{"id":12565,"date":"2025-07-17T23:52:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T03:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=12565"},"modified":"2025-09-05T15:23:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T19:23:05","slug":"i-know-what-you-did-last-summer-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/07\/17\/i-know-what-you-did-last-summer-2\/","title":{"rendered":"I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I Know What You Did Last Summer<\/strong> (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Horror-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 111 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (bloody horror violence, language throughout, some sexual content, brief drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Sam Lansky and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Chanda Dancy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Elisha Christian\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 18, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0The most surprising thing about I Know What You Did Last Summer<\/strong>, both a sequel to and reboot of the 1997 teen horror-thriller, is that it doesn\u2019t suck. The rest of it is completely predictable, but that\u2019s entirely subjective. I\u2019ve seen enough of these movies to know how to read the clues. I usually know what\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed and co-written by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, creator of the MTV show Sweet\/Vicious, I Know What You Did Last Summer<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The doomed characters aren\u2019t teens this time; they\u2019re twenty-somethings. The main character, and the only one with anything resembling a moral compass, is Ava (Wonders, Bodies Bodies Bodies). She\u2019s 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\u2019s July 4 and the four decide to go watch the town\u2019s fireworks display. They invite their former friend Stevie (Pidgeon, The Wilds) to come along for old time\u2019s sake. They stop on the road along the way and a drunken Teddy stands in the middle of the road acting like a horse\u2019s ass. That\u2019s when the accident happens.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Oh, there\u2019s an additional element to the crime. Teddy\u2019s 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\u2019s made to look like a DUI by the local police. Yeah, that\u2019s going to piss somebody off for sure.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A year later, Ava returns to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of Danica and her new fianc\u00e9 Wyatt (Orpin, Titans). She\u2019s the only one who seems affected by the incident except for Teddy who\u2019s become an alcoholic. While opening her gifts at her shower, Danica receives an unsigned note reading…. can you guess? Hint, it\u2019s 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\u2019t take long for the hook-wielding killer in fisherman\u2019s gear to show up and start killing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0By now, everybody knows a couple of the original cast members make return appearances in the new I Know What You Did Last Summer<\/strong>. Ray (Prinze, She\u2019s All That) now runs a bar in town. Naturally, he\u2019s furious that the police aren\u2019t 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\u2019t want to get directly involved, but we know that will change by movie\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I fully expected to hate I Know What You Did Last Summer<\/strong>. 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\u2019t 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\u2019s when something unexpected happened. I started to get interested.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now I\u2019m not saying I Know What You Did Last Summer<\/strong> is a good movie. It\u2019s not. It isn\u2019t all that bad either. Yes, it\u2019s 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\u2019t even fooled by the traditional diversionary tactic of introducing a viable suspect with a clear motive.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The acting, for the most part, is awful. The main players were obviously hired for their looks because there isn\u2019t 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\u2019t 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\u2019t explore it with any depth.<\/p>\n

\u00a0On the upside, there are a few cool kill scenes. This version of I Know What You Did Last Summer<\/strong> 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\u2019s 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\u2019s worth sticking around for.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I Know What You Did Last Summer<\/strong> is supremely silly and dumb, but it\u2019s kind of fun if you go in not expecting a new horror classic. It\u2019s better than I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, but that\u2019s not exactly an impossible feat. Overall, it\u2019s fine for a mid-summer horror-thriller aimed at teen audiences. They\u2019ll love it.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Horror-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 111 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (bloody horror violence, language throughout, some sexual content, brief drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Sam Lansky and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Chanda Dancy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Elisha Christian\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 18, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12566,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/I-Know-What-You-Did-Last-Summer-POSTER-1.jpg?fit=620%2C918&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12565"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12570,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12565\/revisions\/12570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}