I had low expectations when renting this movie. I am a huge fan of the first film, and of the book. The sequel "I Still Know..." was just okay and nothing life changing. I have learned the hard way - I didn't get my hopes up simply for the fact that whenever I get excited about a new horror movie (The Grudge, The Ring 2, and Audition come to mind) I end up disappointed, so sometimes it is better to not see the glass half full. Was I right to jump to this conclusion and go in half-hearted? Well yes and no. This review will contain spoilers.
The negatives first. If you have seen the first movie in the series, then you have practically seen this one too. The characters, the storyline, even some dialog- it's very familiar. (The most illogical difference is that instead of North Carolina, we are now in Colorado. Just how does that work?) This time around- its more up to date. Instead of leaving notes, this time The Fisherman leaves text messages. I found it odd how all of the messages came from a blocked ID- I didn't know you could block your number while texting someone. Oh well.
The death scenes, while violent and gory for the most part- are far too short. The best parts of horror movies are the chase/kill scenes- and they were all too rushed. Seeing as these people are almost carbon copies of the characters from the first film- I expected Zoe (who is a punk-rock version of Helen Shivers) to have a long chase scene. I was let down- as I was with all of the death scenes. They were all over before they even finished- and it didn't help that it was beyond see-through to know who had "Victim" stamped on their forehead.
The editing, while neat at times, quickly became annoying. Is this a music video or is this low budget horror? The quick cuts and fancy editing did nothing for me but get in the way. Also, I'm not sure if my DVD was messed up or not, but some of the shots looked blurry and fuzzy, but it was not that big of a deal.
Last but not least- the ending. The revelation of the Killer in these types of movies ranks right up there on top with death scenes. This was a let down. Though interesting to resurrect Ben Willis as some crazy zombie back for revenge -(it explains his supernatural ways and that text messaging problem I was having earlier)- it really doesn't make any sense. Just why would he come back for revenge halfway across the country after people who really have nothing to do with him? Sure, he wants to teach them a lesson- but give the guy some rest in his hellish afterlife- so every time something like this happens, he is going to come back and do it all over again? I mean, does he have to be like Jason Voorhees now? Argh. This means the ending of "I Still Know..." was a dream and Julie and Ray are alive, because Ben Willis "died" on Tower Bay Island. So then what was with that newspaper headline stating that 4 teenagers were killed in the Bahama's? Hmm?
Okay- some good things. Torrey DeVitto is the best thing the movie has to offer. While she may be lip syncing during her song, she still does a damn good job at it. She was very likable, and I was saddened to see her go. The rest of the cast- meh. They were okay and no one was particularly bad.
There were some decent scares- even though they lasted a few seconds and didn't hold up. And since I am such a fan of the first one, it was kinda nice to see it all done again with new people, even though they could never compare.
Bottom Line: If you have nothing better to do, go out and rent it. I wouldn't buy it personally. If you haven't seen the others titles in the series, I do not think you will have much of a problem following it. Just remember- it is a straight to video release, and those are rarely great.
5/10
The negatives first. If you have seen the first movie in the series, then you have practically seen this one too. The characters, the storyline, even some dialog- it's very familiar. (The most illogical difference is that instead of North Carolina, we are now in Colorado. Just how does that work?) This time around- its more up to date. Instead of leaving notes, this time The Fisherman leaves text messages. I found it odd how all of the messages came from a blocked ID- I didn't know you could block your number while texting someone. Oh well.
The death scenes, while violent and gory for the most part- are far too short. The best parts of horror movies are the chase/kill scenes- and they were all too rushed. Seeing as these people are almost carbon copies of the characters from the first film- I expected Zoe (who is a punk-rock version of Helen Shivers) to have a long chase scene. I was let down- as I was with all of the death scenes. They were all over before they even finished- and it didn't help that it was beyond see-through to know who had "Victim" stamped on their forehead.
The editing, while neat at times, quickly became annoying. Is this a music video or is this low budget horror? The quick cuts and fancy editing did nothing for me but get in the way. Also, I'm not sure if my DVD was messed up or not, but some of the shots looked blurry and fuzzy, but it was not that big of a deal.
Last but not least- the ending. The revelation of the Killer in these types of movies ranks right up there on top with death scenes. This was a let down. Though interesting to resurrect Ben Willis as some crazy zombie back for revenge -(it explains his supernatural ways and that text messaging problem I was having earlier)- it really doesn't make any sense. Just why would he come back for revenge halfway across the country after people who really have nothing to do with him? Sure, he wants to teach them a lesson- but give the guy some rest in his hellish afterlife- so every time something like this happens, he is going to come back and do it all over again? I mean, does he have to be like Jason Voorhees now? Argh. This means the ending of "I Still Know..." was a dream and Julie and Ray are alive, because Ben Willis "died" on Tower Bay Island. So then what was with that newspaper headline stating that 4 teenagers were killed in the Bahama's? Hmm?
Okay- some good things. Torrey DeVitto is the best thing the movie has to offer. While she may be lip syncing during her song, she still does a damn good job at it. She was very likable, and I was saddened to see her go. The rest of the cast- meh. They were okay and no one was particularly bad.
There were some decent scares- even though they lasted a few seconds and didn't hold up. And since I am such a fan of the first one, it was kinda nice to see it all done again with new people, even though they could never compare.
Bottom Line: If you have nothing better to do, go out and rent it. I wouldn't buy it personally. If you haven't seen the others titles in the series, I do not think you will have much of a problem following it. Just remember- it is a straight to video release, and those are rarely great.
5/10