In the grand design of 90s horror movies that could manage a certain 2025 resurgence, I Know What You Did Last Summer would, arguably, be not placed too high on a list of likelihoods. Thank the lords then that writer/director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge) pitched her version to Sony Pictures, as the filmmaker defies the series’ dwindling continuative mentality (two critically mauled sequels and a cancelled-after-one-season television reboot) with a true legacy sequel-cum-reimagining that honours the original material, adopts certain narrative beats, before completely refiguring itself into a bold slice of storytelling that handles its gumption with humour and respect.
Similar to how the 2022 Scream sequel acted as both a beginning for its freshly introduced characters and a legacy return for its longstanding players, Robinson’s vision of I Know What You Did Last Summer (written in collaboration with Sam Lansky, the reported ghost writer of Britney Spears’s memoir, “The Woman in Me”, from a story idea in conjunction with Leah McKendrick) initially feels like it’ll play by the rules of the 1997 original, where Jennifer Love Hewitt’s moral Julie James, Sarah Michelle Gellar’s vapid princess Helen Shivers, Ryan Phillippe’s macho jock Barry Cox, and Freddie Prinze, Jr.’s nice guy Ray Bronson are embodied by their 2025 counterparts, Chase Sui Wonders‘s moral Ava Brucks, Madelyn Cline‘s vapid princess Danica Richards, Tyriq Withers‘s macho jock Teddy Winters, and Jonah Hauer-King‘s nice guy Milo Griffin.
And, indeed, the similarities are there, but, almost near-immediately, Robinson sets up a path that helps distance this quartet from any original archetype trappings, which extends to the accident they are involved in and that a fifth friend, Sarah Pidgeon‘s Stevie Ward, is brought into the fold. When we meet the group, their longstanding friendship from high school is evident; Ava and Danica have an easy, almost shorthand-like bond, and Teddy and Milo border on a certain homoeroticism that proves alarmingly common for masculine-presenting men who are comfortable with their sexuality in being able to lightly flirt with one another. It’s Danica and Teddy that have moved from friends to something more in the years since, and it’s at their engagement party that the four opt for a joyride to the beachside in order to get a grander look at the 4th of July fireworks presentation.
A former school chum who distanced herself in the wake of a family scandal, Stevie is working at the engagement party when she’s approached by the four in a hope to rekindle their bond. A lovely idea, but one that will repercussions for the poor lass when Teddy, drunk and goading vehicles in the middle of the road, causes a car accident that they are ultimately too helpless to prevent. All agreeing – however reluctantly – to never speak of the event again, that night causes a rift in their group dynamic, and one year on those repercussions manifest in the form of a slicker-attired fisherman who begins to hunt them down one by one. It starts at Danica’s engagement party – not to Teddy either, but the financially stable Wyatt (Joshua Orpin) – who receives an anonymous note reading the titular statement, sending her on a spiral. Ava, who has become distant from Danica in the year since, Milo, similarly so, and Stevie, who surprisingly became closer to Danica in the wake, look to Teddy, who cut ties with all of them, believing it’s perhaps a practical joke to hurt Danica even further.
It doesn’t take long for the five to band together when they realise they’re all being targeted by someone who clearly knows what they did last summer, and once a few stray bodies start piling up, Ava takes it upon herself to turn to Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt), now a college professor, believing because she’s survived a massacre before, she’ll have some sound advice. Julie doesn’t want any part of it, nor does Ray (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), who still resides in their once sleepy village, though he does want the local police – headed by Teddy’s somewhat corrupt father (Billy Campbell) – to admit to the town’s history of murder, rather than covering it up for the benefit of a booming tourist trade. While the film ultimately belongs to Ava and Danica, Robinson and Lansky’s script quite organically weaves in Julie and Ray as more than just legacy characters for the sake of it. The conversations had around trauma and how it can change a person is something the initial sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (which gets quite an amusing shout-out from Ray regarding how not wise it is to run away to an island location in the face of conflict), never quite explored as fully, and bringing in these characters into the fold only further speaks to Robinson’s evident love of the series and these characters; through certain references, the director’s adoration for Sarah Michelle Gellar – who she worked with on Do Revenge – is very much alive here too.
And it’s with the adoration for the original that Robinson also flexes her affection for the slasher genre at large, the outlandish, oft-nonsensical situations that arise from such, and the slick kill sequences that have become part of the parcel. Whilst I Know What You Did Last Summer adheres to some of the expected tropes of the genre, it also has a wild sense of self, with Robinson truly taking some big swings in her efforts to put her own stamp on the franchise. Certain narrative reveals and dedicated sequences may not land with every viewer – whether they be freshly being introduced to the series or longstanding fans – but one has to respect the director for what she does in a genre that so often is accused of never taking more risks. Here, Robinson seems like she’ll serve up a familiar dish, but she’s not interested in it tasting the same, so when she pivots in the recipe, regardless of how your palate reacts, you can’t deny the aftertaste will linger long with you.
Just as Gen Z-coded as it is seeped in millennial nostalgia, Robinson honours what has come before and sets up enough narrative strands to continue – yes, there’s a mid-credit tease that should sit well with fans of the original films – as I Know What You Did Last Summer goes against the grain more than it leans into tradition.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
I Know What You Did Last Summer is now screening in Australian theatres. It will open in the United States on July 18th.
