I'LL ALWAYS KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER

During the 4th of July celebration, four friends stage a stupid prank that costs the life of an ex-high school friend. The blame is placed on a mysterious fisherman with a hook, a characteristic figure of a very famous urban legend. The four boys swear that for no reason would they ever reveal the truth of the incident to anyone. One year later, Amber, one of the responsible for the accident, receives text messages with the phrase "I know what you did last summer", so first she turns to her three friends, whom she hadn't seen in a long time. At first, it is thought to be a joke, but when a man wrapped in a fisherman's cloak and armed with a hook materializes and begins to kill the boys one by one, the horror begins! There is a deep sense of déjà-vu when watching "Deadly Legend", a déjà-vu mainly caused by the plot that only proposes a kind of sequel-remake of the 90s slasher "I Know What You Did Last Summer". In fact, hidden behind the clumsy title of "Deadly Legend" is "I'll always know what you did last summer", a kilometer-long title for the third chapter of the saga started in 1997 by Jim Gillespie. "I Know What You Did Last Summer" was a good slasher that contributed, along with "Scream", to revive the horror genre (and slasher in particular) from the abyss into which it had fallen in the early 90s; in 1998 a sequel already arrived, "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" (rebaptized by us as "Final Nightmare"), a smooth but unoriginal slasher that drew heavily on the classic "Friday the 13th" tradition. And here it is that eight years later, after countless delays, script rewrites, and renunciation by the actors of the first two films, the third episode also comes out directly for the home video market, presenting itself to the viewer's eye as a kind of remake of the first episode, varying the characters and setting. A totally useless operation! This is surely the most evident observation that can arise in the mind of someone who has just finished watching "Deadly Legend"; a film that perfectly replicates the prototype, only allowing itself a more purely horror twist in the last 10 minutes. The actors involved in the operation are almost entirely young unknown faces to the general public who do not shine either for talent or for any other particular reason. Completely inadequate is then the direction of Sylvain White, totally incapable of creating the slightest tension, necessary for a film of this genre: every appearance of the killer is punctually neglected by a wrong soundtrack (not even capable of using the easy expedient of the alternation of sound planes), by a very annoying music video-like editing, as well as an inability to choose the right shots on the part of the clumsy White. In short, a failed operation on all fronts! The viewer's attention is not then solicited even in the gore aspect, because "Deadly Legend", although it boasts a slightly higher presence of gore than the first film, is decidedly softer than the second episode and inexplicably against the current compared to today's bloody productions. A small point in favor can only be found in the last mentioned minutes that, in addition to surprising for the unexpected twist in the field of "pure horror", manages to connect with the two previous episodes, thus justifying its nature of sequel rather than remake.