I Still Know What You Did Last Summer

Over the past few weeks, I decided to take a little trip down memory lane in watching the horror films I loved as a teenager (re: the post-"Scream" renaissance). Since I've grown up just a little bit over the past few years, I realize there's only four really worthy successors to the entertaining originator even if they do generally pale in comparison. They are "Scream 2," "Urban Legend," "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Halloween H20." To a lesser extent, the third "Scream" was pretty good, as well. So, here I was watching "I Still Know..." and wondering why the heck I was so scared by it six years ago.

When I saw it in theaters, the stand-out sequence for me was when Jennifer Love Hewitt was trapped in the tanning bed. My heart was pounding and I was literally on the edge of my seat. How will she get out of this one?! WHEW! Good thing she screams like a banshee and Mekhi Pfeiffer & Co. showed up to save the day. But as I watch it again, only one thing enters my mind: why didn't the fisherman just lift the lid and impale Jennifer with his hook? Did he want this girl to suffer a slow, agonizing death in the vein of being roasted alive? If so, why would he leave after securing the bed? Wouldn't a guy who hates this girl so much stay to watch her wallow in pain and agony? Nah. I figure the fisherman wanted her to be rescued since he knew the male audience wanted to see more of Hewitt in a wet t-shirt and he didn't want to disappoint the producers.

Hewitt turns in a very decent performance, but the rest of the actors range from marginally talented to just plain terrible. The script seems like it was written in one day, the photography is dismally bad, the editing is overly-frantic and the direction is hack-level. But, it is entertaining. This is one of those movies where you couldn't care less who bites it next, so the kills don't exactly tug at your heart. You pretty much want most of these people to die. One character in particular annoyed the crap outta me. As much as I like Jack Black, I couldn't wait for him to die. And it's a good one. Very deserved.

I couldn't decide whether to give this film two or three stars, so I just rate it a 2.5. It's nothing special, and it won't scare you on those dark and stormy nights, but it is pretty entertaining in a dumb kind of way (like the first, which had just a little more class than this one). Recommended if you like this kind of stuff or want to see a close-up of Jennifer Love Hewitt's assets.