I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)

[urbanlegend23]

I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
STAR RATING: **** (out of 5)

DIRECTOR Trey Callaway
STARRING Jennifer Love Hewitt, Brandy, Freddie Prinze Jr., Mekhi Phifer, Muse Watson, Matthew Settle, Bill Cobbs, Jennifer Esposito, Jack Black
GENRE Horror
CERTIFICATE R16 – Contains horror scenes and violence
YEAR OF RELEASE 1998

It may be hard to trust a movie that can’t even get its title right. I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER should really be I KNOW WHAT YOU DID TWO SUMMERS AGO, I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID THE YEAR BEFORE LAST or even just plain old I STILL KNOW. But never mind that. Some people can sit through this film bashing it because of its flaws. I am like that with many movies – but this is a frickin’ slasher film! What were the critics expecting, CITIZEN KANE? A slasher film is meant to entertain the audience, gross them out, maybe make them chuckle and spook them. Not give them a deeply meaningful plot with 3-dimensional characters and all the things that make movies “great”. I may be alone here but what makes a movie truly great is its ability to entertain the audience. And this is a slasher film – you can’t ask too much of it! So why does everyone HATE it so much? I may be alone here, but I think this movie rocked!

Okay, so this movie doesn’t have the qualities to make it a five star film. The characters aren’t the smartest; one of the situations that had me rolling my eyes a bit was the suntan situation. Julie James (Hewitt) is just sunning in a booth when the killer locks it shut and turns up the heat. Her friends rush in and start bashing it trying to open it. Umm…hello…turn down the heat? Then try to get her out. I suppose they were just panicking a bit after discovering there was a psycho killer on the island. Julie James is a great character though – for once a strong and determined horror heroine (who likes to shout at the sky pretending it’s the killer, presumably) who we like and respect. Not a teary-eyed and stupid bimbo who does the dumbest horror clichés in the book.

I STILL KNOW has some bad editing; one of the most distracting things in the film is the way the actors’ mouths move at the wrong time. Do you remember in SCREAM when Sidney screams “Dewey!” but actually mouths “No!” (or the other way around)? Well, a lot of the time I STILL KNOW is like that. It’s not that different words come out, it’s just that the mouths and words are a little out of sync. There’s also the obvious title flaw that I mentioned right at the top of my review. But hey it’s just a title. What can you do about it?

But, for all its flaws, I STILL KNOW brings another quality. Such as watchability! I can’t even count on my fingers how many times I’ve seen this film. It’s very much my favourite guilty pleasure and it’s been that way since it came out. There are those movies you can just get sick of after even watching one time, but I STILL KNOW is always enjoyable every time you watch it.

The movie works very well as a horror sequel. The heroine is stronger, and willing to change her life. The movie goes back to the past to discover more about its villain. I loved that aspect of the movie, the script really lets I STILL KNOW go back and discover more about the people, the place and the story. We find out about Ben Willis, his family and why he did the things he did. Cool!

One of the movie’s strongest points is the setting. I STILL KNOW is set in a place called Tower Bay in the Bahamas (even though the film was shot in Mexico). The setting is haunting, spooky and beautiful. The very original setting really works excellently and I loved it. The movie is also drenched in atmosphere and moodiness. The movie doesn’t rely on overstylization to create a moody atmosphere though, it uses simple techniques (rain falling from upwards shots, birds flying away as the killer enters the room, the hook on the hand – especially effective) and Danny Cannon pulls it off very well.

The acting is also another good point in the film. Jennifer Love Hewitt is always watchable as Julie James and displays her character’s vulnerability and determination very well. Brandy is perfectly cast as the hip friend of Julie (If anyone asks, let’s not tell them it rained the whole time?) and is very charismatic in her role. Freddie Prinze, Jr. puts on a determined show in one of his best performances. Mekhi Phifer cracked me up a-plenty as the horny boyfriend of Brandy. Matthew Settle was good as Will. Muse Watson is a very creepy guy and really is Ben Willis, but the script gives him a few too many cheesy lines towards the end of the film.

