I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025): Movie Review
This latest legacy sequel is unfortunately a painful affair
In the wake of successful horror revamps like Scream (2022) and Final Destination bloodlines (2025), it was inevitable that studios would start looking within their vaults for more beloved horror IPs that they can strip for parts, and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) happens to be next on the chopping block. While there is a certain irony to the new iteration of this franchise releasing only a few years after a Scream film, one could argue that a legacy sequel to a lesser-known slasher would be more fitting. Unfortunately, I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) does virtually nothing to set itself apart from the most shameless types of legacy sequels we’ve seen in recent years. Somehow, this new film manages to be utterly hollow as a slasher film and has a self-reverence that its some hugely iconic staple of pop culture that it becomes laughable. With Gen Z dialogue that’s more eye-roll worthy than humorous, and a try-hard nature to craft even an ounce of creative juice within a more self aware premise and nostalgia overload, it would almost be funny how much of a misfire this new film is if it wasn’t also a painful reminder of just how lazy legacy sequels can be.
2025’s I Know What You Did Last Summer virtually has the same set-up as the original film, where Ava Brucks (Chase Sui Wonders) returns to her hometown of SouthPort to link up with her friends Danica (Madelyn Cline), Teddy (Tyriq Withers), Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), and Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon). While having fun on the 4th of July, they accidentally run a car over a cliff and abandon the crime scene, with Teddy’s father, Grant Spencer (Billy Campbell), covering up their mishap. One year later, however, the friends are all back in SouthPort and are greeted with a written message of “I know what you did last summer,” with the Fisherman in a slicker on the hunt to kill them all for revenge.
Credit where credit is due, in some respects, to director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s horror revamp, she crafts some tense slasher sequences. It’s clear that, at least, there’s some sort of vision here in pairing the old with the new, which will appeal to super fans of the more niche 90s slasher. However, there’s not much for anyone else here. Through the film's entirety, there’s either pointless retreading of familiar beats that have already been seen within the franchise during the first two acts, or heavy nostalgia leaning that feels like unnecessary window dressing for cheap recognition at best, and utterly bizarre full-on dream sequences that interrupt the flow of the narrative at worst. Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr., as Julie James and Ray Bronson, respectively, both return in this installment to reprise their roles as a now divorced couple, but Hewitt’s role specifically ends up so minimal that it’s a wonder why it would make sense for her to be a part of the narrative besides the obvious.
Matters aren’t helped when the film delves into admittedly, interesting ideas for a slasher reboot (even if they’ve been seen before) like true crime podcasting and Gen Z implementation and lingo in a Slasher but the former is dropped as soon as its picked up and the ladder it insufferably cringey throughout its use here with not even a single bit of cleverness. It’s so clear that the writing here wants to be relevant to today’s younger audiences, but there are ways to do this that aren’t so shameless in desperation for relevance. Even the kills, aside from a cool moment with a spear gun and the occasional brutal puncture, are tame and typical for the genre’s standards. Wonders and Cline give the best and only memorable performances from the new cast, as most of the characters are somehow even less memorable than those in previous entries. Even the film’s biggest (and most respectable) swing in the silly third act will leave most asking more questions than answers, making the movie's weird in-between attempt to be “camp” while also clearly having an obsession with convincing us of the deep lore within these movies, laughable.
It all ultimately leads to a slasher reinvention that’s more empty than anything else. With a mess of thinly conceived ideas, degrading dialogue, and an abundance of aimless callbacks and nostalgia play, the new I Know What You Did Last Summer continues the franchise’s trend of being a pale imitation of better-executed slashers of recent years. A revival grasping at multiple straws to find relevance when said relevance couldn’t be more barren.