I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)
Directed by: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
Premise: A sequel to the 1997 film. A group of young people cover up their involvement in the unintentional death of a motorist. A year later they are stalked by a killer armed with a hook.
What Works: 1997’s I Know What You Did Last Summer was written by Kevin Williamson who also wrote the original Scream. The 2025 version of I Know What You Did Last Summer is a legacy sequel and most of the best elements of the new film are in its direct relationship to its predecessor. The story returns to the same town, reintroduces a couple of characters from the original film, and frames the current story in relationship to the events of nearly thirty years ago. As before, the makers of this sequel are aware of what they’re doing and I Know What You Did Last Summer has some self-aware humor and skewers contemporary culture.
What Doesn’t: Just as 1997’s I Know What You Did Last Summer followed the coattails of the original Scream, the 2025 version of I Know What You Did Last Summer aspires to the 2022 Scream reboot and once again, I Know What You Did Last Summer falls short. This whole series has suffered from illogical and stupid storytelling choices and that’s true here but 2025’s I Know What You Did Last Summer makes fundamental errors. These films are predicated on young people carelessly causing the death of another person but in the 2025 film the unseen driver of a car swerves off the road and plunges to their presumptive demise almost all on their own. The young people are not really responsible for the driver’s death, undercutting the whole raison d’être of this series. The story makes less and less sense. There’s no reason for the villain to kill most of the victims. The characters behave inexplicably. One woman’s fiancé is murdered and she gets back together with her ex-boyfriend literally the next day. For a story predicated on guilt and grief there is nothing here. 2025’s I Know What You Did Last Summer fails as a horror story and as a mystery. It’s not scary in the least. New characters and suspects are introduced and then killed off right away. There is no sense of rising action or imminent danger and the drama goes flat. The visual effects are dodgy especially a de-aged cameo that looks awful. The tonal shifts are awkward but not in a way that works. The film feels torn between a straightforward remake and a satire but it succeeds as neither.
Bottom Line: For over a decade we’ve been inundated with legacy sequels and I Know What You Did Last Summer may be the death knell of this fad. The original film was not great but it was moody with a few scares. The 2025 film is a dumb exploitation of intellectual property.
Episode: #1058 (July 27, 2025)