I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) centers on a group of five friends who reside in the town of Southport, North Carolina, 28 years after the events in the original 1997 movie. Their relationships are irrevocably altered on July 4th when they unintentionally cause a tragic automobile accident on a winding mountain road and witness the driver vanish into the lake. They agree to cover up the crime and keep their records spotless, but when Danica (Madelyn Cline, Glass Onion) gets a terrifying threat on a note card at her bridal shower, their guilt finally gets the better of them.
Ava (Chase Sui Wonders, best known from The Studio and Bodies Bodies Bodies) discovers that this has all happened in Southport before when the Fisherman, a serial killer with a bloodied hook and a mysterious cloak, begins to target their loved ones.  The history and present of their small town collide as she enlists the aid of original survivors Julie james (Jennifer love Hewitt) and Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.), uncovering dangerous truths.  You have watched this film if you have seen Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), Scream (2022), or even Halloween (2018).  It doesn't innovate on the legacy sequel format; it just adapts it to IKWYDLS.  
Despite its assertion that "nostalgia is overrated," I Know What You Did Last Summer does not share this viewpoint.  Like all the reboots that have preceded it, nostalgia is evident in every scene.  Even though Hewitt, Prinze Jr., and the numerous images of Sarah Michelle Gellar's helen that appear throughout the narrative are exciting to devoted series fans, the tale feels like an echo because of their characters and Southport's past. 
I am aware of what you did.  Last Summer's contemporary themes and plot points compensate for the original's outdated aspects.  The movie de-centers romance as the sole meaningful kind of connection, offers its female characters greater agency, and challenges the ultimate girl cliché.  On paper, all of these aspects are fantastic, and I would have wanted to see Wonders' Ava have even more opportunities to explore her sexuality.  But rather than embracing the significance of its own ideas, it seems like the movie is simply crossing things off a to-do list. 
Despite being more graphic than the original, this slasher is not as concerned with being frightening.  I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) is more concerned with being meta than it is with generating real suspense.  It's just too busy trying to appeal to Gen Z horror gays online. 
The fact that the movie is disconnected from its identity simply serves to reinforce this.  It seems like the film is trying to outdo a Reddit thread that will expose the story's logical flaws with each explanation of the narrative and characters.  The fundamental idea of I Know What You Did Last Summer is too absurd for spectators to anticipate anything except fantasy.  The characters are intelligent enough to conduct a study and follow the buddy system, but all of a sudden, they lose their intelligence and become foolish enough to stand by themselves in graveyards. 
The picture has genuine moments of humor and even a hint of sweetness, but the stakes are too low and unclear to make you worry about who will be gutted next.  This was not made up for by the film's last-minute twist, which isn't shocking even if you didn't anticipate the killer's unveiling.  It's not encouraging that I never really wondered who the murderer was.  Though it doesn't aim to be more than a superficial re-enactment of its predecessor, I Know What You Did Last Summer isn't the worst long-awaited horror sequel ever released.

Overall, Slasher Legacy Returns, But It's So Derivative and Empty-Headed

Ratings: ⭐⭐☆
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I Know What You Did Last Summer Review

SIBY JEYYA

18/07/2025 12:43 AM