The overwhelming success of Wes Craven’s meta-horror masterpiece Scream! was intended to resurrect the teen slasher, who was in complete slumber during the 1990s. With ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ coming just a year after ‘Scream’, it wasn’t just a prominent Ghostface freeloader – the horror film itself had the potential to become an absolute cult slasher.
Because ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ performed impressively at the box office, a sequel was released in 1998 with ‘I Still Know What You Did Last Summer’. It wasn’t a success at the box office, but its completely absurd twists make it almost more fun than the original.
Haven’t seen ‘I Still Know What You Did Last Summer’ yet? Then you can catch up on ZDFNeo today, February 28 at 11:15 PM. The horror slasher not only runs uncut, but also without commercial breaks. If you’d rather see the shocker in its original English version, you can get the Blu-ray or DVD from online retailers like Amazon:
That’s what ‘I Still Know What You Did Last Summer’ is about
What could be better than a trip to the Bahamas? College friends Julie (Jennifer Lowe Hewitt) and Karla (Brandy Norwood) could actually make this dream come true. But once you arrive in paradise, the horror begins. A young woman falls victim to a fisherman.
The fact that he bears an eerie resemblance to the killer who slaughtered some of Julie’s friends a year ago cannot be a coincidence. Didn’t the man with the hook die after all? Julie and the other people on the island barely have time to ponder this question, as the killer continues to kill – and a storm makes it impossible to escape to the mainland…
A really nice sequel
While “I Know What You Did Last Summer” could rely on the star power of the then very popular Ryan Phillippe, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr., Jim Gillespies (“D-Tox: In the Eye of Fear” ) cult horror as a rather standardized, routinely staged slasher that was still a bit afraid to descend into carefree nonsense.
Things are a little different in the sequel, which at least features Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. Director Danny Cannon (“Judge Dredd”) reveals a stealing joy in unraveling meaning and nonsense in terms of the comprehensibility of what is happening and declares, “I still remember what you did last summer” as a freewheeling horror twist. Nothing really wants to be taken seriously here anymore.
Moreover, the night shots of the Bahamas, which have been declared a nightmare landscape, are endearing and atmospheric and ensure that ‘I Still Know What You Did Last Summer’ far surpasses its predecessor in terms of staging. Jennifer Love Hewitt also does a great job as the passionate and assertive scream queen, reminiscent of “Halloween” legend Jamie Lee Curtis, and not just because of her physicality.