I hold my hands up, never got round to watching the original trilogy. I was a Scream girl and while I adore Sarah Michelle Geller, there was only one slasher movie which I would gravitate to.
Fair warning, this review contains SPOILERS as the movie has been out a little while now. Read on only if you want to know more.
However, almost 30 years on we have the legacy sequel. It's not quite 30 years as I was born in 1998 and am only 27, so do the math, but regardless, when I heard that legacy characters were returning I felt excited even though they meant nothing to me. So I dragged poor Jamie along for this slasher late one night and we finally watched a version of I Know What You Did Last Summer.
This sequel revolves around a new set of young adults. Five 20-somethings come together for an engagement party when tragedy strikes. Due to the stupidity of one of the group a man crashes over the cliff and they leave him to die. Swearing secrecy, some against their will, the five vow to never speak of it again and attempt to go their separate ways.
A year later the group get back together for the bridal shower, the kicker is that the one who was engaged last time is getting married to someone else as the secret was too much for everyone to bare. The murderer strikes and kills the soon to be groom leaving him for the bride to find with a warning. A few days later another murder occurs and it comes to light that someone is repeating the 1997 murder spree so in steps Freddie Prinze Jr, Ray from the original movie, to draw the comparison. Of course by then we've already seen Jennifer Love Hewitt as Ava, the main Final Girl has gone to her for help.
We also get a lot of callbacks to Helen Shivers, Geller's character, and I was beyond thrilled when she showed up as an apparition to warn of Danica's oncoming death. This girl is gunna die in the sequel, SMG called it. Ryan Phillipe was only seen in an old photo and his grave though, so he was one legacy we were leaving in the past it seems. It must have been so fun for FPJ and SMG to work together again though. This is Hollywood's power couple.
Anyway, the group are now trying to find out who was close to the guy they murdered, Sam, which is even harder in this day and age of technology due to the massive cover up of what happened. They believe a Pastor is involved, only they arent believed and in the meantime Teddy and his dad are murdered, not to mention Milo although his death wasnt as brutal nor was he displayed in any way. Was kind of a mercy killing for that one. Either that or Hauer-King's involvement in Doctor Who screwed with it a bit.
The cops then believe the Pastor is involved but by then it is too late, he's been murdered. Next up you'd think it's the crazy looking woman who we saw with Stevie and is now acting weird in the church. No, she just went and disappeared. It is at this point a complete curve ball is thrown at us and it turns out Stevie is the killer. I'll admit, I did not see it coming at all. Didn't notice any clues leading to this outcome, and in truth I dont think seeing the previous movies would have actually have helped me come to this conclusion. I thought it was gunna be a supernatural version of the original killer, or Ray.
Well I was half right, Ray was the accomplice and to be fair this was an unexpected turn around from an original victim but I liked the route we took. Full circle for sure. But the reveal of Stevie just seemed so random. Ray made sense. But I suppose they needed a way to connect him to the group in order to justify the murders. Unfortunately, this part of the movie completely tore me out of the story and let me down. I just sat there thinking WTF, where did this come from? Wasn't impressed. I reckon it would have been better to keep Ray as the killer and just unhappy with the fact a murder was covered up which he could have heard from a drunk in the bar. That would have been justice.
Despite this, I liked the ending when another legacy character, Karla, was brought back. We're clearly getting another sequel and JLH is getting her gals together to end this once and for all. This aint no Sidney Prescott and Gale Weathers team up, but the vibes are the same. These gals are coming for blood and putting an end to this once and for all. No one is safe in the meantime.
Aside from my disappointment of the killer reveal, I thought this was a really good slasher. This was exactly my sort of movie and I was following intently along. There wasn't too much gore, there wasn't too many jump scares, it was a refreshing balance to the usual blood fests. There was proper story here aside from the chasing and murdering. Just a bunch of messed up kids who let something bad happen and are trying to live with that. It was good.
Because it was good, I'm giving it an 8/10. I loved the legacy characters returning and seeing their growth all these years on and I loved the relationship with the new gen. What I loved more was the fact it is clear the original Final Girl is still the main character even though she was only supporting in this one. She's gunna sort this. I'm here for that.
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