THE STORY – After five friends inadvertently kill a pedestrian in a car accident, they cover up their involvement to avoid consequences. A year later, as they try to move on with their lives, a stalker sends them taunting messages about their crime. Realizing that the stalker is imitating a legendary serial killer, they seek help from the two survivors of the Southport massacre of 1997.
THE CAST – Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Billy Campbell & Austin Nichols
THE TEAM – Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Director/Writer), Sam Lansky & Leah McKendrick (Writers)
THE RUNNING TIME – 111 Minutes
Whether fairly or not, Jim Gillespie’s “I Know What You Did Last Summer” has always been the bastard stepchild of Wes Craven’s “Scream.” Both written by Kevin Williamson and released a year apart, “Last Summer,” loosely adapted from the Lois Sinclair novel of the same name, had the misfortune of being released later, after Craven’s satirical meta-slasher reignited interest in the genre. Yet, the two films couldn’t be more different in tone and style. Still, they share enough elements – an investigation-heavy mystery plot, an iconically-dressed masked killer armed with something sharp, a cast of pretty young things led by an alum of the television series “Party of Five” – that comparing them makes sense on some level, even if they are trying to do very different things. Whereas “Scream” playfully deconstructs the tropes of slasher movies while indulging in them (so that audiences could have fun with the formula again), “Last Summer” plays things much more straightforwardly, stuffing a B-level ‘80s slasher inside a nasty little morality play to give it the aura of something deeper. While time has been kind to “Scream,” which remains on many lists of the best horror films ever made, it hasn’t been so kind to “Last Summer,” which has little to recommend it outside of nostalgia for the mid-to-late 1990s.
While it’s inevitable that, on the heels of the successful “Scream” legacy sequels, Hollywood would want to do the same for “I Know What You Did Last Summer” next, at least the project leaves lots of room for director/co-writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (“Do Revenge”) to improve on what came before. “Last Summer” is a perfect candidate for a remake/sequel precisely because it’s a mediocre film with a killer premise: A year after accidentally running someone over and covering it up, a group of four friends start being stalked and killed by a mysterious figure dressed like the Gorton’s fisherman and wielding a nasty-looking fishhook, taunting them with notes that imply he’s seeking revenge for what they did. Robinson’s script for the 2025 version, co-written with Sam Lansky from a story Robinson developed with Leah McKendrick, adds a great modern spin on the story: Instead of accidentally hitting somebody, our main characters inadvertently cause a car to drive off the road and are unable to rescue the driver before the car falls off a cliff. But since they’re rich, one phone call to Daddy makes it all go away, papered over like it never happened.
One year later, though, Danica (Madelyn Cline) receives a card at her bridal shower that simply says, “I know what you did last Summer.” Her former high school best friends, Ava (Chase Sui Wonders), Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), and Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon), pay a visit to Danica’s former fiancé and high school sweetheart, Teddy (Tyriq Withers), whose father enabled the police cover-up that saved them, to figure out who could have possibly have uncovered the truth. Before they know it, they’re being terrorized by someone dressed like the Fisherman killer who perpetrated similar acts against four teens in a similar situation back in 1997. But our intrepid group of heroes doesn’t know anything about that, though, because Teddy’s dad, a wealthy real estate developer, had anything related to the ‘90s killings scrubbed from the internet so as not to deter people from moving to what he envisioned as “the Hamptons of the South”.
There’s a lot to play with in this premise, and Robinson announces that class commentary is going to be a big part of the film right from the top, when Ava, Danica, Milo, and Teddy unexpectedly run into Stevie working with the catering crew at Danica and Teddy’s engagement party. Stevie’s father apparently lost all the family’s money and left, and her four friends subsequently shut her out. They agree to let bygones be bygones, until the car goes off the cliff and Stevie points out that while the other four can just get lawyers without a problem, she doesn’t have the means to do so. Despite being deeply embedded in the story, however, the screenplay doesn’t fully develop this theme, and when it does, its point becomes hopelessly muddled.
Instead, the film shifts its thematic focus (as much as there can be one in a slasher flick, anyway) to 2020s-era horror’s favorite theme: Trauma. If you’re going to bring back returning cast members Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze, Jr., it makes sense to center trauma in your narrative. Still, it only boils down to platitudes about the only way out being through and how trauma never really leaves you, said with a distinct lack of panache. Those overused ideas are far less interesting than these characters’ differing views on trauma and how to help the younger generation, which serve as the basis of the only interesting conversation in the whole film before being discarded as soon as the scene is over. This kind of surface-level exploration of thematic ideas is to be expected from a slasher flick, as are paper-thin characters and lots of blood, both of which this “Last Summer” has in abundance. Unfortunately, the lack of meaty characters spells death for the film’s climactic killer reveal, which could have worked if the film had shown any interest in the characters’ backstories, but instead lands with a thud as loud as those from their heavily-booted feet. While some of the cast acquits themselves well (Cline’s comic chops remain undimmed, and Pidgeon’s charisma carries every scene she’s in), none of them make much of an impression, especially next to the returning cast members, who bring the right amount of brittle bitterness to their wounded characters. And while this franchise hasn’t exactly been known for the cleverness of its kills, there’s not a single scene in this entry that feels particularly scary, even if the kills are vicious. Robinson tips her hand far too much, telegraphing every jump scare so much that you may not even jump.
Perhaps if “I Know What You Did Last Summer” had the energy and style of “Do Revenge,” it could have had some real comedic bite to it. Instead, the laughs are mostly reserved for asides and throwaway characters, and after the halfway point, the film flat-out forgets to be funny for long stretches. The seriousness at the heart of this material has never really worked within the context of the thrill ride that a slasher is meant to offer, and while it feels like Robinson tried her damndest to give this a sense of humor, she has made the grave error of mistaking swiftness for energy. The film moves surprisingly fast through its ungodly 111 minutes, but it still feels like a slog. In a good slasher, it should be fun watching the unlikeable cast of characters get terrorized, traumatized, and brutalized, but that isn’t the case here. The characters aren’t well-drawn enough, and the performers aren’t charismatic enough, to make this an entertaining watch. Only when the returning cast members are onscreen does this feel like it’s living up to its potential. That’s sad, but it’s also the film’s only real reason for existing, so fans of the franchise might be satisfied. However, just like the original, that satisfaction will wash away within hours of finishing the film.
