Much like karma herself, nostalgia comes for us all in the end. Ever since the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), nostalgia has overshadowed virtually every genre that mainstream Hollywood has to offer. With I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025), a legacy sequel and reboot to screenwriter Kevin Williamson’s 1997 cult classic of the same name (an obvious cash-in to the success of Paramount’s cheap and lucrative Scream revival), it’s never been easier to make the case that the horror genre has become an ouroboros. Original or IP-driven, today’s average horror movies are highly self-referential, sickeningly ironic, and fail at a basic level to thrill or scare.
I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) is guilty of all of these things, and yet it sticks out in my mind as one of the worst attempts at revitalizing a dead franchise in recent memory because the brand at large exists in the canonical C-list. Despite that, this legacy sequel holds so much reverence and insists on cultural importance over a ’90s flick that would have been destined to disappear from collective memory if it weren’t for its star-studded cast and mildly compelling thematic material. The result is a predictable and vibeless summer horror film that will convince you to spend more time outside in the sun rather than watching something so smug, manufactured, and self-satisfied.
The Fisherman Awakens, Again
28 years after the events of the first 1997 film, I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) follows a group of five friends who live in the town of Southport, North Carolina. On the fourth of July, their relationships are forever changed as they inadvertently cause a fatal car accident down the curved road on the side of a mountain and watch as the driver disappears into the water. They form a pact to bury the crime and keep their records clean, but their guilt catches up with them when Danica (Madelyn Cline, Glass Onion) receives a bone-chilling threat on a note card at her bridal shower.
When the Fisherman, a serial killer with a bloody hook and a shadowy raincoat, starts targeting their loved ones, Ava (Chase Sui Wonders, best known from The Studio and Bodies Bodies Bodies) realizes that this has all happened in Southport before. As she enlists the help of original survivors Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.), the past and present of their small town converge, revealing deadly secrets. If you’ve seen Halloween (2018), Scream (2022), or even Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), then you’ve seen this movie. It merely adapts the legacy sequel format to IKWYDLS, though never innovates on it.
Writer-director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Netflix’s Do Revenge) doesn’t particularly build on the themes of the original film. Instead, this latest horror revival attempt stuffs as many half-baked ideas as it can until it reaches a proper runtime.
I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) Does Nothing to Elevate an Unremarkable Franchise
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) is a mildly interesting film about teenagers right on the cusp of adulthood who become emotionally scarred and morphed by their guilt. It doesn’t earnestly explore this theme to any satisfying degree. Yet, the seeds are there to improve on the original nonetheless. I’ve teased the franchise for being C-list, but if the filmmakers saw that as an opportunity to fully realize its premise, an interesting legacy sequel could have been made. This is not that. I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) assumes we all have a connection to the 1997 flick and treats its imagery and one-liners as sacred. This makes for an out-of-touch and embarrassing approach.
Arguably, the timely main cast at their peak relevance is the number one thing that has kept I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) from fading into irrelevance. Occasional bright moments can be seen within Chase Sui Wonders’ performance, but the fact is that no one in this cast can live up to Sarah Michelle Gellar. The two young men in the ensemble, Teddy (Tyriq Withers, Him) and Milo (Jonah Hauer-King, The Little Mermaid), do what is required of them: look pretty and deliver exposition when needed. However, they do so with little charm or humor. Stevie’s (Sarah Pidgeon, Tiny Beautiful Things) role in the movie is also obvious from the moment you see her.
Extreme Online Pandering to a Gen Z Audience
This slasher, although gorier than the original, is not so interested in being scary. Rather than creating genuine tension, I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) is more preoccupied with being meta. It is simply too busy attempting to pander to online Gen Z horror gays. Gabbriette Bechtel (yes, the Gabriette referenced in Charli XCX’s 360) plays a minor role in the movie as a Bloody Disgusting-reading true crime podcaster. Madelyn Cline’s Danica is an aloof, rich blonde who therapy-speaks her way out of situations and is begging hard to be used as a reaction video on gay Twitter. A recently released Addison Rae track blasts over the credits sequence, it’s almost completely shameless.
Any one-liner that isn’t a reference to the first movie might as well be “slay queen!” Yes, the horror genre is queer, but there must be a better way to tribute that than cynically taking hyper online language and signaling to the audience that this mainstream studio film is one of the “cool” ones. Ironically, the movie does a good job of portraying Ava’s bisexuality, as she is shown in casual relationships with both men and women. To its credit, the script also never awkwardly pauses to educate us on her identity or tokenize her. It’s an example of sincere representation that feels at odds with the film’s constant and cynical key-shaking.
Another Meta Sequel that is Guilty of Exactly What It is Critiquing
In the last act of I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025), the movie manages to pull off a few unexpected twists that would probably not have been included in a more culturally significant horror franchise. However, by this point in the plot, it’s far too little and too late. The film has already become annoying to sit through as it self-references and aimlessly critiques nostalgia while unashamedly basking in it. It’s not as intelligent as it thinks it is; IKWYDLS is just trying to present the typical legacy sequel themes with enough stupidity and irony that it might fool someone into thinking there’s something deeper going on.
I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) tries so desperately to be iconic, but ultimately proves tiresome. It might not be the worst legacy sequel ever created (that is a tough task in itself), but it is so derivative, empty-headed, and trashy in the worst ways that it stands out as a low point for the horror genre this year. Let this series drive into the sea again. Diva down!
I Know What You Did Last Summer hits theaters on July 18!
Release Date: July 18, 2025.
Directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.
Screenplay by Sam Lansky & Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.
Story by Leah McKendrick & Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.
Based on characters created by Lois Duncan.
Produced by Neal H. Moritz.
Executive Producers: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, Karina Rahardja, & Jackie Shenoo.
Main Cast: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Chase Sui Wonders, Madelyn Cline, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Billy Campbell, Gabbriette Bechtel, Austin Nichols, & Joshua Orpin.
Cinematographer: Elisha Christian.
Composer: Chanda Dancy.
Production Companies: Columbia Pictures & Original Film.
Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing.
Runtime: 111 minutes.
Rated R.
