Ticketworthy! - I Know What You Did Last Summer

Even when it was announced, I struggled to imagine who was clamoring for an I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel. The original from the 90's had plenty of fans, to be sure, and had no shortage of iconic moments, but was overshadowed by other, better slasher films of the era like Scream. The sequels, including the ill-fated TV show, failed to capture any of the thrills that the original may have had, and the franchise seemed dead in the water, rightfully so. Now, however, writer/director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson has apparently decided that the series deserves another chance. If the 2025 version of I Know What You Did Last Summer is any indication, she is very, very mistaken.

Mostly ignoring the other sequels, this film is a direct sequel to the original I Know What You Did Last Summer. In that movie, a group of teens accidentally kill a man on the road and decide to cover up their crime. A year later, they receive a threatening note and then get hunted down one-by-one as a deranged killer in a fisherman’s slick uses a hook to exact his bloody revenge. In the 2025 version...literally the exact same thing happens. The main cast is a little older, in their twenties instead of teens, but there’s basically no other difference between the films. There’s the same killer with the same M.O., the same disposable characters that have a few lines but are obviously there just to get killed, the same red herrings that are meant to throw you off the trail of the real killer, the same everything. Just worse.

There’s not even any real praise to give to the cast or the directing that can offset how pointless the whole thing is. Ava Brucks (Chase Sui Wonders) serves as our final girl this time around, and she’s fine. I don’t think any of the movie’s problems are Wonders’ fault, but there’s very little to this character for her to work with. The same can be said for pretty much everyone else as well. I can’t say the actors are bad, but there’s only so much you can do with characters this dull. The lone exception might be Ava’s best friend, Danica (Madelyn Cline). She’s the ditzy, airhead, prom queen stereotype character, but somehow winds up being the sole interesting person in the film. This includes the two survivors of the first film, Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ray (Freddi Prinze Jr.), who are here for nostalgia points but don’t do anything to help the movie.

As for the directing, it will probably get mixed reviews. I appreciated that Robinson kept the whole thing well lit and made the action easy to follow, but it is entirely too dependent on jump-scares for my taste. Repeatedly startling your audience is not the same thing as scaring them, and unfortunately that’s all I Know What You Did Last Summer seems interested in doing. It’s all shot well and decently atmospheric, but that doesn’t excuse cheap, lazy scares.

There may have been some merit to rebooting this franchise. Perhaps the idea could have been to take another swing at a movie that had potential but lost out to more popular films at the time. That’s not a terrible concept. Instead, though, Robinson and company put all their eggs in the nostalgia basket and hope that’s enough. It isn’t. 2025’s I Know What You Did Last Summer is the definition of a legacy sequel, but the legacy just isn’t good enough to carry it. This is a movie that will leave audiences anything but hooked.