Souviens-toi... l'été dernier 3

So here it is. Finally. "I'll Always Know What You DiD Last Summer". A lot of people were eager to see this movie, BUT: It's not an "I Know..."-film.

Okay, it's got the fisherman. And that's it. it is in absolutely no context to the first two parts, except for the fisherman and the title. Well, actually, just the title.

I'm wondering if this is what was going on in the production-office: Producer 1: "Hey, how do we get people to watch our movie?" Producer 2: "I've got an idea. People liked the 'I Know What You Did Last Summer'-Movies. Let's make a third." Producer 1: "Hey, good idea. But we won't get Jennifer Love-Hewitt or Freddy Prince Jr. or anyone else from the first two parts." Producer 2: "Doesn't matter. We'll just take the title and let the fisherman kill some other kids, who are not from South Port and who didn't throw Ben Willis into the ocean." Producer 1: "But why would he do that?" Producer 2: "Doesn't matter, they'll have to watch the movie before they can realize that it's crap!" Producer 1: "Cool!"

On July 4th, in the small Broken Ridge, Colorado, the teenagers Colby (David Paetkau), his girlfriend Amber (Brooke Nevin) and their friends Zoe (Torrey DeVitto), Roger (Seth Packard) and PJ (Clay Taylor) play a prank with the legend of the Fisherman that kills teenagers with dirty little secrets with his hook in an entertaining park. However, when PJ jumps with his skateboard, there is an unexpected accident and PJ dies. The group stays together and makes a covenant to keep their secret. One year later, Amber receives messages in her cell-phone telling that "I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer" and she gathers her friends to find who might have told about their prank. They find that PJ's cousin Lance (Ben Easter) also knows what they did. Sooner they find that a dark man wearing slicker is chasing them with a hook to kill each one of them.

"I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer" is an unoriginal collection of clichés. The forgettable story is very weak and a rip-off of the two other movies, only worse. The deaths are not original; the acting is average; the situations are predictable in accordance with the worse clichés of the genre and the conclusion is awful. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Eu Sempre Vou Saber o Que Vocês Fizeram no Verão Passado" ("I Will Always Know What You Did Last Summer")

This third installment was a huge drop in quality. The story felt like a recycled version of the original but without any of the charm, tension, or decent characters. The acting was weak, the script was full of clichés, and the twist at the end was just ridiculous. It tried to keep the franchise alive but ended up feeling like a low-budget fan film. There was no connection to the original characters, which made it feel completely disconnected. Even the killer's presence wasn't scary-just predictable and dull. The atmosphere lacked suspense, and most of the scenes were just plain boring. I give it a 3/10. It didn't need to exist.

I don't write reviews often, but I feel particularly strongly about this movie.

I watched all three of the movies in this semi-trilogy back to back today. The first one was okay, as was the second (which I actually preferred to the first). But I'll Always Know is quite obviously the worst of the three, and I'm basing this purely on the merits of this film. I don't really care that the cast isn't the same, and I wasn't even particularly concerned about the obvious plot difficulties surrounding the catalyst death.

This is a direct-to-video movie, but even keeping that in mind, I can't give this movie better than a 3. The first half to 3/4 of the movie isn't terrible--it's about the level of quality you'd expect (low, but watchable). However, the last part of the movie just disintegrates and really makes it obvious that you made a mistake in ever wasting your time with it. I won't give anything away, but a lot of the movie is spent trying to figure out who this film's Fisherman is. Based on what you know about the three films, try to imagine the absolute WORST idea for the identity of the Fisherman. If you decide to watch this movie, that's the ending you're going to get. I guarantee it. If your idea even halfway seems like it would be decent, you haven't come up with the worst idea yet.

I strongly recommend turning off the film right before the big reveal.

You've been warned.

Having just seen a press advance of this movie, I thought I'd post my first impressions.

I'll confess to being caught up in the teen slasher craze of the late nineties - movies like Scream and Urban Legend really floated my boat back then, and to a lesser extent, still do. I Know what You Did Last Summer and its over-criticised sequel certainly slotted into this category nicely.

A sequel more or less in name only, the plot sees a group of teenage friends deciding to keep the death of their friend in a backfired prank a secret... one year later, in the days leading up to the tragedy's anniversary, the four receive ominous 'I Know...' messages before being picked off one by one by a hooded character in the 'Fisherman' outfit from the first two movies. Who could possibly know what they did? Is it someone out for revenge? Or is the original fisherman back to wreak more havoc?

From the box art (and the seven year delay) it was clear that this was never going to have the same high production values or quality acting as those late nineties slashers, but I didn't quite expect as far a drop as this. White's direction, while lacking any genuine drawn-out suspense, is at least edgy and 'hip'; sadly, acting from all but the pretty lead Brooke is decidedly wooden. Four or five minutes into the movie, you can see why Sony decided to bypass a cinema release in favour of a straight-to-video one.

That said, if taken as a low budget teen slasher in the vein of 'The Pool' and 'Lover's Lane', it actually works quite well. The true identity of the fisherman is well hidden, with various red herrings keeping the audience guessing. The special effects appear to have consumed a large chunk of the budget, too - one gutting, akin to the 'hook in the throat' from the first 'I Know...' movie, is particularly gruesome.

Ultimately, I felt let down by the ending - but I would imagine everyone's opinion would really depend on their reaction to the killer's identity. As a sequel to what I consider two of the most enjoyable slashers of the late nineties, 'I'll Always Know...' fails miserably. Taken as a standalone low budget slasher, there's more of a hook. 2.5 / 5.