I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) Columbia/Horror-Thriller RT: 111 minutes Rated R (bloody horror violence, language throughout, some sexual content, brief drug use) Director: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson Screenplay: Sam Lansky and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson Music: Chanda Dancy Cinematography: Elisha Christian Release date: July 18, 2025 (US) Cast: Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Billy Campbell, Gabbriette Bechtel, Austin Nichols, Joshua Orpin.
Rating: ** ½
The most surprising thing about I Know What You Did Last Summer, both a sequel to and reboot of the 1997 teen horror-thriller, is that it doesn’t suck. The rest of it is completely predictable, but that’s entirely subjective. I’ve seen enough of these movies to know how to read the clues. I usually know what’s coming. The same cannot be said of the target audience for this movie. Teens, especially those seeing their first R-rated horror movie, will likely experience a few thrills and shocks. More power to them.
Directed and co-written by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, creator of the MTV show Sweet/Vicious, I Know What You Did Last Summer tells the same basic story, but with some changes. The biggest would have to be the catalyst for the latest killing spree in the coastal North Carolina town of Southport. In the original, the main characters tried to cover up a drunken hit-and-run by murdering the victim. In the new version, they fail to save the driver after inadvertently causing him to swerve and crash through a guardrail. His vehicle falls into the water below before they can get him out. They could tell the police what happened, but instead they make a vow to never speak of it again. Because it worked out so well for their predecessors.
The doomed characters aren’t teens this time; they’re twenty-somethings. The main character, and the only one with anything resembling a moral compass, is Ava (Wonders, Bodies Bodies Bodies). She’s back in town to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of her friends Danica (Cline, Outer Backs) and Teddy (Withers, The Game). Her ex Milo (King, The Little Mermaid) is also in attendance. It’s July 4 and the four decide to go watch the town’s fireworks display. They invite their former friend Stevie (Pidgeon, The Wilds) to come along for old time’s sake. They stop on the road along the way and a drunken Teddy stands in the middle of the road acting like a horse’s ass. That’s when the accident happens.
Oh, there’s an additional element to the crime. Teddy’s father Grant (Campbell, The Rocketeer), a wealthy real estate developer trying to turn Southport into a playground for the rich, uses his power to cover up what happened. It’s made to look like a DUI by the local police. Yeah, that’s going to piss somebody off for sure.
A year later, Ava returns to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of Danica and her new fiancé Wyatt (Orpin, Titans). She’s the only one who seems affected by the incident except for Teddy who’s become an alcoholic. While opening her gifts at her shower, Danica receives an unsigned note reading…. can you guess? Hint, it’s in the title. It IS the title! She and the others are freaked out, of course. Who else knows what happened last summer? Well, somebody does. It doesn’t take long for the hook-wielding killer in fisherman’s gear to show up and start killing.
By now, everybody knows a couple of the original cast members make return appearances in the new I Know What You Did Last Summer. Ray (Prinze, She’s All That) now runs a bar in town. Naturally, he’s furious that the police aren’t doing more to stop the latest killings. Julie (Hewitt, 9-1-1), now a university professor (and divorced from Ray), is back too. Ava goes to her for help. Still traumatized, Julie doesn’t want to get directly involved, but we know that will change by movie’s end.
I fully expected to hate I Know What You Did Last Summer. The trailer did nothing for me. If anything, it made me dread it all the more. I heard nothing but bad things about it in the days leading up to its release. I went to a Thursday night preview for it with low expectations. I was mentally composing a bad review as I sat through 20+ minutes of previews. Then the movie started. It didn’t take me long to dislike the main characters, yet another vapid bunch of young people with the collective intelligence of driftwood. The plot kicked into gear and that’s when something unexpected happened. I started to get interested.
Now I’m not saying I Know What You Did Last Summer is a good movie. It’s not. It isn’t all that bad either. Yes, it’s completely preposterous. The characters are shallow and one-dimensional. So is the screenplay. There are no real surprises. I guessed the identity of the killer early on. I wasn’t even fooled by the traditional diversionary tactic of introducing a viable suspect with a clear motive.
The acting, for the most part, is awful. The main players were obviously hired for their looks because there isn’t much in the way of talent on display. Withers is like a combination of Ryan Phillippe and Channing Tatum. Cline, whose character is a New Age whack job, has the range of a department store mannequin. Wonders is an emotional flatline. She claims to feel guilty, but I don’t see any evidence of it eating her up like it did Hewitt in the original. Speaking of her, the writers really drop the ball with her character. She talks about PTSD and shows some signs of it, but the script doesn’t explore it with any depth.
On the upside, there are a few cool kill scenes. This version of I Know What You Did Last Summer has gore. It also has a true crime podcaster (punk rock singer Bechtel) in town to do a show about the 1997 murders. I like the way her character is introduced. She’s probably the most interesting character in the film. Sadly, her exit comes way too soon. There are a couple of nifty cameos including one in a mid-credits scene that’s worth sticking around for.
I Know What You Did Last Summer is supremely silly and dumb, but it’s kind of fun if you go in not expecting a new horror classic. It’s better than I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, but that’s not exactly an impossible feat. Overall, it’s fine for a mid-summer horror-thriller aimed at teen audiences. They’ll love it.
