By Dwight Brown
(**) They had it coming. The negligence and callousness they showed that night set them up for a karma payback. Evil sought them out.
That was the premise of the first I Know What You Did Last Summer, which dates back to 1997 and starred Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michael Gellar, Ryan Phillippe and Freddie Prince Jr. They were reckless teenagers covering up a car accident in which someone died. A slasher stalked and killed them in return. Several follow-up films later, the franchise gets a reboot with writer/director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge) at the helm. What’s on view seems vapid and stale, but scary too. It’s like watching Beverly Hills, 90210 with a killer on the loose, trickles of blood staining main street and everyone is frightened.
Attention-hungry Ted (Tyriq Withers, Atlanta) and self-involved Danica (Madelyn Cline, Glass Onion) are engaged. Their gaggle of friends reunite one night in Southport, North Carolina, for a bridal shower and then go for a ride. She drives, he’s in the passenger seat, and drunk. In the back seat are Milo (Jonah Hauer-King, Willliam Tell), his ex, Ava (Chase Sui Wonders) and a girl who was on the outs with the group but is now back in their good graces, Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon).
The car stops on a bend in the road, and the group gets out. Ted is horsing around in the middle of the lane, when out of nowhere a car swerves around him and goes off a cliff.
Responsible twentysomethings would stay at the scene of the accident until the police arrived. They don’t and their actions haunt them. One year later, a raincoat, rainhat wearing slasher, whose favorite weapon is a hook, stalks them. Bludgeoned, bloody bodies pile up. Those who walked away that fateful day are being gored. Danica wonders, “You think this is some kind of Kharma for what we did?” Read the room! You’re being hunted. The better questions? Whodunit? Who’s surviving?
The director, cinematographer (Elisha Christian), editor (Saira Hader, Creed II) and composer (Chanda Dancy, Blink Twice) combine forces to scare the f— out of audiences. You may know how this is going to go down, based on the film’s history. Yet, as the murders mount and friends are slaughtered, it’s traumatic to watch, regardless. Audiences who come with a pack of buddies or on a date night holding hands will jump when the sound effects dictate it and shield their eyes when someone’s body is being pierced like a trout on a hook. With a little more forethought and better writing, what’s on view might have felt like it was more than a film that belongs on the CW network. There was a great opportunity to create murder scenes that boggle the mind and few to none do that. Except the sequence with Danica in a filled tub with red bath salts upstairs while her beau downstairs is being turned into a pin cushion with arrows.
The way the characters are written and presented, they’re largely unsympathetic, oblivious and self-centered protagonists. People who don’t deserve to breathe another breath. Even the killer sees it that way. Adding a link to the past is a nice break from the predictable and uninvolving storyline. When some of the stalked seek advice from Julie (Hewitt) and Ray (Prince Jr.), who endured similar circumstances years ago, it’s a welcomed diversion.
Especially for those who are nostalgic. Surprisingly, Prince Jr, is the best actor in the bunch. His interpretation of Ray seems more rounded and crucial. He gives that survivor more depth than the rest of the cast gives their characters. Ray, “This isn’t the first time something like this has been done in Southport. It’s not going to stop!” Thanks, dude, for sounding the alarm.
As audiences try to figure out who knows this friend group well enough to track them down and knock them off, the film finds better footing. That kernel of intrigue is sustained, surprisingly so, until the final reveal when viewers find who’s behind it all. Proving horror mixed with mystery is more potent than either genre alone.
This particular chapter is not a credit or detriment to the franchise. Largely because the franchise was never that stellar. Just pop culture lore. So, bringing any of these characters forward in an upcoming movie becomes iffy, unless the box office dictates otherwise.
Serviceable horror. Nothing that memorable. Nothing that awful. Stay for the credits, the filmmakers are trying to milk this franchise down to its last drop.
In the end, some won’t care what they did last summer. Or autumn, winter or spring.
Visit Film Critic Dwight Brown at DwightBrownInk.com.
