Review: Somehow ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ hooks you in

2025 / Dir. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

Rating: 3.5/5

It may have been inevitable that the success of the recent Scream sequels would “inspire” a legacyquel to a teen slasher originally made to cash in on the first Scream’s success. What a surprise, then, the new I Know What You Did Last Summer is actually fun. 

Since we last left the dreary fishing village of Southport, the town has dramatically gentrified into North Carolina’s Hamptons as a way of escaping its murderous past. The Shivers’ family department store is now a private member’s club, and the coast is lined with billionaire mansions where we find our new group celebrating the impending nuptials of Danica (Madelyn Cline) and Teddy (Tyriq Withers).  

Predictably, a night drive turns into a little accidental manslaughter, but this time it’s easily swept under the rug by Teddy’s rich father. Compared to the kids from the first movie, whose hopes and dreams are crushed by what they did, the new Scooby gang’s relationships have shifted when we jump ahead one year later, but their privilege has let them continue on like nothing happened. That is, until a familiar hook-wielding fisherman makes sure Southport doesn’t forget its murderous roots. 

With plenty of winks and nods to the beats of the original—not to mention returning actors Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr.—director and co-writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge) understands what makes slasher movies kill and leans into it.

Slasher movies tend to be full of very pretty and very dumb people, so the cast is filled with intentionally silly and dumb characters. There’s a winking, campy Gen-Z tone throughout that never descends full on into parody, but ensures you understand that everyone knew what they were making and wanted to make sure the audience gets plenty of laughs and hook/harpoon-related mutilation. Characters knock the merits of nostalgia, call out the Scooby-Do-like mystery plotting, and in the case of Danica’s character, confront how they’re basically playing a riff on Sarah Michelle Gellar’s iconic Croaker Queen, Helen Shivers. 

The playful banter between Danica and her best friend, Ava (Chase Sui Wonders), helps to give this 2025 rendition a goofy energy that I’ve never seen played so naturally in a slasher film before, and helps to breathe some life into a roughly fifty-year-old genre. And while the film enjoys riffing on Danica’s silly self-care rituals and privilege, it treats its female characters with respect, thereby avoiding many of the clichés of the genre, such as fighting back instead of screaming endlessly, as Hewitt does frequently in the original. It helps, too, that Madelyn Cline has incredible comedic timing and, just like Gellar before her, feels like she’s on the verge of becoming a big star. 

Sure, I Know What You Did Last Summer could have taken more risks with the plot, and the kills aren’t super scary. But if studios are going to keep dusting off their IP (and they are), they should look to this movie, which knows exactly what it is and, for the most part, delivers. 

Watch if you like: Scream (2022), I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Love Island, girl bossing, and saying “yas queen” in 2025.