It’s been nearly thirty years since the original I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) turned Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Ryan Phillippe into teen-horror icons. Now director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge) revives the tale with bigger scares, glossier kills, and a knowing wink at its own absurdity.
In this soft sequel-cum-reboot, a new group of Gen-Z friends—Madelyn Clyne, Tyriq Withers, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, and Sarah Pidgeon—cover up a near-fatal car accident on a windswept cliffside. Predictably, they find themselves stalked by the infamous hook-wielding fisherman. The set-up echoes the original: a youthful mistake, a pact of silence, and a lurking killer hungry for revenge. Logic is happily tossed aside in favor of stylized suspense.
The young ensemble leans into broad caricature: Clyne’s Danica flits through scenes as a bewildered heiress; Withers’ Teddy unhelpfully drops into a sauna amid the crisis; Wonders’ Ava strives for pragmatism but can’t resist the pull of Hauer-King’s brooding ex, Milo. Pidgeon’s Stevie—once the grounded friend, now grappling with selling out—provides the story’s lone emotional arc. Their uneven chemistry matches the script’s deliberate silliness, daring viewers not to take it seriously.
Nostalgia resurfaces in well-timed cameos: Jennifer Love Hewitt’s original final girl Julie James returns, flanked by Freddie Prinze Jr.’s Ray, reminding audiences of the franchise’s roots. These moments, along with moody coastal cinematography and sleek kill sequences—complete with gleaming hooks under dramatic lighting—represent the film’s strongest assets.
Yet the reboot stops short of reinventing the slasher wheel. Its half-mocking, half-celebratory embrace of genre tropes yields fleeting tension and occasional commentary on class and identity, but rarely a truly haunting experience. For horror aficionados and 1990s nostalgists alike, it offers an entertaining, self-aware scream—campy and fun, if not groundbreaking.
