Sony Pictures | 1998 | 101 mins | Rated R
Any way you slice it, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is a bad film. It’s so bad it’s not even cheesy; the whole thing should have been left on the cutting room floor. A sequel to the moderately inventive I Know What You Did Last Summer, the first film had the benefit of talented scribe Kevin Williamson, who brought us Scream and television’s Dawson’s Creek. For the sequel, Trey Callaway took over screenwriting duties and sucked the franchise dry of any finesse, suspense or originality. What viewers are left with is a mundane story that plays out like a bad rehash of the original story.
It’s been a year since Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) was attacked by fisherman Ben Willis. Though she has moved on with her life by attending a Boston area university, Julie has been unable to shake the terrible events and can’t get over the nagging feeling that someone is watching her. In addition to dealing with her fears, Julie finds herself caught between two young men vying for her affections: local Will (Matthew Settle) and Ray (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), a fellow survivor who still lives and works in the same town that served as the setting for the previous summer’s nightmare. She finds some relief from it all, when her friend Karla (Brandy Norwood) wins an all expenses paid trip to the Bahamas. So, she, Karla, Will and Karla’s boyfriend, Tyrell (Mekhi Phifer) head off for some fun in the sun.
Predictably, not long after they arrive the friends discover its hurricane season and the hotel staff has been forced to scale back to a skeleton crew. It’s not long after this that Ben Willis, or perhaps a copycat, starts offing the hotel staff as well as Julie’s traveling companions. Sensing Julie is in trouble, Ray tries to make his way to the Bahamas.
Jennifer Love Hewitt does the best she can with the flimsy material and there’s no denying she provides nice eye candy. As Julie, she is clad in bikinis and tube tops for most of the film. The biggest problem lies with Trey Callaway’s terrible script. Almost every scene is full of errors in logic, bad characters and a meandering plot. In one of the best examples of complete idiocy, Julie is locked in a tanning bed with just a zip tie. Now a zip tie isn’t exactly a metal chain but you’d never know it, by the way our heroes scramble around looking for something to free her. Apparently, there are no sharp objects around to speak of.
I will say that I Still Know What You Did Last Summer does attempt to create a world that’s a logical extension of the first film. Julie is still struggling with the events that played out in the first movie, so her fear and paranoia are completely understandable. Unfortunately, the first act is nothing but scene after scene of Julie dealing with the same thing. That kind of repetition in a film is never a good thing. Generally speaking, the plot is so thin, any sympathy the audience might have had toward Julie and her plight is washed away in a sea of meaningless clichés.
I Still Know What You Did Last Summer Comes to Blu-ray with a 1080p, 2.40:1-framed transfer. Featuring average detail and depth, many scenes look all right but never jump off the screen. Colors cover the entire spectrum, occasionally looking solid and natural, while in other scenes they look dim or over-exaggerated, for instance the greens that define foliage in one of the last Bahamas shots in the film. This transfer of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer features practically no visible grain at normal viewing distances. Faces tend to look a bit smooth and unnatural, and skin tones also take on a red tint. Blacks are often accompanied by an unnatural brightness. Though not a terrible transfer, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer appears bland, flat, and lifeless from start to finish.
I Still Know What You Did Last Summer comes to Blu-ray with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The film’s opening dream sequence, which takes place inside the cavernous sanctuary of a church, creates a fairly realistic atmosphere, as sounds seem to reverberate slightly throughout the soundstage. Atmosphere generally impresses throughout; dialogue always plays crisply and efficiently through the center. Other effects-heavy moments in the film, the downpour that plays though much of the final act, creates a seamless environment, where the heavy drops seem to land throughout the entire soundstage, leaving the listener all but wet from the experience. Otherwise, this is a rather basic but effective horror soundtrack. A generic but respectable track, this one serves I Still Know What You Did Last Summer well enough.
I Still Know What You Did Last Summer offers only a smattering of extras:
• Making of Featurette (480p, 5:40) is total EPK stuff, that features primary cast and crew recounting the plot intercut with plenty of scenes from the film. The piece also offers a glimpse into the production.
• Music Video “How Do I Deal” (480p, 3:30) performed by Jennifer Love Hewitt.
• Theatrical Trailer (480p, 2:06)
• BD-Live (Blu-ray profile 2.0) functionality.
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