My Review of I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)

 

Written by Sam Lansky And Jennifer Kaytin Robinson And Leah McKendrick

Directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

Ava: "Fuck the 4th of July."

Julie: "Couldn't agree more."

Oh, the legacy sequel. I guess Halloween (2018) and Scream (2022) really set the bar of what to do with them. They're also more iconic franchises than this one.

A few weeks ago, I went back and watched the first two theatrical movies and the straight to DVD third instalment. This movie for obvious reasons only alluded to the theatrical releases in the franchise.

Our group seem to be a little older and things opened with the engagement of queen bee, Danica Richards (Madelyn Cline) and rich boyfriend, Teddy Spencer (Tyriq Withers). Add in former lovers, Ava Brucks (Chase Sui Wonders) and Milo Griffin (Jonah Hauer-King) as well as social outcast, Stevie Ward (Sarah Pidgeon) and you've got a new generation of protagonists.

Anyways, the five go on a drive, bump into another car that goes over the road and instead of going to the police, they decide to cover it up with some help from Teddy's father, Grant (Billy Campbell). Cut to a year later and there's consequences to be had for the fivesome.

First of all, Danica's new fiancée Wyatt (Joshua Orpin) was one of the first people to die at the hands of the Fisherman and it didn't take long for podcaster, Tyler Trevino (Gabbriette Bechtel) to also join with the body count. Anyways, wasn't this supposed to be a legacy sequel?

Well, it was and having original survivors Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr) back in the mix did liven things up a bit. In the space of twenty six years, both Julie and Ray have split up and one of them had changed for the absolute worst. Can you guess which one?

Of course, it's Ray who decided to take up the mantle of the Fisherman along with the grief stricken Stevie. The former was pissed at the events of 1997 being forgotten and the latter's boyfriend was the victim at the start of the movie.

As someone who's had mixed feelings about a franchise killing off another long term male protagonist, I'm really disappointed with the way things planned out for Ray too. It definitely felt like character assassination and a misguided creative swing. Julie's screen time isn't much either and there's some hooks for the inevitable sequel that should be announced shortly.

- With the constant references to Helen Shivers, I'm genuinely impressed they got Sarah Michelle Gellar to reprise the role in a dream with Danica. 

- A credit scene had Julie track down Karla Wilson (Brandy Norwood) while this movie had only Ava, Danica and Stevie surviving.

- Ava turned out to be the first bisexual main character. Aside from being exes with Milo, she also hooked up with Tyler.

- Chronology: 2025 Southport for the duration of the film. Julie had left the place to be a professor.

I neither loved or hated this latest instalment of I Know What You Did Last Summer. It had it's moments and I did love that cameo appearance but overall, it's mostly an okay legacy sequel.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (2006)

 

Written by Michael Weiss

Directed by Sylvain White

Amber (to the Fisherman): "This secret dies with you."

In the 2000s, most horror franchises were getting remake/rebooted with mixed results both critically and commercially. Some were also getting straight to DVD sequels that felt "In Name Only" off the franchise they were leaching off. This would be where miserable excuse of a movie would fit in.

I mean there's no sense whatsoever that this movie would fit into the world created by the movies from 1997 and 1998 respectively. The characters are so painfully paper thin that it did feel like an absolute slog to get through.

Our main characters are Amber Williams (Brooke Nevin) and her boyfriend, Colby Patterson (David Paetkau) and their friends, Zoe (Torry DeVitto), PJ (Clay Taylor) and Roger (Seth Packard). It's the fourth of July, there's a carnival and a prank involving the Fisherman ended up in the death of PJ.

The remaining friends don't exactly react well, distance themselves from each and then a year later, they're brought back together. Yup, the Fisherman was there to kill them off, one by one along with other characters.

The inclusion of PJ's cousin, (Ben Easter) did feel like they were going to rethread some old ground but it turned out that he was there to help Amber against the original Fisherman. Yes, it's Ben Willis (Don Shanks) but here, he's far less interesting and effective. The ending seemed like it was setting up a sequel that would never materialise.

- The film was originally going to be theatrical before Sony decided not to. 

- The film originally was titled The Hook and there's more supernatural leaning into this one.

- Standout music: Goth Jones LFL.

- Chronology: July 4th 2005 and 2006, Broken Ridge, Colorado.

I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer is an absolute dreck fest from start to finish. Watch it if you're a completist, but in general don't bother. It's a waste of time.

Rating: 2 out of 10 

My Review of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)

 

Written by Trey Callaway

Directed by Danny Cannon

Julie (to the Fisherman): "Just. Fucking. Die!"

