‘Last Summer’ Ranked: Worst to Best
Photo from IMDB
From Jeremy Kibler
With director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s reboot/sequel I Know What You Did Last Summer in theaters this weekend, we thought we’d take a look at last summer, er, previous summers that involved fishermen into gutting hot people who struggled with a moral quandary. Without further ado, rest in peace, Helen Shivers, and here is the worst to the best:
5.) I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (2006) - This worthless direct-to-video 2006 follow-up doesn’t even deserve a place on this list and doesn’t even need to exist at all. Besides being set in Colorado and many, many other details, all of the same pieces are there as the 1997 film—Fourth of July, a secret among hot people, a hook-wielding killer—but this is a disgrace that was definitely rented at Blockbuster during my senior year of high school because, dammit, I’m a completist. It’s amateurishly acted, poorly directed, and edited like a spastic music video. We wouldn’t dare spoil, but, uh, the once-menacing Fisherman looks like a demon once uncloaked. It’s bad, but no fun at all.
4.) I Know What You Did Last Summer (2021) - What is this third I Know What You Did Last Summer on this list? It’s an Amazon Prime series from 2021, and it was pretty much in-name-only. Based on the Lois Duncan novel just like the 1997 film but equally having nothing to do with it, the series was set in Hawaii rather than Southport, North Carolina, and involved twin sisters and their group of friends hiding another body cover-up on a winding road, only to be knocked off a year later. Perhaps the fan in me was just mad that it was #notmyiknowwhatyoudidlastsummer, but while deliciously soapy at times and gory enough to whet an appetite, it underwhelmed.
3.) I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) - Perhaps my expectations were too high from the awesome marketing and trailers and general fan excitement, but this requel takes as many risks as it just basks in 1997, sometimes to ridiculous degrees. Did you know it’s just like 1997 all over again? Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. are sights for sore eyes and sell what they’re given as Julie and Ray, 28 years later, but the young cast is certainly watchable on its own, particularly a likably ditsy Madelyn Cline as the Helen Shivers stand-in. The Fisherman is nastier than ever, but their reveal is only halfway satisfying. That Marvel-style mid-credits scene, though? Count me in for a sequel. Full review here
2.) I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) - Since the 1997 original was such a hit, there needed to be a sequel rushed out a year later. The movie overall has that feeling of a cash-in, and while it is geographically stupid—knowing the capital of Brazil will ruin the big reveal—and generally stupid, this 1998 follow-up does have its charms. Brandy sells every inch of screen time she has as traumatized Julie James’s feisty bestie Karla, who should probably know better than to sneak around Julie’s college apartment without turning on a light just to borrow a top. It’s a rainy, screamy, Bahamas-set good time with plenty of gnarly kills, a fun chase, terrible character decisions, a perfectly weird Jeffrey Combs as the weird hotel manager, and a dreadlocked, cannabis-selling Jack Black who deservedly gets what’s coming to him!
1.) I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) - This may be a lesser follow-up to Scream since Kevin Williamson was the scribe behind both, but the original I Know What You Did Last Summer had a moment in 1997, and it still has its moment. Sure, the whodunit plot of it all isn’t overwhelming—it’s just whelming—however, everything else is ‘90s gravy. Whether it’s the spark between the four young hot actors on the rise, or one of the most re-watchable chase scenes involving Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Helen Shivers and the hook-wielding fisherman, or the grunge/alternative soundtrack and memorable score, or Jennifer Love Hewitt really showcasing those pipes, or Ryan Phillippe being every gay man’s crush, this Independence Day slasher is hard to beat. If you haven’t seen it, what are you waiting for, huh?
