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

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

History has a grisly way of repeating itself in I Know What You Did Last Summer, a horror sequel that comes nearly 30 years after the original and unsatisfyingly echoes its slasher plot. As in the 1997 film of the same title, a group of young people cause the accidental death of a stranger and then conspire to keep their actions secret — only to have a mysterious fisherman hunt them down, one by one. Director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson brings some stylishness to the killings, but I Know What You Did Last Summer’s lack of compelling characters robs the story of its juiciest hook: these brutal slayings are cosmic comeuppance for their duplicity.

Repeats its predecessor’s storyline without saying anything fresh

Sony rolls out the film globally from July 16, hoping for commercial success similar to the recent Scream sequels. (Both franchises launched in the late 1990s and were written by Kevin Williamson, although the original I Know What You Did Last Summer was adapted from Lois Duncan’s 1973 novel.) This is the first big-screen feature in the series since 1998’s I Still Know What You Did Last Summer — a straight-to-DVD entry was released in 2006 — and the question is whether this property remains popular enough to scare up significant grosses, even with original cast members Freddie Prinze Jr and Jennifer Love Hewitt part of the ensemble. The recent Final Destination: Bloodlines, currently at $285m worldwide, suggests a best-case scenario of how a long-running horror franchise can continue to attract audiences.

Ava (Chase Sui Wonders) returns to her hometown of Southport, North Carolina to celebrate the engagement of her friend Danica (Madelyn Cline) to Teddy (Tyriq Withers) and reconnect with ex-boyfriend Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), for whom she still has feelings. Joined by Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon), a former classmate who fell out of the friendship group because of family issues, they all drive up a winding road on the outskirts of town to get a better view of the July 4 fireworks. But when Teddy gets out of the car to savour the moment, he is almost hit by a passing vehicle that careens to avoid him and crashes onto the beach below.

As with the original I Know What You Did Last Summer, the friends decide impulsively that it would be a mistake to go to the police — they could be charged with manslaughter. After pledging to never tell anyone what happened, they end up reuniting a year later, with Danica receiving a cryptic handwritten note informing her, ’I know what you did last summer.’ Soon, a copycat killer mimicking the look and modus operandi of the 1997 Southport murderer starts dispatching the friends.

Robinson, who directed the 2022 dark comedy Do Revenge (which featured original I Know What You Did Last Summer star Sarah Michelle Gellar) borrows the 1997 film’s plot but crafts more ambitious kill sequences while introducing elements of self-mocking humour. There are cheeky references to the original I Know What You Did Last Summer, as well as ironic takedowns of trendy murder podcasts and horror-movie archetypes. As gruesome as the scares are, Robinson wants to inject the occasional laugh between the shrieks.

Unfortunately, the characters are not well-drawn and some so clichéd that it is hard to root for their survival. Danica is meant to be a ditzy materialist but, because Cline plays her so broadly, there is no moral complexity in her fight to stay alive. She is more of a punchline than a person, and likewise her cohorts do not have the necessary depth. This is the same problem that plagued the 1997 film, neither picture able to tackle fully the karmic implications of an unknowable, hook-wielding serial killer hunting them down, in essence, for the sin of covering up an unconscionable act.

Although nicely lit and framed, Robinson’s fright sequences never transcend a mechanical proficiency, while composer Chanda Dancy overdoes the blaring musical accompaniment. What’s worse, the film makes room for silly horror conventions, including the trope of the victims somehow never sensing the killer standing directly behind them.

With the new cast members largely disposable, Prinze and Hewitt are called on to lend some gravitas to the proceedings. Neither actor possesses much dramatic heft, however, failing to conjure the same haunted wariness that, for instance, Jamie Lee Curtis exuded in the recent Halloween sequels. Instead, I Know What You Did Last Summer repeats its predecessor’s storyline without saying anything fresh about the past’s nasty habit of intruding on the present. Near the finale, a character declares nostalgia to be overrated. Sadly, that’s about the only sharp observation made in this dull slasher film.