I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) Review

After the massive success of Scream, Kevin Williamson’s previously written script for I Know What You Did Last Summer was quickly greenlit and released in 1997 to huge success at the box office before developing a huge cult following over the following years among slasher fans. A rushed sequel was quickly fast tracked into production and released just over a year later in 1998 to poor reviews, essentially putting this franchise on ice until, I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, a direct to DVD (now retconned) unrelated sequel was released in 2006, and completely killed any goodwill this franchise had left. After a failed television series in 2021, I Know What You Did Last Summer would finally be getting the legacy sequel treatment, with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson at the helm.

This time around, the story follows Ava (Wonders), Danica (Cline), Milo (Hauer-King), Teddy (Withers), and Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon) who, after inadvertently causing a deadly car accident, cover up their involvement and make a pact to keep it a secret rather than face the consequences. A year later, their past comes back to haunt them, and forcing them to confront a horrifying truth that someone dressed in a fisherman slicker wielding a hook knows what they did last summer and is hell bent on revenge.

While the new I Know What You Did Last Summer doesn’t fully live up to expectations, slasher fans should still find a decent bit of enjoyment in this legacy sequel. It is abundantly clear that Robinson is a huge fan of the originals and slashers from this era, as she does a great job at recapturing that time period, updating the story for a modern audience. Her films are known for who well shot they are, and this film is no exception, as the cinematography is gorgeous and flashy throughout. Presenting a far more brutal fisherman killer, the kills don’t bring anything new to the table in terms of slashers but, that being said, they are definitely more violent and creative. Meanwhile, the film moves at a very quick pace, solid chase sequences and hardly giving audiences time to breathe.

One of the strengths of the original film was its cast, and this film is no different. This new cast assembled here is just as good, and create another strong dynamic. Though Wonders’ Ava makes for a great final girl, she is overshadowed by her fellow castmates. While Pidgeon is one of the film’s bigger standouts as Stevie, Hauer-King is extremely likeable as Milo, and Withers is definitely a scene stealer as Teddy, it is Cline who’s the biggest standout, stealing scenes as Danica. Danica could have been extremely unlikeable, but she imbues her with a humanity and charm, and her friendship with Ava makes the pair worth investing in even more. The film also sees Freddie Prinze Jr. makes his return as Ray, delivering arguably one of his best performances to dater. On the other hand, Jennifer Love Hewitt’s return as Julie definitely feels like a last minute addition as her role is not as substantial as some many may expect, but she certainly has not missed a beat.

Fast tracked to make a summer release date, this fact is immediately evident. Incredibly rushed plot beats leave a lot of characters shortchanged, while the script is a bit of a mess and is full of rough dialog and is borderline cringeworthy at times. The film also has an overreliance on unnecessary jump scares, and is driven by questionable character decisions. However, its two biggest issues are its overuse of callbacks to the original film, and its poorly-executed ending. Holding the original in such high regard, this film essentially offers up the same story, but with weaker reveals and revelations simply because it’s all been done before.

In the end, I Know What You Did Last Summer is a bit of a mixed bag whose pros outweigh its cons, delivering a film that undemanding slasher fans will have a decent enough time with. While it had potential to be so much better than it was, it is far from the worse legacy sequel and still gets a lot of things right. If the film were to perform well enough at the box office and becomes well received by audiences, hopefully Jennifer Kaytin Robinson gets another crack at the franchise and is given more time to properly flesh out the story and script, even if the sequel it sets up might not be what audiences want to see from a prospective immediate follow up.

still courtesy of Columbia Pictures

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/