‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ Movie Review: Slasher Requel Makes You Wait For A Mixed Bag

Photo from Sony Pictures

From Jeremy Kibler

History repeats itself, especially when it’s a successful ‘90s slasher movie written by Kevin Williamson. We will always have 1997’s I Know What You Did Last Summer, Williamson’s follow-up to the culture-shifting deconstruction that was Scream.

While that film really is a product of its era, it also deservedly has its fans (hi!) as suspenseful, attractively cast slasher goodness that flirted with self-awareness but really just played into the conventions of the horror sub-genre. Some of us might even still have a soft spot for the inferior but still-fun Bahamas-set 1998 sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. (We can forget the superfluous and horrendous 2006 direct-to-video follow-up and the in-name-only 2021 Amazon series that has even less to do with Lois Duncan’s 1973 novel of the same name.) 

What we have 27 years later is a watchable but repeatedly clunky requel with the same moniker (yes, a reboot/sequel hybrid combining a new cast with survivors of the original). Obviously influenced by 2022’s Scream, this I Know What You Did Last Summer not only stands in the shadow of that other requel but also its own predecessor, albeit with a few welcome updates (and a heftier body count). 

It’s the Fourth of July, also the day of the engagement party between Croaker Queen diva Danica (Madelyn Cline) and trust-fund bro Teddy (Tyriq Withers) in the fishing town of Southport, North Carolina. Joining them is Danica’s best friend Ava (Chase Sui Wonders) and Teddy’s best friend Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), who share romantic feelings for each other. To catch some fireworks at the best spot in town, the group gets in Teddy’s G-wagon after inviting former friend Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon) for old time’s sake. Of course, standing in the middle of that curvy mountain road results in a truck (with the driver still inside) going off the cliff. The friends make a pact to never tell anyone about the accident, and Teddy’s real-estate development father (Billy Campbell) makes sure their presence at the scene gets covered up.

Sure enough, one year later, Danica receives a card at the bridal shower (of her second engagement): somebody knows what she did last summer! Then, another fisherman in a slicker (and wearing some awfully heavy boots this time) has a sharp hook for them all. Luckily, college professor Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Southport bar owner Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.) have tenure in surviving vengeful fishermen. Do they have a Ben Willis copycat on their hands?

In theory and sometimes in execution, the new I Know What You Did Last Summer has the right idea, paving the way for a fresh variation on a familiar morality tale. Director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (the enjoyably cutthroat high school comedy Do Revenge), who co-wrote the script with Sam Lansky, is definitely a fan herself, and occasionally to a fault, the film gets a little too high on its own supply when serving the fans.

As early as the opening establishing shot of the coast, director Robinson does play with expectations, even in stalking scenes where we expect The Fisherman to turn up. There’s some appreciably self-aware dialogue, like one of the friends calling their little mystery investigation “Scooby-Doo bullshit,” a reference to Nicole Kidman’s AMC Theaters ad, and Ray having some thoughts on the Bahamas. Other creative decisions clang on screen. For instance, a dream sequence does not work, except maybe as pure nostalgia and camp; it’s fun as its own entity, like a fan-fiction short, but has no business being here. There’s also a heavy reliance on flash frames in case we don’t remember this film’s “Reaper Curve” accident.

Not without exceptions, the suspense set-pieces peter out just as they get going, as if the rhythms are off in building tension. The first murder set-piece is a dread-inducing doozy, cleverly intercut between the intense attack itself and the victim’s oblivious fiancée relaxing in the bathtub (a blood-red bath bomb a great touch). Another highlight is a thrillingly paced sequence in the former Shivers family department store, now a restaurant, and it’s just meta enough. And, while nothing ever comes close to matching the expertly staged Helen Shivers chase sequence that almost ended in her safety, Danica gets one in a cemetery, and it’s fine. (What a morbidly amusing detail that the Croaker Queen parade float gets stored in the cemetery warehouse.) For what it’s worth, the Fisherman is much more brutal this time, adding a spear gun to their arsenal of implements and displaying bodies on a dock like shark trophies from Jaws.

Positioned as the Julie James of this new group of twentysomethings, Chase Sui Wonders (Bodies Bodies Bodies) is solid as the morally just Ava. Sarah Pidgeon (Amazon’s The Wilds) has a compelling presence as the once-troubled Stevie, making you want to know more. Madelyn Cline (Netflix’s Outer Banks) is the easy standout, showcasing a star-worthy warmth and charisma, as well as sly comic timing, as the materialistic and ditsy but oddly likable Danica. It’s Danica’s still-salvable relationship with Ava that rings the truest when both characters have downtime; though it’s not as emotionally well-drawn and felt as the friendship between Julie and Helen in the original film, Wonders and Cline are so earnest that it’s easy to root for them.

Nasty Cherry lead singer Gabbriette Bechtel, as true-crime podcaster Tyler visiting Southport for her latest episode, also makes an impression with deadpan delivery. Piercing-eyed newcomer Tyriq Withers brings swagger and several cocky one-liners to Teddy, similar to Ryan Phillippe’s Barry, while the weakest link is Jonah Hauer-King (The Little Mermaid), no fault of the actor but of the writing for the pretty blank Milo.

Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. are definitely game for their return and bring some inner life to Julie James and Ray Bronson, who are now very much divorced. It is a fan’s thrill to hear Julie say the line (you know it), and Hewitt really sells it, but at the same time, Julie and Ray’s involvement feels extraneous and almost too contrived.

Thankfully, the whodunit reveal follows more of a true whodunit—hint: it’s someone we actually meet—and takes a chance. It’s so crazy and game-changing it almost works, until it soon feels like a dopey, largely unearned slap in the face. Upon further scrutiny, not every private conversation in earlier scenes makes sense once we know the killer’s identity, and that feels like a cheat, too. Luckily, what comes later in a Marvel-style mid-credits scene is endearing and cheer-worthy for the most dedicated fans. 

On its own terms, 2025’s I Know What You Did Last Summer is a slick, bloody slasher movie with pretty faces getting sliced into fish food. When the legacy stuff comes in, it’s exciting at first, but certain choices stick in one’s craw, making one want to just revisit the past instead. Is this what we were all waiting for?

Rating: 2.5/5

I Know What You Did Last Summer hits theaters on July 18, 2025.

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