All in all, this isn’t a perfect movie by a long shot, but it is endlessly entertaining and one of my favourite’s just because it consistently keeps me entertained and happy. It mixes in lots of scares with heaps of wit, truckloads of gore and tonnes of personality. I love this movie, and I don’t care what anyone says about it. So all those who aren’t being entertained by I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, well, less for you, more for me! Dig in!

ANY GOOD?
A high-quality slasher that is a both spooky and thoroughly entertaining feast for anyone who doesn’t expect too much.
urbanlegend23

[countchocula]

Wait, I'm confused. You loathed Friday the 13th, but you enjoyed I Still Know What You Did Last Summer? Isn't that a contradiction? Those two films are equally cliché-ridden, and their plots are equally dull. You claim that slashers don't need three-dimensional characters, yet you bash F13 because of the poor characterizations. You point out F13’s lapses in logic, yet you gloss over ISKWYDLS’s plot holes, and you don’t seem to mind it when the characters make asinine decisions. I’m not denouncing your opinions (I detest the original F13 as well), but you’re not being terribly consistent here.

[The Claw]

Originally posted by countchocula
Wait, I'm confused. You loathed Friday the 13th, but you enjoyed I Still Know What You Did Last Summer? Isn't that a contradiction? Those two films are equally cliché-ridden, and their plots are equally dull. You claim that slashers don't need three-dimensional characters, yet you bash F13 because of the poor characterizations. You point out F13’s lapses in logic, yet you gloss over ISKWYDLS’s plot holes, and you don’t seem to mind it when the characters make asinine decisions. I’m not denouncing your opinions (I detest the original F13 as well), but you’re not being terribly consistent here.

yeah man. both movies suck(in my opinion) but there mostly the same thing, i mean you can enjoy what you want. but what the?

i'm confused too.

[Inglorious]

Originally posted by countchocula
Wait, I'm confused. You loathed Friday the 13th, but you enjoyed I Still Know What You Did Last Summer? Isn't that a contradiction? Those two films are equally cliché-ridden, and their plots are equally dull. You claim that slashers don't need three-dimensional characters, yet you bash F13 because of the poor characterizations. You point out F13’s lapses in logic, yet you gloss over ISKWYDLS’s plot holes, and you don’t seem to mind it when the characters make asinine decisions. I’m not denouncing your opinions (I detest the original F13 as well), but you’re not being terribly consistent here.

Hey, well I like, even Love all the F13ths. I'm with you count, other than you don't like the original Friday the 13th. We all have our opinions and here's mine, I Still Know What You did Last Summer Sucked Major ASS!

[urbanlegend23]

Originally posted by countchocula
Wait, I'm confused. You loathed Friday the 13th, but you enjoyed I Still Know What You Did Last Summer? Isn't that a contradiction? Those two films are equally cliché-ridden, and their plots are equally dull. You claim that slashers don't need three-dimensional characters, yet you bash F13 because of the poor characterizations. You point out F13’s lapses in logic, yet you gloss over ISKWYDLS’s plot holes, and you don’t seem to mind it when the characters make asinine decisions. I’m not denouncing your opinions (I detest the original F13 as well), but you’re not being terribly consistent here.

Okay, let me see...

I did not find I Still Know's plot boring or dull, but I did find F13's plot boring AND dull. Sure, ISKWYLS was cliche ridden, but fuck all, I enjoyed it! I did NOT enjoy F13!! It's just my opinion, we all like what we like!

Characterizations? I say that slashers do not need 3D characters but I want to at least like the characters. In I Still Know I liked quite a few of them and wanted them to live. Friday the 13th's characters were stupid arseholes that I couldn't give a shite about. I never mentioned in my F13 review "these characters are not three-dimensional therefore I hate this movie." It's just I hated all of them and didn't care for any one of them, not one little bit. So yeah.

ISKWYLS's plot holes did piss me off and I notice them more and more every time I watch the movie. The characters make a couple of silly decisions, but not as many as the characters in F13. I do mind when any character in a slasher does something dumb, but I saw many of the moves in ISKWYDLS pretty clever, where as NONE of them were smart in F13. They were all dumb fucks. I suppose you have to ask yourself what would a slasher be without dumb characters? But as I mentioned before I hated all of F13's characters and their dumb actions just made me hate them even more.

