On Friday nights, IndieWire After Darkish honors fringe cinema within the streaming age with midnight motion pictures from any second in movie historical past.
First, the BAIT: a bizarre style choose and why we’re exploring its particular area of interest proper now. Then, the BITE: a spoiler-filled reply to the all-important query, “Is that this previous cult traditional really value recommending?”
The Bait: Hook. Line. Stinker. In a Enjoyable Manner!
Warning: The next incorporates spoilers for “I Know What You Did Final Summer time” (2025)
I genuinely need to know if anybody warned Jack Black in regards to the post-credits scene within the new “I Know What You Did Final Summer time.” He’s not in it, nevertheless it’s certain to attract consideration to a principally forgotten misfire from a lot earlier within the “Minecraft Film” actor’s profession.
Black was 29 years previous when he performed Titus Telesco, a white Bahamian pool boy with a weed behavior and dreads. Director Danny Cannon’s 1998 sequel “I Nonetheless Know What You Did Final Summer time” was critically panned, and even diehard horror followers overlook in regards to the slasher collection’ zany second chapter. It’s an growth on the unique story, set at a resort on a stormy island, that reunites closing woman Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) along with her love curiosity Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.) on display screen one 12 months after killer fisherman Ben Willis unleashed the Southport bloodbath.
Their undergrad happiness ends when college breaks for summer season. Julie and her greatest good friend Karla Wilson (Brandy) win tickets to the Bahamas on the radio, however Ray received’t come alongside as a result of he has a job again house. The viewers is aware of Freddie Prinze Charming will find yourself following Julie on trip to suggest marriage, however she’ll complicate issues by discovering a second suitor in her good-looking classmate, Will Benson (Matthew Settle).
Trapped inside a creepy resort by the climate, the twenty-somethings brew sufficient drama between them to gas a dramatic function. However when a brand new masked villain — as soon as once more donning a fisherman’s hook, harpoon, and raincoat — begins terrorizing friends and locals, a word arrives for Julie with the hilarious message, “I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER.” Translation? Somebody nonetheless needs revenge for the hit-and-run accident within the first movie.
The unique director Jim Gillespie stepped apart for Cannon on the sequel, and “Scream” genius Kevin Williamson handed his characters over to screenwriter Trey Callaway with blended outcomes. Nonetheless, the mediocre sequel has contemporary wind in its sails because of director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s sequel/reboot, which as soon as once more brings collectively Hewitt, Prinze, and a number of other different acquainted forged members in theaters.
“I used to be watching you on the information, and you’ll’t catch a rattling break,” says Karla, after answering a shock knock on her door close to the requel’s finish. Higher identified within the film world as Cinderella, Brandy made her style debut in Cannon’s slasher and she or he carries the hope of extra “I Know What You Did Final Summer time” sequels along with her cameo in 2025. (The R&B pop sensation has solely been in a single different style movie, final 12 months’s profoundly hate-able “The Entrance Room” for A24.)
“It isn’t over,” says Julie, holding up an image of the women from school.
Karla wastes no time fishing. She asks, “Who’re we fucking up this time?”
Nothing in “I Know What You Did Final Summer time” (2025) technically qualifies as revisionist historical past, however the occasions of the sooner sequel are saved out of focus till this reunion. The spirit of that post-credits scene doesn’t precisely line up with the film it references (Brandy will get sidelined within the 1998 sequel greater than I need to admit), however it’s best to watch it for your self.
Typically painfully awkward but in addition splendidly delusional, “I Nonetheless Know What You Did Final Summer time” opens with a scary dream in a Catholic confessional and goes sideways from there. Julie is wracked with guilt, however not even the ill-advised character Black performs ought to really feel dangerous about this principally innocent stinker of a film — an artifact that shouldn’t encourage nostalgia however… does?
Hinging in your information of Brazilian geography (I swear to God), this violent maritime puzzle combines a foolish whodunit with a shallow story that isn’t as satisfying as the primary movie. That stated, what it lacks in operate it makes up for with a string of baffling inventive selections which can be really one thing to behold. Black’s drug vendor character is the setting solar on that whacko horizon, doomed to die based mostly on… nicely, every little thing about him… however he’s on display screen simply lengthy sufficient to spoil a jacuzzi makeout for Karla and her boyfriend, Ty (Mekhi Phifer). You’ll be as irritated as they’re when Titus overstays his welcome, and his demise is sort of too dorky to take. However there’s simply one thing about him — floating in a pool, joint in his mouth, mysterious new fisherman lurking close by — that folks have a tendency to love.
Certain, Black is taking part in on dated archetypes in a film that regrettably additionally features a messy subplot about voodoo. (It’s high-quality. You may ignore it. I provide you with permission.) However whether or not Black obtained that warning in regards to the post-credits within the new requel or not, this explicit efficiency coming again to hang-out him actually screams, “I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER.”
“I Nonetheless Know What You Did Final Summer time” is now out there to hire or purchase on most platforms.
The Chunk: “No! Significantly! Don’t Do That!”
My crucial opinion on the wildly divisive “Halloween Kills” from 2021 has waxed and waned through the years. However I keep that too many people fail to catch the intricate little particulars that make the perfect reboots which can be particular to legacy sequels.
Nobody remembers “Halloween II” like they bear in mind the unique “Halloween,” and even much less might be stated for followers of “I Nonetheless Know What You Did Final Summer time” in comparison with Gillespie’s 1997 movie. It is smart that Easter eggs referencing follow-up motion pictures many individuals haven’t seen would fly over the informal viewer’s head. However rewatching the “I Know What You Did Final Summer time” sequel from 27 years in the past, after having simply seen the requel out this weekend, you acquire a stronger appreciation for the homage as your dedication to the franchise deepens.
In different phrases, you and Ray ought to’ve gotten your asses to the Bahamas way back. (Sure, I’m conscious that the movie was largely shot off the coast of Mexico. Nobody requested you.)
From slapstick model fake-outs to a Sarah Michelle Gellar cameo that might management tides, “I Know What You Did Final Summer time” (2025) units up the potential for a contemporary franchise that hasn’t been confirmed however is enjoyable to think about. The requel ignores the occasions of the far lesser second sequel — the direct-to-video “I’ll All the time Know What You Did Final Summer time” from 2006 — and treats the historical past of Southport as a duology.
There’s no approach you’d know that moving into, but when I’ve one remorse wanting again on my “B+” evaluate of the brand new launch, it’s that I didn’t suggest “I Nonetheless Know What You Did Final Summer time” strongly sufficient. There’s a lot to be stated in regards to the emotional perception it presents followers into the darkish romance of eventual divorcees, Julie and Ray. But it surely additionally attracts out the colourful goofiness that makes these motion pictures’ most devoted followers settle for the arrival of a ghost on a magnificence pageant float with a smile.
When Titus lastly meets his demise, he’s hitting a bong and the Fisherman pins his hand to the espresso desk with a hook. Because the assassin searches for an additional weapon, his sufferer squawks, “No! Significantly! Don’t try this!” Caught someplace between a stoner from the “Faculty of Rock” and Kung Fu Panda on a tropical bender, Black is hilarious and decidedly camp.
“I Nonetheless Know What You Did Final Summer time” isn’t superb, however the authentic isn’t both. Gillespie directed Williamson’s script (which was an intentional step away from horror comedy after “Scream”) as a melodrama. The property grew to become beloved exactly as a result of it lacked self-awareness in a approach that audiences might snigger about. “I Know What You Did Final Summer time” (2025) shares that humorousness too, and if the collection does proceed, I hope they discover a method to resurrect the spirit of Titus… even when Black shies away from a ghost cameo laced with THC.
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