Take 25: I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)

In the now, not-so-small fisher town of Southport, five friends, Ava, Danica, Milo, Teddy, and Stevie are out celebrating the engagement Danica and Teddy when they accidentally cause a fatal car accident and make a pact to keep it secret. A year later, they start getting messages from a mysterious stranger who “knows what they did last summer.” Sound familiar? This time who however, they have the benefit of two survivors of the original Southport massacre, Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) but will it be enough to “keep them off the hook?” (Just made that up myself. I kind ate, didn’t I?)

For the most part, this feels like it could have been a remake- the plot is very much the same as the original save for the fact that they add a few angles that make it a true sequel- the setting is the same and and it acknowledges what came before. We see that Southport has evolved a bit and Julie and James play a big role in this one. Smart move, the Scream franchise has been revived as more of a continuation than a reboot. Final Destination returned to theaters earlier this year in the same manner. It’s not surprise that I Know What You Did Last Summer would capitalize.

But as always the case, I Know What You Did Last Summer has always been a red-headed stepchild to Scream. This movie is almost there, but it just doesn’t quite stick the landing and comes a tad short.

But there is some good. Hewitt and Prinze look great and it’s nice to see where they are now and how their lives are still affected by the Massacre. The acting is solid. There are twist and shots are definitely taken. There are even some REALLY good surprises that will resonate with fans of the original movies.

There is a lot of bad though. The inciting incident just does seem believable. For them to NOT go to the police and clear things up before it all goes left just didn’t feel sincere. They really didn’t do anything wrong. This really should and could have been avoided, but thererin lies the issue because they’d be no movie, but it seems like they could have tried a little harder. I am all for hot lesbians, but that part of the plot seems thrown in for shock value and doesn’t go anywhere. There is a huge twist that was effective I guess, but for he life of me, it is explained so quickly I’m not sure I go the reason behind it. The pacing also seemed a little off.

There is potential here for sure, but one has to ask how much can you really do with this same premise? It’s like the people behind make in it were banking on that alone to carry it, but not sure it worked. I definitely didn’t hate it but unlike the latest interactions of Scream which I love, this is still the comes across as the red-headed stepchild.

My score: 7.1

Your thoughts? Were you more hooked than I was? Tell me in the comments. Until next time….