- Date of Release: 18 July 2025
- Genre: Horror
- Language: English
- Watch On: Theatres Only
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Introduction
There was a time in the 90s when a 7 year old me was fascinated witnessing a bunch of movie posters on my way to school. One of the posters that distinctly intrigued me was that of a masked killer on a film poster that immediately had me wanting to watch the summer blockbuster. That film was I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), an A-rated film that I would eventually get to watch years later on television. The classic slasher genre ‘masked’ as a campy murder mystery was just so my genre while growing up. Hell they even replicated the same story in the 2003 Hindi film Kucch Toh Hai. The idea of a masked killer silently sitting at the back of a car, only to splash the screen with the blood of an unsuspecting victim, is everything that one would want from a slasher film. But the latest installment (or reboot or spiritual sequel or plain IP renewal) of the I Know What You Did Last Summer is so lazy, that you can judge it from the fact that even the name is the same as the first film. Such are the times filled with boredom that creativity has been bankrupt, and all you are served is a tepid slasher film in the name of horror that isn’t even campy fun at the moment.
Story & Screenplay
Nostalgia, a word that was once used to teleport you to the golden era, is now just used so loosely. So when the tagline of I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) exudes of the words ‘when terror meets nostalgia’, it immediately tells you a thing or two about the woeful slasher attempt of a film. It is typically a film that doesn’t boast of an identity of its own, we all are quite aware of the standard ingredients of the genre – a bunch of loser victims, a masked killer and the hunt that pins each one of them down. But the moment one tries to induce nostalgia in the mix, it is a way of telling people that the basic idea of the film is the same but we are bringing in ‘freshness’ through its yesteryear characters, but that too in the lamest way possible! The result – the slasher genre at its dumbest worst!
One of the things that Scream did correctly was stick to its original recipe without experimenting too much with the setup. But here, the setup itself is forced. You are introduced to Ava (Chase Sui Wonders) who decides to reunite with her gang comprising of her bestieDanica (Madelyn Cline), old crush Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), Danica’s fiancé Teddy (Tyriq Withers), and former friend Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon), on the fourth of July in the town of Southport. The familiar antics ought to have been accidental, rather than forced but here instead, you notice Teddy fooling around in the middle of the road, an event that triggers an accident. It seems like an event against the run of play, wherein a set batter is inexplicably dismissed rather than being knocked over by the bowler’s skillset. And that tells you everything that is wrong with the writing here.
It baffled me that the plot never delved deeper into the politics of the land that it once hinted at through its brief commentary on classism. It aspired to remain focused on the slasher killings. But if a slasher film is yawn-inducing, then that remains a story in itself. The basic staging of the murders felt so basic that it didn’t amount to any sort of tension. There is a bit of a playfulness that you would associate in slasher films wherein the audience is always a couple of steps ahead of the victim, who is about to be sliced and diced like the vegetables in Ratatouille (2007). The victim’s condition can be compared to the fruits in the fruit ninja game, with the audience literally being a silent bystander, wanting the killer to get to him but also wishing to ‘mask’ the mystery. But nothing of the sort happens, even as bodies are piled on, and characters enter and leave or even disappear for a while, before appearing again. It gave me the feeling of Aman (Salman Khan) from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), just that he plays the disappearing act for the longest time in the film. Talk about a writing manipulation!
One of the lamest attempts at nostalgia occurs when the survivors lead by Ava and Danica look for advice on how to survive the onslaught (oh my word, do you really need advice other than leaving town as step number one?). That brings in the entry of two survivors of the earlier films – Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt; childhood crush alert!) and Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr). As it turns out, Ray and Julie were married previously and now divorced, a detail that has no relevance to the drama here. Hence, even Julie’s advice of surviving and unmasking the killers themselves remains a laughable one, a fact that speaks volumes of the collective dumbness of all characters. At a point, it isn’t even hard to guess the masked killer but all you get is characters scrambling, randomly making out, getting sliced and dying a dog’s death, without any buildup (remember the Final Destination franchise and how well the buildups are?).
The final revelation is probably the lamest and dumbest reveal yet, something that had me gleefully smiling. Why would you reveal yourself before hunting down the victims? Why would you take a while to put on your raincoat (or whatever the hell that costume is), just to take it off and reveal yourself? Why wouldn’t you kill them in the umpteen chances that you got in the earlier reels? Why are you still reading this review? What is even more funny is the aftermath that pushes the film into unchartered territory of laughter. I mean, the reasoning would take pole position in the dumbest ones of all times. And that quite honestly sums up the screenplay wherein I don’t even what to know what the writers did last summer!
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues are corny and hardly memorable. In fact, the random interactions between the characters hardly have a charisma to boast of, neither allowing the lines to buildup the tension nor veering into a campy self-aware comedy zone. It is plain poor and lazy writing that never makes the conversations engaging. The same applies for its woeful BGM that is so low-key, that it hardly creates the drama around the killings. The cinematography comprises of frames that are generic and stereotypical to the genre. The killings aren’t gory enough and neither are the images enough to hold your attention. The frames never really allow you to invest in the survival of any characters, who are on a sleep-walking trip of their own. And the less you speak about the identity of the killer, the better! I could bet that some B-grade films would stage the killings better, with way better framing! The editing is patchy, a trait that never allows an iota of tension to build upon. As a result, you literally sit in your seat lifeless while waiting for the killer’s checklist to end. Director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson who had previously directed the wonderful film Do Revenge (2022), surprisingly misses the mark by a country mile. The direction is so poor that it doesn’t induce any sort of excitement, artificial or otherwise while making for a slasher that is just so lazy. If I were to close my eyes and recall the killings, none of them would instantly come to my mind. And that says a story or two on how they are staged in the first place. The direction is plain bad, no two ways about it.
Performances
The performances are plain poor by the members of the cast. There is not even one standout performance that you would associate with a film of this genre. Freddie Prinze Jr as Ray and Jennifer Love Hewitt as Julie make the laziest appearances in the name of nostalgia. As a result, both their performances seldom leave a mark. Billy Campbell as Grant, Austin Nichols as Pastor, Tyriq Withers as Teddy and Jonah Hauer-King as Milo all formulate a crowd that has very little to do. Sarah Pidgeon as Stevie is decent but nothing much to write home about. Madelyn Cline as Danica isn’t quite impactful while just going through the motions of run, scream and survive. Chase Sui Wonders who was brilliant in The Studio (2025), shows glimpses of form here as Ava. But if the writing is a letdown, there is only so much that an actor can do to salvage it. And that remains a classic case here!
Conclusion
I Know What You Did Last Summer is the slasher genre at its dumbest worst. It is so horrendous and patchy that it resembles a B-grade film that is backed by lazy writing and even lazier filmmaking. Time to put on a mask and hunt down mediocrity, you are welcome! Available in a theatre near you.