by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: $11.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Intro:
… a pretty average slasher movie.
The original 1997 I Know What You Did Last Summer was released the year after director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson had reinvigorated the slasher genre with the gory, funny, self-referential megahit, Scream. Despite Williamson cleverly lampooning some of the clunkier aspects of the slasher formula, he seemed to fall into many of the same tropes that he mocked with his script for Scream. Well shot by director Jim Gillespie, and boasting solid performances from such ‘90s luminaries as Sarah Michelle Geller, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt, the film was a by-the-numbers stabathon with few scares, little gore and zero nudity. Despite being a bit limp, the film raked in absurd piles of dosh and spawned the rather listless I Still Know What You Did Last Summer which was even less interesting, although it did feature a Rasta Jack Black, which was fitfully amusing. The series then languished until 2006 when the straight-to-video standalone sequel I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer dropped and thrilled very few (it currently has an impressive 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, FYI) and there was a one-and-done TV series in 2021 that it feels like everyone completely forgot in the interim.
In short, this series does not have a particularly impressive pedigree, so it’s fitting that its 2025 legacy sequel continues the proud tradition of being sporadically adequate.
I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) tells the tale of a group of kids who, while celebrating, cause a horrific car accident that leaves the driver dead. Fleeing the scene and using the corrupt rich daddy of affable beefcake, Teddy (Tyriq Withers), they get away with it. For a year, that is. But twelve months after that fateful night, Danica (Madelyn Cline), receives a note that says “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and then it’s time to party like it’s 1997. The bodies begin dropping and before you know it, these kids may need to enlist the help of elders Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.), who survived some very similar events back in the day.
I Know What You Did Last Summer isn’t a bad flick. The first half, in particular, is effective at introducing us to the new characters, showing us how the fishing town of Southport has been gentrified and bringing us up to speed on the legacy characters. The performances are solid enough, with Madelyn Cline bringing a lot of humour to a role that initially appears to be Homebrand Sydney Sweeney but eventually becomes much more interesting. The kills are a lot more imaginative and gorier than previous films and it’s nice to check in with Prinze Jr. and Love Hewitt, both of whom are looking well.
The problem is in the second half the film, which doesn’t know whether it wants to be a straightforward slasher flick like the original movies or a self-aware reference fest like the Scream films. Instead, it lands somewhere in the middle, which isn’t satisfying. Worse still, the killer reveal in the third act is a total whiff, being both obvious and fairly beef-witted, which makes the ending drag and a mid-credits sequence that seems to suggest more movies are on the way feels more like a threat than a promise.
If you straight up adored the original films, you’ll have cause to whoop and cheer in a few moments during I Know What You Did Last Summer. For everyone else, who either found the charm of these flicks elusive, or is too young to remember them, this legacy sequel will feel like an unearned nostalgia garnish spread thinly over a pretty average slasher movie.
