‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ review: Uninspiring sequel to ’90s slasher lacks a killer hook

Dir: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. US. 2025. 111mins.

Historical past has a grisly method of repeating itself in I Know What You Did Final Summer season, a horror sequel that comes practically 30 years after the unique and unsatisfyingly echoes its slasher plot. As within the 1997 movie of the identical title, a gaggle of younger individuals trigger the unintended loss of life of a stranger after which conspire to maintain their actions secret — solely to have a mysterious fisherman hunt them down, one after the other. Director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson brings some stylishness to the killings, however I Know What You Did Final Summer season’s lack of compelling characters robs the story of its juiciest hook: these brutal slayings are cosmic comeuppance for his or her duplicity.

Repeats its predecessor’s storyline with out saying something recent

Sony rolls out the movie globally from July 16, hoping for industrial success just like the latest Scream sequels. (Each franchises launched within the late Nineteen Nineties and have been written by Kevin Williamson, though the unique I Know What You Did Final Summer season was tailored from Lois Duncan’s 1973 novel.) That is the primary big-screen characteristic within the collection since 1998’s I Nonetheless Know What You Did Final Summer season — a straight-to-DVD entry was launched in 2006 — and the query is whether or not this property stays fashionable sufficient to scare up important grosses, even with unique solid members Freddie Prinze Jr and Jennifer Love Hewitt a part of the ensemble. The latest Remaining Vacation spot: Bloodlines, at present at $285m worldwide, suggests a best-case situation of how a long-running horror franchise can proceed to draw audiences.

Ava (Chase Sui Wonders) returns to her hometown of Southport, North Carolina to have fun the engagement of her buddy Danica (Madelyn Cline) to Teddy (Tyriq Withers) and reconnect with ex-boyfriend Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), for whom she nonetheless has emotions. Joined by Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon), a former classmate who fell out of the friendship group due to household points, all of them drive up a winding street on the outskirts of city to get a greater view of the July 4 fireworks. However when Teddy will get out of the automobile to savour the second, he’s virtually hit by a passing car that careens to keep away from him and crashes onto the seaside beneath.

As with the unique I Know What You Did Final Summer season, the buddies determine impulsively that it could be a mistake to go to the police — they may very well be charged with manslaughter. After pledging to by no means inform anybody what occurred, they find yourself reuniting a 12 months later, with Danica receiving a cryptic handwritten observe informing her, ’I do know what you probably did final summer season.’ Quickly, a copycat killer mimicking the look and modus operandi of the 1997 Southport assassin begins dispatching the buddies.

Robinson, who directed the 2022 darkish comedy Do Revenge (which featured unique I Know What You Did Final Summer season star Sarah Michelle Gellar) borrows the 1997 movie’s plot however crafts extra bold kill sequences whereas introducing parts of self-mocking humour. There are cheeky references to the unique I Know What You Did Final Summer season, in addition to ironic takedowns of stylish homicide podcasts and horror-movie archetypes. As ugly because the scares are, Robinson needs to inject the occasional snigger between the shrieks.

Sadly, the characters are usually not well-drawn and a few so clichéd that it’s onerous to root for his or her survival. Danica is supposed to be a ditzy materialist however, as a result of Cline performs her so broadly, there isn’t any ethical complexity in her struggle to remain alive. She is extra of a punchline than an individual, and likewise her cohorts don’t have the required depth. This is identical downside that plagued the 1997 movie, neither image capable of deal with absolutely the karmic implications of an unknowable, hook-wielding serial killer searching them down, in essence, for the sin of masking up an unconscionable act.

Though properly lit and framed, Robinson’s fright sequences by no means transcend a mechanical proficiency, whereas composer Chanda Dancy overdoes the blaring musical accompaniment. What’s worse, the movie makes room for foolish horror conventions, together with the trope of the victims by some means by no means sensing the killer standing immediately behind them.

With the brand new solid members largely disposable, Prinze and Hewitt are referred to as on to lend some gravitas to the proceedings. Neither actor possesses a lot dramatic heft, nevertheless, failing to conjure the identical haunted wariness that, for example, Jamie Lee Curtis exuded within the latest Halloween sequels. As an alternative, I Know What You Did Final Summer season repeats its predecessor’s storyline with out saying something recent concerning the previous’s nasty behavior of intruding on the current. Close to the finale, a personality declares nostalgia to be overrated. Sadly, that’s about the one sharp commentary made on this uninteresting slasher movie.