SPOILER WARNING: The following article may give away a few details from I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. Honestly, I don’t think this is the kind of horror movie that lives or dies by spoilers, but in case you prefer to go into everything with a fresh pair of eyes, proceed with caution if you continue to read on.
I am not really a fan of the original I Know What You Did Last Summer, like some other people, believing it is one of the more bland, uninspired, and nonsensical ‘90s-era slashers. Thus, I was not quite looking forward to the upcoming 2025 movie of the same name that continues the franchise, and I especially was not interested in watching the inaccurately titled I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.
However, after hearing surprisingly good things about the upcoming I Know What You Did Last Summer legacy sequel, I decided to give the widely panned 1998 follow-up about youths facing deadly consequences for a grave mistake (again) on a stormy Bahamian island a fair try, and you know what? I don’t know what I was waiting for, because this was a whole hell of a lot more fun than the first one to me. Here are my three reasons why.
The Acting Is Solid, Especially From Brandy
If you ask me, a key to enjoying any classic slasher movie, good or bad, is a cast of characters worth investing in, and I found myself legitimately rooting for (most of) the heroes in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, thanks to some decent performances. Notably, Jennifer Love Hewitt is strong here, reprising her role as Julie, who is still traumatized from being targeted by a man she and her friends thought they killed, named Ben Willis (Muse Watson), a year earlier. I think her one-in-a-million scream alone might even earn her a spot on the top horror movie Scream Queens list.
However, I think the real standout performance comes from R&B singer Brandy Norwood, who really surprised me with the energy she brings to her theatrical feature debut as Julie’s new friend, Karla Wilson, who could easily have been a forgettable throwaway character. The cast’s only weak link, in my opinion, is Matthew Settle as Julie’s classmate Will Benson, who is actually not who he says he is at first (more on that later), but is not even convincingly menacing when he makes his true identity known.
Seeing Jack Black In This Movie Is Surreal
Now, if we really want to talk about memorable standout performances in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, we have to talk about Jack Black. Indeed, if you did not know already, the future Golden Globe-nominated comedy icon and rock star has an uncredited role in this horror flick as an island resort employee named Titus.
Boasting a ridiculous head of dreadlocks, a colorful Hawaiian shirt, and the astonishing ability to continue smoking a joint after it was fully submerged in a jacuzzi, Black really gives it his all here to deliver on the comic relief. I’m actually convinced that I still might have found this performance amusing had I seen it before he hit the A-list. Then again, I don’t quite think Titus is even the funniest thing about the film.
This Is The Perfect Horror Movie Party Choice
Typically, I pride myself as a fan of truly great horror movies with strong, lasting tension, indelibly frightening imagery, and thought-provoking nuance. However, every once in a while, I like to indulge in a cheesy B-movie with hokey dialogue and plot twists that make absolutely no sense, that I can poke fun at with my friends over a few drinks. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer perfectly fits that criteria for me.
There are all kinds of reasons to justify this as a straight-up horror-comedy movie (the aforementioned Jack Black notwithstanding), from a karaoke machine that is somehow hacked to flash the movie’s title at Julie, to Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.) falling for the Fisherman’s elaborate trap involving a fake car accident set up on the exact street he happened to be traveling down, and the final jump scare that proves Ben Willis is somehow still not dead. However, the big one is the stupid twist reveal that Will Benson is “Ben’s son” (yeah, that’s actually what they went with) and has set up this entire vacation to help his father with yet another vengeful killing spree.
Sometimes, a person’s favorite installment of a franchise might not be the objectively “best” one, especially when it comes to horror. I never thought I would say this, but you can call I Still Know What You Did Last Summer my favorite installment of this series… for now.