Hope that clears it up. I've just got out of bed so I'm a bit drowzy...LOL.

[countchocula]

Yeah, I see where you're coming from. Likeable characters aren't the same as fleshed out characters. Personally, I despised everyone in ISKWYDLS (excluding Jeffrey Combs). Hewitt's a tease, Prinze is the standard boyfriend, and of course, Brandy just won't fucking die. From frame one, you can pretty much assess the body count. You know who will survive, and you know who won't. This film seems to embrace banal predictability. It refuses to take chances, and shrinks back from ingenuity. I didn't need a clever storyline or even solid acting to satisfy me, I just needed to sense that Dimension gave a shit about the quality of their product. And from what I could tell, they didn't put forth much effort into creating something worthwhile. As long as it’s lucrative, they're content. But I should be used to this by now...

[mjg 15]

Originally posted by countchocula
I didn't need a clever storyline or even solid acting to satisfy me, I just needed to sense that Dimension gave a shit about the quality of their product. And from what I could tell, they didn't put forth much effort into creating something worthwhile. As long as it’s lucrative, they're content. But I should be used to this by now...

But, Dimension didn't make the movie...

[XCoRyX]

When i first saw IKWYDLS,i actually enjoyed it,and was a big fan of it...then i saw this,and couldnt stand it,it was watchable,but barely.Brandy is atrocious,and so is jennifer love hewitt,whom i cant stand at all.This was a big letdown,so i watched the first again and realized,i didnt have the same feel anymore,i lost interest and liking to the whole slasher genre after seeing this one....3/10

[kubotakhan01]

"I Know What You Did Last Summer" is a BAD movie. It's sequel was A BAD movie. And I heard they were thinking about a third sequel. That one wil also be a BAD movie.


RATING IKWYDLS: 2/10
RATING ISKWYDLS: 1/10
RATING IKWYDLS3: 0/10

[Requiem-for-a-Dream]

You liked Jennifer Love Hewitts tits, that's it, lol.

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer- 5/10

Rated R for Strong Violence/Gore, Sexuality and Horror.

This movie is bad, and I mean bbbbbbbbbbbbbaaaaaaaaaaaadddddddddddddd!!!
But you've gotta love how much the director knows it. He sports JLH in so many skimpy outfits and showcases brutal murders for the hell of it. It's crap but it's entertaining crap (well, sometimes)
I in no way recommend this movie but if you like JLH and stupidity then you might get a kick out of it.

Gore- 7/10
Hook through neck, machete in head, hook impalings, eyeball hanging out, bloody corpses, and sheers in gut.

Nudity- 1/10
JLH in partially see-through night gown, and lots of skimpy clothing.

Matt

[Candyman'sBitch]

This movie blows much azz . It stole alot from the orginal Urban Legend with a hook for a hand Candyman.

[Kastman]

i like i still know more than friday 1 aswell.

Friday 1 was a piece of poopy, the way some of those kills were shot, with the pov of the koiller was dumb. It was boring and crap.


But i liked i still know because it had good story, good women, good tension and so forth. oh and a good little twist.

[Jason Voorhees]

This is probably the most implausible film ever made. My suspension of disbelief was beaten senseless by this terrible, egregious, piece of commercial horror shit.

It's not even enjoyable on a cheese level. Which is no small feat considering how illogical the film is. It's just atrocious in every single possible way. The characters are all annoying; there is no gore or nudity to speak of; it's certainly not scary at all; the pace lags; and the whole thing just reeks of lackadaisical sloppiness and idiocy.

High recommendation to avoid 1/10.

P.S This is not an assault on anyone's opinion. Rather, an attack on this piss-poor film.

[Requiem-for-a-Dream]

Jason, did you notice the gaping plot holes? Holy shit they were so blatantly stupid!!!!! I have never seen a film with plot holes as big as the one's showcased in this flick.

I also lower my rating to a 4/10, I watched it last night and thought it didn't deserve the 5/10.

Kastman, the twist at the end was so bad!!!!!!! The actor portraying the twist killer was soooooooooooooooooo bad, he talked in that stupid fake evil voice, I couldn't help but feel anger watching the goddamn performance! LOL, anyways, to each his own as they say.

