I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (R, 1998)

In the first film ( I Know What You Did Last Summer), killer Ben Willis was seemingly eliminated, but now surviving heroine Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) suffers repeated nightmares and shock-cut glimpses of the homicidal, raincoat-clad Ben lurking around. Mostly it turns out to be her fun-loving college roommate Karla (R&B diva Brandy) or her associates. When Julie and Karla hear they've won a free trip to the Bahamas they anticipate romance and good times on the beach. Instead, the characters arrive at a sparsely-populated, isolated island resort with their boyfriends. There's no way off, a storm brewing, surly staff, and threatening (West Indian) domestics with stereotypical voodoo aspects. Sure enough, murders start happening again, but nobody believes Julie's witnessing bloody corpses lying around until it's too late.

The original I Know What You Did Last Summer at least had a token moral message about four teenagers failing to take responsibility for a seeming hit-and-run fatality they caused, and the guilt that tears them apart -- plus a vengeful fisherman named Ben Willis, who did plenty of tearing apart on his own, typically with big hooks. This pointless sequel doesn't even have that slim reason to exist.

In keeping with Jennifer Love Hewitt's occasional forays into music, Julie has a big karaoke-singing scene, and there are giggles when the filmmakers try to make karaoke into something scary. Meanwhile co-star Brandy's character talks big about being tough and able to defend herself against any marauders in rain slickers, but when that actually happens she mostly screams and stumbles. A dumb ending opens the door to further sequels, perhaps the best argument yet for always reporting your traffic mishaps to the authorities.

Studio: Columbia Tristar
Director: Danny Cannon
Cast: Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt, Karla Wilson
Genre: Horror
Run time: 100 minutes
Theatrical release: November 13, 1998
DVD release: September 13, 2005
MPAA Rating: R
MPAA explanation: violence, profanity, drug use and sexual innuendo