Publication Date: 07-17-2025

I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) review

Dir. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★½

For 80s and 90s babies, I Know What You Did Last Summer served as something of a gateway drug for the horror genre, especially following Wes Craven’s Scream only a year after its release. The film’s concept and charismatic cast, in addition to naturally fungible memory, might have you misremembering the 1997 slasher was a good movie. It wasn’t. Neither were its two sequels.

Following an Amazon Prime TV show I’m convinced not a single person actually watched, there was some reason for cautious optimism that a legacyquel of some kind and a gaggle of new characters could breed some life into a concept author Lois Duncan made such a page-turner all the way back in 1970s and for multiple generations thereafter.

Unfortunately, I Know What You Did Last Summer fits right in with the series in terms of being another lousy and derivative slasher. Similar to the recent Scream sequels, its new characters are one dimensional, and the return of familiar faces, Freddie Prinze Jr, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Sarah Michelle Gellar (in a cameo), leaves much to be desired. Further compounding what quickly dissolves into a hopelessly embittering experience is the sheer lack of grace in the filmmaking department.

This time around, those involved in a tragic, albeit avoidable, accident on July 4th in the coastal town of Southport, North Carolina is Ava (Chase Sui Wonders); her best friend Danica (Madelyn Cline); Danica’s fiancé Teddy (Tyriq Withers); their mutual Milo (Jonah Hauer-King); and former friend Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon). Teddy screws around in the street, which forces a car to swerve and plow through a guardrail and down to the rocks in the water. Thankfully, Teddy’s dad is a rich lawyer who can erase their problem as if it’s written in pencil on a piece of paper.

One year later, Danica receives a note that says those seven fateful words, and the murdering spree begins, with a hook-wielding figure in a fishing slicker stalking the friends. Ava decides to consult Tyler (Gabbriette Bechtel), the host of a crime podcast called “Live, Laugh, Slaughter,” but then realizes she would probably needs assistance from someone who has lived thru a similar situation. Of course that person is Julie James (Hewitt), who we discover was married to Ray (Prinze Jr.) before things ended in divorce. Ray went back to Southport. Julie vowed never to return, is a college professor who lectures about trauma, and drinks from a mug that says “Tears of the Patriarchy.”

Writers Sam Lansky and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (also director) flirt with the possibility of making this story about something bigger. Early on, between Teddy’s father using his wealth and power to absolve his son and his friends of their involvement in the accident, and a Southport real estate developer doing his best to cover-up what took place in decades past, there suggests the possibility that this story will be about how those with money can write whatever narrative they please. Both plot-points go nowhere. Julie’s trauma is proposed, but then promptly discarded, meaning poor Jennifer Love Hewitt got all dressed up to be a passive, do-nothing presence. Anytime I Know What You Did Last Summer has the potential to take itself in a new direction, it skirts the possibility and simply whacks another character.

Unlike Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr. is given something to do. Evidently, he approached his return to the role of Ray with the same sort of confidence that Anthony Michael Hall gave Tommy in Halloween Kills. There’s one problem, however. Hall was always at least a fine actor, even in lesser roles. Prinze Jr. was more of a pretty face, who got by on sheer likability, handsomeness, and charisma. We should all be so lucky. That said, Prinze Jr. is terrible here. He blurts his lines, he seems uncomfortable when trying to achieve some pathos, and lumbers around as if he’s not used to playing a dramatic role. Because he isn’t.

Honestly, the only one who impresses is Tyriq Withers, who has a similar brand of goofball, dude-bro energy as Pete Davidson. He’s completely comfortable with being a meathead, and has some of the film’s funniest lines, including one unnecessary but wholly welcomed reference to the famous AMC promo starring Nicole Kidman.

Oh yeah, we need to talk about the dialog. Forget the poorly paced kills that are robbed of atmosphere and tension thanks to an abundance of clumsy close-ups and sometimes downright terrible framing. Lansky and Robinson have written this film in such a way that it will be dated come next summer, and esoteric come 2030. The script is comprised of TikTok slang and hashtagable quips: “nepo baby,” “it’s giving…,” references to cryptocurrency, true crime podcasts, skincare routines, and a lot of bullshit “girl boss” energy. Spare me.

With four different directors helming four different movies, it almost defines probability that not a single film in the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise is worth watching. This would suggest the concept is flawed, and I truly don’t believe it is. Good slashers have been made with flimsier narratives, and even more didn’t have such reliable mainstays as Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr, Brandy, etc. This is where I’d mourn for the installment in this series we nearly got from director Mike Flanagan, but he just went and made one of the more uniquely compelling movies of the year, so nobody can say he’s the one who missed out.

My review of I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
My review of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer

Starring: Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Billy Campbell, Gabbriette Bechtel, Austin Nichols, and Joshua Orpin. Directed by: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.