November 15, 1998 -- The sequel to "I Know What You Did Last Summer," isn't nearly as good as the original, not that the original was all that great.

"I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" (actually, wasn't that two summers ago?) seems to use every cliché in the history of slasher movies. It is chock full of characters whose only purpose is to be killed by Captain Hook. They are the lucky ones. They get to make a quick exit from this tacky gorefest.

The film features Jennifer Love Hewitt as Julie James, Brandy Norwood as Karla Wilson, Mekhi Phifer as Tyrell Martin, Matthew Settle as Will Benson and Muse Watson as Benjamin Willis (Captain Hook, the murderous fisherman).

Most of the action in the film takes place at night, which cuts down on the cost of the special effects and stuntwork. It has the look of a low-budget film. The plot of the film is nonsensical and the dialogue is awkward. Some of the characters in the film are so irritating I found myself rooting for Captain Hook to finish them off quickly.

The story goes back two summers ago when some kids in a car accident hit Captain Hook. They think he is dead and throw his body into the ocean to get rid of the evidence of their crime. He turns up alive and gets revenge by killing those responsible. At the end of the first film, Captain Hook is killed, or so they believe.

Not only have these kids flunked basic biology, they also flunk geography, but win a contest to a tropical island where they are again stalked by Captain Hook in the second film. One by one they wander off into the dark alone so he can pick them off with the hook. Only a very slow idiot could get caught by this guy, but, of course, the story is loaded with slow idiots. There's nothing clever about it, just relentless, mindless butchery.

One of the horror conventions observed by the film is that the killer is always in the right place at the right time to catch people off guard, even when there is no way he should be able to know in advance where the people will be. Also people who should be dead in the film turn up alive for no good reason, including, of course, Captain Hook.

One could forgive the film's shortcomings if it was at least scary, or achieved some kind of creepy atmosphere, but it fails that test as well. While things jump out of the dark all the time, and I did hear one person scream in the sparse audience when I went to see the film, I did not find it scary or even all that creepy. This film rates a D.

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