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.
