We’re constantly hearing that there aren’t any truly great modern slashers. But Scream 5 and 6 were both solid, as was the unfairly maligned Hallogreen trilogy, and Ti West’s X, Pearl, and MaXXXine. Outside of those franchises, Freaky, Happy Death Day, Totally Killer, Bodies Bodies Bodies, The Ranger, Hell Fest, and of course the criminally underrated The Blackening have all satisfied our bloodlust (as for Terrifier, they’re torture porn and, for those who consider them slashers, well, insert Laura Dern gif here). Why, then, are horror fans in particular so eager to turn their noses up at I Know What You Did Last Summer, the requel to the 1997 original movie of the same name that’s by no means a masterpiece in the first place? The reviews have been eviscerating, with the new film scoring a measly 38% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing (even less than its forebear). But the audience score is almost twice as high, suggesting that IKWYDLS is hitting with the kind of viewers who are willing to give it a chance (or those simply looking for a good Friday night fright).
In keeping with tradition, a cast of hot young things is menaced by someone in a fisherman’s slicker in this new take, headed up by Bodies Bodies Bodies star Chase Sui Wonders and Outer Banks breakout Madelyn Cline as BFFs Ava and Danica. It’s a sweet throwback to the 1997 original, in which Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sarah Michelle Gellar’s friendship was the beating heart of the movie. Rounding out our doomed group are Danica’s fiancé Teddy (Tyriq Withers, winningly sending up Ryan Phillippe’s macho posturing from the original), Ava’s former flame Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), and troubled Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon), who used to be a part of their gang before family tragedy and addiction separated her from the pack. Everybody is home in Southport for Danica and Teddy’s engagement party, and it’s clear from the outset that despite their being filthy rich, tensions are high.
Tragedy inevitably strikes, as it did in I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), during a late-night joy ride around the twisty cliffside roads surrounding the town. However, this time around, the group isn’t involved in a hit and run. Instead, they cause a car to careen off the road while messing around on the side of it, and the ensuing debate is over whether they should try to make their way down to help the driver, who may still be alive (ultimately, they flee, or we wouldn’t have a movie). Teddy’s father (an oily Billy Campbell) is tight with the local police, so he makes the problem go away pretty easily and, once the dust has settled, only Ava really seems to be feeling any guilt over what happened. Fast forward a year later, though, and Danica receives a note during her bridal shower for an entirely different wedding(!) that lets the whole gang know they haven’t quite gotten away with it.
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I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025), which was directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson from a script credited to Robinson and Sam Lansky, with an additional story credit for Leah McKendrick, does a great job establishing the geography of Southpoint and its various key players. There are a variety of different characters who could conceivably be the killer, from a creepy local pastor to a true crime-obsessed podcaster with distracting drawn-on eyebrows (convincingly played by model and influencer Gabbriette Bechtel). Likewise, Freddie Prinze Jr. reprises his role alongside Hewitt, who has fled for greener pastures as she continues to battle PTSD, while her former beau stuck around to run a local dive bar and take Stevie under his wing. As a result, Ray and Julie represent two sides of the same coin. Neither has moved on from what happened, but they’re both doing their best to pretend that they have, including helping the new kids to save themselves from certain death.
Julie immediately asks what Ava and her friends did to incur the wrath of The Fisherman, while Ray scolds her for encouraging them to try to figure out who’s behind it all, given the inherent danger. It’s an interesting spin on what the new Scream sequels did with their own legacy characters and, as much as I love those movies, it makes more sense. Although this isn’t a capital-T trauma movie, Robinson and her co-writers make a compelling case for how survivors of such a senseless tragedy would be handling things 25 years on (the reboot also takes a massive risk, which won’t be spoiled here, that even Scream wouldn’t dare attempt, and pulls it off thanks to its solid performances and sharp writing). Likewise, the youngsters behave like rational people too. They panic, they run to the cops, they try to stand up to their attacker – the reactions run the gamut, which allows for some fun cat-and-mouse sequences even though nothing quite manages to rival Helen Shivers’ iconic death.
The kills are surprisingly visceral, nasty, and drawn out – especially by modern standards. Robinson knows how to stage a stalk-and-slash sequence (the filmmaker was the creator of the sadly short-lived Sweet/Vicious), and she takes her time with each one, so it doesn’t feel like we’re just rushing through them to get to the next story beat. The first victim, Danica’s boozy new fiancé, is taken out with a spear gun and the iconic hook while downing vodka in a kitchen so stunningly white it should be featured as an after on a HGTV show. The Fisherman hides in the shadows until the very last moment, hinting that he could be anywhere, and his big entrance hits so much harder as a result (even if the costume itself is still kind of silly-looking). Although the tone of I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) is somewhat goofy, it’s surprisingly scary overall, with several surprises scattered throughout that crucially don’t rely solely on the loathsome quiet-quiet-BANG aesthetic, nor are they telegraphed by self-consciously shrieky music cues. There’s way too much music overall, but that’s an issue with teen horror in general (see: Scream 5 and 6) rather than one specific to this film.
Kline was savaged by horror fans recently for incorrectly stating that “I Know What You Did Last Summer walked so Scream could run” during an interview with Josh Horowitz. Aside from the fact that Scream was released a year earlier, there’s no denying that it’s the more iconic, and influential, movie. And yet, many modern horror flicks fail because they’re trying too hard to be the Wes Craven classic (and let’s face it, nothing compares to Scream). This new take on I Know What You Did Last Summer doesn’t try to emulate it, and the movie is all the better for it, with one character even outright stating at one point: “Nostalgia is overrated.” There are some well-placed jokes (Kline’s character is an absolute hoot) and a couple of intentionally dumb lines destined to be quoted ad nauseum (“Don’t do anything stupid, diva” is a particular standout). But it never feels like Robinson is working overtime to prove that she can go toe-to-toe with her forebears. And, by focusing on delivering an entertaining slasher, instead of unnecessarily paying homage, she does exactly that.
The intensely negative reaction to I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) is puzzling considering the original is fine at best. If anything, the reboot is actually an improvement on what came before, including a considerably more satisfying killer reveal that pushes the boundaries of what we expect from this subgenre. The cast is totally game for all the bloody shenanigans, with Ava and Danica’s believably intense friendship increasingly taking center-stage as the situation worsens, while Prinze Jr. and Hewitt provide ample support without stealing all the oxygen. Wonders and Kline have a lovely, natural rapport with each other, it’s easy to imagine their decades of history, but they both also certainly benefit from having a woman behind the camera and partly in charge of the screenplay. The male characters definitely get shorter shrift here, which is subversive in its own way since we’re so used to watching women running for their lives. It’s never boring, even if plot threads like Ava going off the rails (which is hinted at during a tryst in an airport bathroom) are dismissed a bit too quickly to make room for more important matters, like late-night chases through a graveyard.
Simply put, this is a perfectly serviceable slasher with some impressively brutal kills, great scares, and a talented cast of newcomers who are fun to watch get picked off one by one while also guessing, probably in vain, which of them is wearing the slicker. I Know What You Did Last Summer isn’t an untouchable franchise – far from it, given the “Ben’s son!” and Jack Black dreadlocks of it all, which is something Ray references in one of the movie’s strongest jokes and, blessedly, only real meta moment – but, on this evidence, there are some exciting places it could go next.
WICKED RATING: 8/10
Director(s): Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
Writer(s): Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, Sam Lansky
Stars: Chase Sui Wonders, Madelyn Cline, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr.
Release date: July 18, 2025
Language: English
Run Time: 111 minutes
