I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Jennifer Katyn Robinson

Starring:  Chase Sui Wonders, Madelyn Cline, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Billy Campbell, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Sarah Pidgeon

The original 1997 I Know What You Did Last Summer was a slasher film in the tradition of previous ones.  One by one, guilty, attractive teens are hacked to death by a mysterious killer wearing a fisherman slicker in the dead heat of summer.  The 2025 remake, while unnecessary, follows in the tradition and it works surprisingly well, mostly because it isn't overly gory and there is the built-in suspense of trying to figure out who the killer is.

The new version, like the original, begins with a group of teenage friends driving on a dark, winding road around the July 4 holiday in a small, but affluent seaside South Carolina town.  In the original, the teens accidentally run over and kill a pedestrian and, instead of reporting the accident, collectively decide to leave the poor guy for dead and never discuss the incident.   In this version, the group is pulled over on the side of the road and an out-of-control vehicle swerves to avoid them, crashes through the guard rail, and after the kids try to help the truck plummets to the ravine below.  The kids foolishly agree not to report the matter, and one of the teens has his rich, influential father bury their involvement. 

Fast forward to one year later, the friends have mostly stopped talking to each other, including the couple that was engaged the year before.  The young lady Danica (Cline), who was engaged to another of the teens, is now engaged to another guy and while opening up gifts at the bridal shower, a card stating the dreaded "I Know What You Did Last Summer" is opened, and soon the person in the slicker is terrorizing these characters who already feel guilty about what happened last July 4, and now have to avoid being turned into fish bait.

The coincidence is not lost on two of the survivors from the first film, Ray (Prinze, Jr.) and Julie (Love Hewitt), both of whom have moved on physically from the events of nearly thirty years ago but not in spirit.  However, they try to help in their own way as we learn they were previously married but are now divorced, having never shaken the effect from the events of the first film (or the second, which I didn't get around to seeing).  The original added an extra layer because the kids had to navigate the guilt over having killed someone while evading this person who is after them.  The events of this film which set it all in motion weren't their fault, but if they decided to report the event, the movie would be over.

Nonetheless, I Know What You Did Last Summer is more fun than you would expect.  The idea that similar events occurred thirty years prior isn't lost on the town nor these characters.  Sure, it has its moments of silliness, but it is engaging enough to spend a couple hours with.