Movie Review: I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer

Stars: 2 out of 5

Pros: Attempts to tie into first two films

Cons: Nothing else really works

The Bottom Line:

More teens with secret

In predictable, boring

Final in series

A Yawn Inducing Slasher

I’ve always been curious to watch I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer.  Yes, the fact that it was released straight to DVD told me to keep my expectations low.  Plus, it involves a completely new group of teens with a 4th of July secret.  Even with low expectations, I was disappointed.

The action this time takes us to Colorado and a small town in the middle of a July 4th celebration.  We meet a group of friends, who are enjoying their evening at the fair when they start talking about the legend of the Fisherman who stalks his victims with a hook.  Next thing they know, a prank they are trying to pull goes horribly wrong, and one of their friends is dead.  Even though it was an accident, they decide to keep the truth about the prank a secret.

When next we see them, it’s a year later and the secret has torn the group apart.  However, they are going to have to come together when Amber (Brooke Nevin) receives a whole slew of texts from a hidden number.  The texts just have one line.  “I know what you did last summer.”  Who knows their secret?  Are they in danger?

Even though this doesn’t directly tie to the events of the previous movies, I was impressed with the way they acknowledged those events and characters.  It was more than I was expecting, and it’s nice to see them at least try to tie things together.  The title even makes a little sense if you think about what they do here.

Sadly, the fact that they have to start from scratch with a new group of teens doesn’t help the movie.  We know where things are going, and we have to wait for the characters to get there.  Yes, that was the case in the original as well, but that movie had more tension all the way through before the real blood bath began.  Here, it feels more like we are just hitting the familiar notes until the deaths can start.

And once they do, we are almost at the end.  Even then, we don’t have time for any suspense or good stalking scenes or creative deaths.  The editing makes it even worse as it is hard to follow the action.  I guess it saves on special effects that way.  Speaking of which, what we get are good.

The acting is passable as well.  The actors do what they can with the shallow characters they’ve been given, but there isn’t much they can do with the material.

Now, maybe my issues would have been helped if I had tracked down a DVD copy instead of finally catching it on TV, but I don’t think so.  Surely not that much could have been cut out, right?

While the original was never a masterpiece, it is certainly better than I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer.  There’s really no reason to watch this film.