I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (R, 2006)

The only connection to the earlier movies in the I KNOW WHAT YOU DID series is a news clipping and a persistent teen legend about a boogey-man-like figure in a fisherman's rain slicker who kills young people harboring terrible secrets. A bunch of Colorado high-school seniors use the legend to play-act a public attack by the rain-slicker man in a crowded carnival on July 4. Their pointless prank leads to one of their circle getting killed, and the remaining foursome vow to keep their participation a secret. One year later, one of them, Amber (Brooke Nevin), receives the familiar anonymous note in text-message form: "I know what you did last summer." She rounds up the others to determine who could be harassing them, and soon the figure in a fisherman costume is slashing away at them again, never mind that the primary location is a closed-for-the-season ski resort, miles from the water (but still inky-black with shadows most of the time).

The best laugh (and practically the only laugh) in this crummy sequel is the name of the production company: Original Films. The straight-to-video cash-in is pretty much a remake of the initial 1997 I Know What You Did Last Summer, with a dumb supernatural twist that succeeds at nothing but making you appreciate how good the first one was (and it wasn't even good to begin with).

While the first two movies had "whodunit" murder-mystery aspects with a feeble moral (always be honest about it if you've accidentally caused a death, or something like that), any attempt to deduce the marauder's identity here is ruined by the surprise at the climax that plunges the plot into strictly paranormal, ghost-story territory, where anything goes.

Studio: Sony Pictures
Director: Sylvain White
Cast: Brooke Nevin, David Paetkau, Torrey DeVitto
Genre: Horror
Run time: 91 minutes
Theatrical release: August 15, 2006
DVD release: August 15, 2006
MPAA Rating: R
MPAA explanation: horror violence