On to the sequel. The end of the first movie set it up and time has passed by. Our leading lady, Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) has been attending summer classes in Boston. She's also been having nightmares about the Fisherman (Muse Watson) terrorising her.

Not only that but Julie was seemingly at odds with Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.). He wanted to spend time with her and propose. Instead Julie decided to take a summer break to the Bahamas with college friends, Karla Wilson (Brandy), Tyrell Martin (Mekhi Phifer) and Will Benson (Matthew Settle). The first two were a couple and the latter had a crush on Julie.

Being in the Bahamas should've been a good time. Instead, it was constantly raining and after putting poor Ray in the hospital, the Fisherman thought to take a trip to finish Julie and her friends off. Of course there were some random characters to kill off first. 

These characters included stoner Titus (Jack Black), the almost all knowing Estes (Bill Cobbs) and bitchy bartender, Nancy (Jennifer Esposito). Out of the new friends group, the increasingly unsympathetic Tyrell ended up getting a gruesome death by the third act. He was pretty horrible to Julie as the bodies began to pile up on the resort.

Then there's the reunions that Julie not only had with Ray but also the one with Ben Willis. Oh and it turned out that Will was actually Ben's son and a bit too eager to help his father out with the revenge plan. It's a reveal that should've had a major impact but it's so anticlimactic along with the murderous father and son's comeuppance.

As for the remainder of the movie, Karla was fortunately alive (I did like her character) and Julie and Ray were now living together. There was another sequel hook made but this one felt more goofy than actually foreboding. It also never really came to pass.

- There was a third movie unrelated to the first two. I've seen it and it's awful but I'll review before I get to the new one.

- Knowing the capital of Brazil really would've messed with Ben and Will's great plan, huh?

- Standout music: Lamb's Gorecki and Imogen Heap's Getting Scared.

- Chronology: A year since the events of the first movie. It was also a year when this sequel was released.

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer made for a serviceable but hardly exciting sequel. There's a few semi decent moments but it doesn't do a lot to make you care about any of the characters or even the killers themselves.

Rating: 5 out of 10 

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

 

Written by Kevin Williamson

Directed by Jim Gillespie

Ben: "You in some kind of trouble child?"

Julie: "Yes, yeah I'm in a lot of trouble."

Ben: "That's a shame, being that it's the 4th of July and all. Kids like you should be out having fun. Drinking, partying, running people over, getting away with murder... things like that."

Confession: As a franchise, I've been more lukewarm to this compared to some others. Slapped in between both Scream and Urban Legends, this franchise just didn't grip me as much. This first movie though did offer a decent start.

In the movie, you've got a group of students about to graduate. There's the girl next door in Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and her best friend, Southport's Croaker Queen, Helen Shivers (Sarah Michelle Gellar). They're easily the best characters of the four main ones. There's also aggressive jock Barry Cox (Ryan Phillippe) and fisherman, Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.). One of thems's awful, the other one a bit boring.

Anyways, they're celebrating the 4th of July and end up running over a man that got most of the movie they assumed was someone who had lost his girlfriend the year before. How do they deal with accidentally killing someone? They dump the body and pretend that nothing ever happened and go their separate ways.

Then a year passed and it was July 4th again. Julie had gone to college in Boston, Helen was working on the family business and being belittled by her jealous sister, Barry was threatening other characters like Max (Johnny Galecki) and Ray was mostly pining for an uninterested Julie. Of course, the four were brought back togethef because someone knew what they did the previous summer.

Not only that but they were determined to kill each of the four members as revenge. Julie and Helen were savvy enough to try and get answers from Missy Egan (Anne Heche) but it would later appear that their victim was both alive and not the young man they thought they killed. In fact, he died by their victim before the disastrous event.

As for the killed/victim, it was Benjamin Willis/the Fisherman (Muse Watson) and it's a fairly unsatisfying reveal. I mean we didn't really know the character until his reveal and his defeat at Julie and Ray's hands just wasn't that satisfying tbh. As for the last scene, talk about blatantly setting up that sequel.

- Kevin Williamson really was on the slasher front in the last 1990s with this, the first two Scream movies and writing parts of Halloween H20: 20 Years Later.

- The movie's based on a 1973 novel of the same name though the town is Silver Springs instead of Southport.

- Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr met on this movie and the rest is history with them.

- Chronology: July 4th, both in 1996 and 1997 for the majority of this movie. Southport and Boston.

I Know What You Did Last Summer is fine as a slasher movie playing into aspect of the hook legend with okay enough protagonists. It does often lack the spark of Williamson's other slasher work but the main cast do carry it along.

Rating: 7 out of 10