“It’s not that deep!” might be shouted from the theater as credits roll on the latest legacy movie painting up silver screens. Because I Know What You Did Last Summer is certainly as shallow as it seems meant to be, and also because it’s a movie lined with nearly snappy slang and phrases that the original cast might furrow at. One of this summer’s horror events on water is a successful, even if imperfect, take on a nearly thirty-year-old slasher that smoothly rehashes the tone and depth of its predecessor.
Things are mostly idyllic for the stale friend group that’s only partly moved on from their lives in the unassuming beach town of Southport. Ava (Chase Sui Wonders) is visiting to celebrate her best friend, Danica’s (Madelyn Cline) engagement to Teddy (Tyriq Withers), where she naturally encounters her old flame, Milo (Jonah Hauer-King) and their previously troubled former friend, Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon). Being that the celebration happens on the Fourth of July, the once high school besties decide to drive off to a curved slab of road to get the best view of the fireworks. It’s all youthful fun and games until loose-cannon Teddy decides to stand in the road, leading to an unsuspecting driver swerving and driving off the cliff and into the waters below. Leaving Teddy’s father to cover up the disaster lest it affect his real estate empire, the group tries to move on with their lives. But they can only run so far before the past catches up to them exactly one year later when they gather again for Danica’s bridal shower. A cryptic note among a pile of luxurious gifts sets off a string of killings that leave the pretty beach people running and fighting for their lives.
Director and co-writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s (Do Revenge) take on the legacy sequel is at its most effective when remembering it’s born of a 90s slasher, but it’s at its worst when remembering it’s tied to a particular one. The story about these new youths stumbling into their own mess of fisherman slickers and hooks is bogged down by the anchor of legacy characters and blasts from the past. It’s sometimes effective, mostly when Jennifer Love Hewitt seems to return only as a mentor who rarely — if at all— seems to interact with the Southport sets, but it’s heavy when others seem forced into plot development that doesn’t allow the newer cast to shine.
But then there are the nods to Kevin Williamson (scribe of the original, Scream, The Faculty, and others), one of the godfathers of the 90s slasher boom, which support this film feeling so grounded in that iconic era of killer movies. It’s so refreshing to see some crafty slashing scenes that are modern without reveling in modernity (we get it! Smart phones!) and that shed any pretense of some deeper story or “elevation.” Yes, there are direct references to trauma affecting the brain and a quickly abandoned subplot about true crime as entertainment, but for the most part, I Know What You Did Last Summer is true to its parent film by being a bit of a whodunit while still a sparkly slasher about a masked killer slicing and dicing. In that way, it’s as close to a 90s slasher as any legacy sequel has ever been.
And as a bare slasher, IKWYDLS is beholden to us to deliver satisfying kills. Nothing really rises to the occasion of the Croaker Queen slaying, but this movie does have some lovely death scenes that play with suspense and expectations. Yeah, it’s slow-moving when a cavalcade of proverbial red shirts seems to arrive just in time to be murdered, leaving the main cast spared for perhaps too long, but they’re mostly joyous and revel in tools like hooks and spearguns. Spitting up blood, fighting back, and groaning into their cell phones are the sorts of moves that make these characters’ deaths compelling to consume, and in the right dose, difficult to take in.
The original 1997 I Know What You Did Last Summer, for all its nostalgia and elevation to iconic status, was mostly a simple slasher movie that differed from Scream (and even The Faculty) by not doing much beyond the barriers of its genre. So, a legacy sequel needn’t do anything beyond that to be a worthy and enjoyable installment. IKWYDLS shows up as promised: as a blood-soaked slaughter fest about entitled hot people getting a taste of comeuppance.
I Know What You Did Last Summer hits theaters July 18, 2025
