Movie Review: I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)

Stars: 2 out of 5

Pros: Good acting, some nice moments for fans

Cons: Pretty much everything else

The Bottom Line:

Similar premise

Without good execution

Fans should skip requel

“Nostalgia is Overrated.”

While Scream will always be my first love in the horror/slasher genre, I did enjoy the original I Know What You Did Last Summer.  The sequel?  Not as much.  And the less said about the straight to video third film, the better.  So when a new movie was announced, I started paying attention, especially when both original stars Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. signed on.  I couldn’t wait to see it, so I went to a Thursday opening film.  I’ve got to say, I am disappointed by it.

We are once again returning to Southport where we meet five friends.  Danica and Teddy (Madelyn Cline and Tyriq Withers) are having an engagement party, which means their high school best friends Ava and Milo (Chase Sui Wonders and Jonah Hauer-King) are back in town. Oh, and Ava and Milo were high school sweethearts as well, who have gone their separate ways. As the party winds down, the four friends decide to go out to their spot to watch the 4^th of July fireworks, at the last minute inviting the fifth member of their high school group of friends, Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon).

This being Southport on the 4^th, the five friends wind up being involved in a fatal accident while out on the winding roads.  And they decide to cover it up.  (Really, people just shouldn’t drive in the area on the 4^th.)

A year later, everyone returns to Southport for Danica’s bridal shower.  But one of her presents is just a card with a note inside.  Yep, it says “I know what you did last summer.”  So, who knows their secret?

Yes, Jennifer’s Julie James and Freddie’s Ray Bronson are part of this movie, in more of a supporting role.  This really is focused on the group of five friends and the killer dressed up as the fisherman who is stalking them.  I’m okay with that.  Yes, I’m here for the nostalgia, but I don’t need it to be front and center.  It’s fine to focus on a new group of characters and watch them try to figure out how to survive this.

And the movie tries to play into the mystery of who is could be.  But if you go back and watch the original, it is such a well-done mystery with some good misdirects and well-placed clues.  Kevin Williamson, who wrote the original, is a master at layering a who done it into a slasher.  Here, the mystery isn’t as well done, overshadowed by the action.

My biggest complaint with the original sequel is that the killer goes after everyone but the people he wants to kill.  I get it in the original he’s taunting them, but in the sequel?  Really?  The only reason he behaves like he does is because of the need to have a higher body count.  But that’s a different review.  I bring it up only because here, the killer actually does have a good motive for the order the bodies drop, which I appreciated.

Of course, the original has that iconic chase scene.  This one is missing the good chase scenes.  We get some build up to some of the deaths, but they are usually over all too quickly.  There’s really only one decent chase scene, and it’s a rip off with a new elements that worked well.

Then there’s the third act.  Let’s just say, I didn’t appreciate it.  Especially since I didn’t feel the motives were successfully established to make me buy into what happened.  Maybe with better writing I’d feel differently about it.

The original has a low body count, and the Fisherman toys with the kids before he starts in on them.  While it does take a lot longer for the build up to the kills, it really helped us get to know the characters, so we can find ourselves rooting for them because they don’t deserve what is happened to them despite what they did.  This movie is so focused on the action, that it misses that key character development.  As a result, I actually found myself rooting for the killer more than I should.

Not that what happens here is on the same level as the accident in the original.  They still should have gone to the police, but it’s on a different level.

I’m not blaming the actors for this.  The entire cast is very good at bringing their characters to life, including the franchise veterans.

Keep in mind, this is a hard R rating, mainly for the language and violence.  But, if you are familiar with the franchise, that’s no surprise.  I did feel the kills are more brutal.

There are some very nice moments for fans of the first two films.  Like me, we are pretending that third film never happened.  I never watched the TV series, but I’m assuming that is sitting outside the continuity of these films as well.  Anyway, some of the nods to the earlier films are brief mentions that I appreciated.  Others felt overdone, mainly because they went on too long.

Another thing that bothered me was the age of the characters.  They are all supposed to be in their late twenties, almost ten years older than the main characters in the original.  The set up works for me with just graduated from high school teens.  It really doesn’t work for me with characters who are supposed to be in their twenties.  Especially since they are still acting like teenagers too much of the time.

The original had a great 4^th of July small town feel to it.  That was also missing here.

And we can’t leave out the modern messages of the film, which also hurt it for me.  To say more is to spoil things.  Of course, I might have felt differently if those themes and messages had been better developed.

Frankly, that felt like much of the issue with the film.  There was just too much going on, so things were rushed.  The opening accident.  The time to the note.  The first kill.  And it never really settled into a groove at all.  For being the longest film in the franchise to date, it seems like they could have found some time to slow things down and develop a character or to.  Or maybe truly explore a theme instead of just touching on something before moving on to the next bit.  Even in a slasher, we need time to breath.

The film is clearly hoping for a sequel, even setting it up in the final moments of this film.  I’m not sure I will be back.  If I do come back, I doubt it will be in the theater.  Anyway, if you do see this movie, you’ll want to stick around until at least part way through the credits.

I reserve the right to change my mind as I’ve had more time to sit with this new I Know What You Did Last Summer.  But my immediate gut reaction to this movie is that it should have been given the hook.  What happened last summer should have been forgotten.