I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER

• Starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Brandy
• Directed by Danny Cannon
• Rated R with violence, profanity; running time 96 minutes
• With 10 as a must-see, we give this film a 1

By Eleanor O'Sullivan
Gannett News Service

(Nov. 13, 1998) -- Whatever unkind things critics say about slasher schlock like I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is for naught with its target audience.

For some reason only a therapist could untangle, adolescents adore watching their contemporaries stabbed and eviscerated at the movies. About 10 dewy young throats are ripped apart by a guy in a southwester wielding a grotesque hook in this sequel to last year's $125 million I Know What You Did Last Summer.

At a screening of the sequel, youthful audience members screamed their dewy young throats out in glee with each slash and rip. The film's ludicrous postscript, which promises a second sequel, was cheered by the devout. But at least one woman, hopelessly out of touch, moaned at the contrived ending: "Oh, that's so phony; he couldn't come back!"

For those with little patience for gory death hyped by absurdly obvious musical cues and stupid plot devices, here's what you'll miss.

Jennifer Love Hewitt returns as college coed Julie, haunted by her part in the cover up of a death the year before. Pop music diva Brandy joins the mayhem as Julie's best friend Karla.

In the first of many improbable scenes, Karla somehow gets into Julie's triple-locked apartment, and without noticing Julie or that electric lights exist, rummages through Julie's closet for a dress. Julie, thinking a murderous prowler is afoot, swings a large knife and nearly kills Karla. Ha! the audience chortles.

The best friends win a trip to the Bahamas and take along annoying Tyrell (Mekhi Phifer) and wimpy Will Benson (Matthew Settle). The guy with the hook arrives and bodies begin to pile up. Rather than face the guy squarely there are four of them and one of him the foursome runs around in circles. For college-educated kids, they're rather dim. Then again, they think it's thrilling to visit the Bahamas at its very lowest season, July Fourth.

Freddie Prinze Jr., playing Julie's badly beaten-up boyfriend, steals a power boat to rescue the kids. Beyond its fundamental flaws, the screenplay has this miscue: wimpy Will laughs as annoying Tyrell vomits over the side of the powerboat. "He just can't sail," says Will, when there's not a jib or mainsail in sight. Tsk, tsk.

Surely the psychoanalytic community has something to say about the allure of youth watching youth acting irrationally and helpless when faced with certain death. Is there a communal death wish out there? Or is I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, which grows more vicious and bloody as it nears its completion, a release for kids with real problems? Such problems.