Matt

[Jason Voorhees]

Originally posted by Requiem-for-a-Dream
Jason, did you notice the gaping plot holes? Holy shit they were so blatantly stupid!!!!! I have never seen a film with plot holes as big as the one's showcased in this flick.

I also lower my rating to a 4/10, I watched it last night and thought it didn't deserve the 5/10.

Kastman, the twist at the end was so bad!!!!!!! The actor portraying the twist killer was soooooooooooooooooo bad, he talked in that stupid fake evil voice, I couldn't help but feel anger watching the goddamn performance! LOL, anyways, to each his own as they say.

Matt

Indeed, this film possess quite a few stunningly large plot holes. Furthermore, I simply cannot believe that two of this film's major plot points are blatantly obvious and apparent so early on in the proceedings; that's just ridiculous..

P.S. The surprise killer was awful; seemed like he was ripping off the revelation performances at the end of Scream as well.

[Requiem-for-a-Dream]

Originally posted by Jason Voorhees
Indeed, this film possess quite a few stunningly large plot holes. Furthermore, I simply cannot believe that two of this film's major plot points are blatantly obvious and apparent so early on in the proceedings; that's just ridiculous..

P.S. The surprise killer was awful; seemed like he was ripping off the revelation performances at the end of Scream as well.

My God it was so bad and yeah the plot points were so awful. The killer was the worst out of any of the recent Scream style slashers.

Matt

[Michael_myers]

Originally posted by urbanlegend23
Okay, let me see...

I did not find I Still Know's plot boring or dull, but I did find F13's plot boring AND dull. Sure, ISKWYLS was cliche ridden, but fuck all, I enjoyed it! I did NOT enjoy F13!! It's just my opinion, we all like what we like!

Characterizations? I say that slashers do not need 3D characters but I want to at least like the characters. In I Still Know I liked quite a few of them and wanted them to live. Friday the 13th's characters were stupid arseholes that I couldn't give a shite about. I never mentioned in my F13 review "these characters are not three-dimensional therefore I hate this movie." It's just I hated all of them and didn't care for any one of them, not one little bit. So yeah.

ISKWYLS's plot holes did piss me off and I notice them more and more every time I watch the movie. The characters make a couple of silly decisions, but not as many as the characters in F13. I do mind when any character in a slasher does something dumb, but I saw many of the moves in ISKWYDLS pretty clever, where as NONE of them were smart in F13. They were all dumb fucks. I suppose you have to ask yourself what would a slasher be without dumb characters? But as I mentioned before I hated all of F13's characters and their dumb actions just made me hate them even more.

Hope that clears it up. I've just got out of bed so I'm a bit drowzy...LOL.

What I can say about ISKWYDLS:
It sucked. One of the most unenjoyable movies. You loathed friday the 13th because of plot holes, weak characters, a sucky script, bad acting, and cliches. ISKWYDLS had all of those terrible qualities the orignal F13 had, times 100000000000. A terible movie., Urban legend: final cut, Scream three and Valentine were better than this piece of shit and that's saying something!

What I can say about Friday the 13th
Good acting. The characters were likeble (Ned, Brenda, Jack, Steve, Christy, Alice) some characters were over the top (Annie, Marci) but for the most part a satisfactory picture. No one knew that Friday the 13th would do so well, they thought it would be a one or two weekend slasher that kids would like, they didn't know that it would turn into a mega franchise with two movies in the making and the 10 on it's DVD release.

Botton line:
Jesus, ISKWYDLS wasn't even enjoyable on a cheesy basis. Like Bloody Birthday, Jason Takes Manhattan and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, I hated those films, but they were still somewhat enjoyable when your bored and looking for some cheesy films. IKWYDLS was extremely boring and stupid. But that's just me talking.

[gorysnoopy]

ya know,i find it hard to believe that no one has mentioned the fat white jamaican guy.just another bad point to this suckfest-i mean film.

[The Claw]

Originally posted by gorysnoopy
ya know,i find it hard to believe that no one has mentioned the fat white jamaican guy.just another bad point to this suckfest-i mean film.

the fat white jamaican guy rocks. best part of the film. the rest can blow me.

