On Friday nights, IndieWire After Darkish honors fringe cinema within the streaming age with midnight films from any second in movie historical past.
First, the BAIT: a bizarre style decide 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 truly value recommending?”
The Bait: Hook. Line. Stinker. In a Enjoyable Method!
Warning: The next incorporates spoilers for “I Know What You Did Final Summer season” (2025)
I genuinely wish to know if anybody warned Jack Black in regards to the post-credits scene within the new “I Know What You Did Final Summer season.” 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 season” was critically panned, and even diehard horror followers neglect in regards to the slasher sequence’ zany second chapter. It’s an growth on the unique story, set at a resort on a stormy island, that reunites last woman Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) along with her love curiosity Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.) on display screen one yr after killer fisherman Ben Willis unleashed the Southport bloodbath.
Their undergrad happiness ends when faculty breaks for summer season. Julie and her greatest pal Karla Wilson (Brandy) win tickets to the Bahamas on the radio, however Ray gained’t come alongside as a result of he has a job again dwelling. 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 characteristic. 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 be aware 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 combined 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 several other different acquainted forged members in theaters.
A scene from ‘I Know What You Did Final Summer season’ (2025)
“I used to be watching you on the information, and you may’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 season” sequels along with her cameo in 2025. (The R&B pop sensation has solely been in a single different style movie, final yr’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 season” (2025) technically qualifies as revisionist historical past, however the occasions of the sooner sequel are stored 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 wish to admit), however you must watch it for your self.
Typically painfully awkward but additionally splendidly delusional, “I Nonetheless Know What You Did Final Summer season” 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 unhealthy about this principally innocent stinker of a film — an artifact that shouldn’t encourage nostalgia however… does?
Hinging in your data 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 mentioned, what it lacks in perform it makes up for with a string of baffling inventive choices which might be really one thing to behold. Black’s drug supplier 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 aggravated 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 enjoying on dated archetypes in a film that regrettably additionally features a messy subplot about voodoo. (It’s high-quality. You’ll be able to 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 season” is now accessible to hire or purchase on most platforms.
The Chunk: “No! Severely! Don’t Do That!”
My vital opinion on the wildly divisive “Halloween Kills” from 2021 has waxed and waned through the years. However I preserve that too many people fail to catch the intricate little particulars that make the most effective reboots which might be particular to legacy sequels.
Nobody remembers “Halloween II” like they keep in mind the unique “Halloween,” and even much less will be mentioned for followers of “I Nonetheless Know What You Did Final Summer season” in comparison with Gillespie’s 1997 movie. It is sensible that Easter eggs referencing follow-up films many individuals haven’t seen would fly over the informal viewer’s head. However rewatching the “I Know What You Did Final Summer season” sequel from 27 years in the past, after having simply seen the requel out this weekend, you achieve 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 season” (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 At all times Know What You Did Final Summer season” from 2006 — and treats the historical past of Southport as a duology.
There’s no means you’d know that moving into, but when I’ve one remorse trying again on my “B+” overview of the brand new launch, it’s that I didn’t advocate “I Nonetheless Know What You Did Final Summer season” strongly sufficient. There’s lots to be mentioned in regards to the emotional incite 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 films’ most devoted followers settle for the arrival of a ghost on a magnificence pageant float with a smile that claims, “You’re killing it ghoul.”
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! Severely! Don’t do 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 season” 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 means that audiences may snicker about. “I Know What You Did Final Summer season” (2025) shares that humorousness too, and if the sequence does proceed, I hope they discover a approach to resurrect the spirit of Titus… even when Black shies away from a ghost cameo.
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