 is overly generous. Jennifer Love Hewitt returns as forever-haunted Julie James, and she has good chemistry with new best friend Karla (“Moesha’s” Brandy, whose acting career didn’t take off like I wish it would’ve).
J-Love flashes her thousand-watt smile more than in the first one, and both actresses make excellent scream queens of the new type who eventually stand up to the killer. Plus, Hewitt shows off her singing chops in a karaoke version of “I Will Survive” and a tune on the soundtrack; surprisingly, considering her first career is as a singer, Brandy isn’t on the soundtrack.
“I Still Know What You Did Last Summer” (1998)
Director: Danny Cannon
Writer: Trey Callaway
Stars: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Brandy Norwood
Granted, the makers of “Scary Movie” couldn’t wait to parody Julie screaming into empty air for the killer (Muse Watson as Ben Willis, a.k.a. The Fisherman) to “come and get her” for the second straight summer. And “I Still Know” doesn’t have much to add to Julie’s arc of being scared and paranoid.
Whenever she’s accused of hallucinating things (again, she finds a body, which the killer removes before she can show it to other people), we don’t believe for a second that she is imagining all of this. It might’ve been neat if that was a real possibility.
Bahamas in the off-season
But this sequel retains the mystery approach, has a cool setting in a storm-drenched off-season Bahamas resort, and boasts a strong cast. More genre-referential than the first entry (Mekhi Phifer’s Ty name-drops Freddy and Jason), “I Still Know” plays along with the viewer’s expectations that this is familiar and silly, without sacrificing the fun of the scare moments (even though I admit the film isn’t exactly nightmare-inducing).
A particularly funny moment comes when Julie, Karla, Ty and Will (Matthew Settle, who would play a dad of teenagers a mere 10 years later on “Gossip Girl”) wake up in the same bed, having huddled together for protection.
These college-aged would-be-victims tend to be smarter than the norm in this game of keepaway against The Fisherman, but it’s also amusing that Ty can’t get any alone time with Karla.
It was nothing to sneeze at in 1998 to have a black couple share top billing with the white gal and guy. Jennifer Esposito adds Hispanic diversity as a resort worker, and Jack Black plays yet another 1990s Jack Black role as the resident pot-dealer as he works toward his breakthrough in 2000’s “High Fidelity.”
There’s something about Freddie Prinze Jr. that makes me forget he’s in the movies he’s in, and on this viewing I was surprised by how much of a role Ray plays in “I Still Know.”
In a B-plot, he desperately tries to get to the island to rescue girlfriend Julie. Ray’s struggles, along with elements such as the resort’s phones and radios going out, illustrate that Julie and friends are trapped in paradise. (Ray features in a couple of time-capsule moments. He doesn’t have a cellphone to call Julie on, but he does have a new electric toothbrush, which he marvels at.)
A clunkier mystery
The mystery is clunkier this time around. Karla wins a trip for four to the Bahamas in a radio contest by naming Rio de Janeiro as the capital of Brazil. I knew the capital is Brasilia, and wondered on my first viewing if it was a clue or a screenwriting error.
It turns out to be a clue, but it doesn’t give away the whole game. I admit I didn’t put together the “Will Benson = Ben’s son” thing on my first viewing, and sure it’s goofy, but I think in a funny way.
It might boil down to me having a thing for ’90s It Girls J-Love and Brandy taking on a psychopathic killer amid a rainstorm.
Callaway and Cannon (“Judge Dredd”) aren’t trying to reinvent or comment on the genre here, and given the one-year turnaround from “I Know,” they probably didn’t have time to do much more than show ticket-buyers a comfortably familiar fun time. In that, they succeed.