[Pumpkinhead]

****Warning - Spoilers Ahead****


I actually enjoyed IKWYDLS, but like many others, I did not like this one. The main thing that bothered me were the HUGE plot holes and stupid character moves. For example

So wait a second. Since that whole vacation thing was a hoax, Ben Willis and son paid for all four flights and accomodations?? Wow, they sure have money to burn. It just struck me as so illogical and ridiculous, I mean, why did they really need to get them onto that island? Ben Willis managed to slaughter a bunch of people in the first one without having to fly them off to a deserted island. Also, I saw that twist coming, anyway, since unlike Brandy and JLH, I actually knew the capital of Brazil.

But the stupidest, most ridiculous thing in the movie had to be when Julie found a dead body, went insane and told all her friends she had to leave, and then what did she do? Went into a sunbed. Ummm, yeah. Not to mention the turning down the heat thing, which was equally stupid.

The other thing that bothered me was that there was absolutely NO suspense whatsoever. I mean none. This movie wasn't even remotely scary. At least Kevin Williamson knows how to build suspense.

The characters also really annoyed me. I too consider Friday the 13th overrated, but I liked those characters a lot more than I liked the ones in ISKWYDLS. And Brandy didn't even die! I was praying for her to die the whole way through. If I was the writer, this is what would have happened.

Brandy is standing on the greenhouse. She looks down, and sees something inside. She realizes that it is the killer, and she knows that if the glass breaks, she is done for. Slowly, the glass begins to break. Brandy attempts to run, but the glass shatters, she falls, and her face is impaled on the killers waiting hook.

God I would have loved to see that!

So all in all, this movie sucked, and is not worth seeing for any reason. * (out of 4)

[!MorganOnyx!]

I agree with everybody on this. I personally love the movie because it is a typical slasher (and apart from the blatant SCREAM style surprise killer/killer speech rip off) it takes it back to the 80's. Just big dumb fun. But i think my weaknesses are:

I love JENNIFER LOVE - I don't watch movies for the fit women, especially horrors, but she is good to watch!
I love JENNIFER ESPOSITO - And probably because she's carving out a decent career (SUMMER OF SAM, DON'T SAY A WORD), it's fun to watch her in an embarrassing earlier role!
I love MEKHI PHIFER - Ever since CLOCKERS-he's just the bomb!

But yeah, I admit, it's a pretty woeful movie. A guilty pleasure big time!

[darkshifty]

*spoilers*


the only thing i truely hate this movie for *cause i kinda liked it and all* was the fact that brandy wouldn`t die damnit i mean what the hell she fell thru a ceiling she fell thru a damn glasshouse she got slashed at more then jlh did but she didn`t fuckin die what the fuck

[mjg 15]

Can someone please tell me what Brandy did to piss all you off? I'm not a fan of her singing but she has never done anything to annoy me. I could think of many other teen singers (Britney Spears anyone?) that are much more nerve wracking than Brandy was in I Still Know. So whats the deal? Everyone just keeps talking about how she should ahve dies violently or how much she sucked in this movie. I thought she did fine with the material nothing special mind you but she did ok. Explanation anyone?

[EVILxxx]

ill tell you this i love slasher movies i really do but even though i go into the movie expecting the cliches i hope that they break the cycle alittler bit...this does nothing of the sort. we get it all, the token goofball/dopehead, plus that goddamn frickin 2 minute long killer's monologue at the end that thoroughly explains everything AAUUUURGH why do they keep doing that?!?! furthermore we get the always faithful "our heroes stumble on to the room full of bodies bit" like i said i dont expect slashers nowadays to be original but im always wishing.

[Fisting Ackbar]

Originally posted by mjg 15
Can someone please tell me what Brandy did to piss all you off?

She didn't die.

[Toxferatu]

busta rhymes was at home on horror compaired to brandy. what in the flying fuck were they thinking putting her in a horror movie?


there were 2 things that kept me interested enough to finish this movie, jlh's left boob and jlh's right boob. ok, 3 things, her ass is damn sweet too.:D

[Downfall]

I thought Danny Cannon was the Director?