Nostalgia is a killer in I Know What You Did Last Summer

Recalling the true-crime interests of a woman she met (and joined the mile high club with) on her plane to North Carolina, Ava seeks out Tyler (Gabbriette, of “360” fame), who is specifically visiting to record an episode of her podcast Live Laugh Slaughter, which would center on events that occurred nearly three decades ago. Much more knowledgeable of the local lore than anyone else in the friend group, Tyler takes Ava on a walking tour of the town, stopping by the scene (and set) of a specific murder (managing to plug the insensitive Etsy merch she sells while she’s at it). But Tyler’s help can only go so far, meaning that Ava and her friends must also consult the only two survivors of the 1997 attacks: Julie and Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.), whose own relationship has become quite acrimonious over the years.

The chemistry within the younger friend group is convincing enough to command attention, but the true standouts are Cline and Withers. Treating their cloyingly online lingo as a comedic vessel, Cline infuses Danica with a sense of levity that never reduces her to a dumb caricature. (“It’s giving nuptials,” she coos as an ominous wedding march blares seconds before disaster.) Indeed, Helen Shivers (Sarah Michelle Geller in the original film) is a guiding spirit here, both in terms of Danica’s feisty nature and the character’s eventual obsession with the late pageant queen as an ominous harbinger of her own fate. Even longstanding criticisms that the wrong protagonist was chosen—Julie in lieu of Helen—for the 1997 I Know What You Did Last Summer feel apt here: Ava is less concrete and driven than Danica, who takes bigger risks and generally commands the screen. Withers also flexes his comedic chops, but with a riveting attention to physicality. For a character that easily could have been an intolerable, douchey rich kid, his arrogance gives way to affability. Perhaps due to their specific characters’ complex bond, Cline and Withers are afforded more interiority to plumb.

By contrast, Ava, Milo, and Stevie are adrift, because their personal complexities are merely hinted at rather than truly fleshed-out. Ava addressed her deceased mother aloud in her bedroom, but never mentions her again; Milo, despite being Teddy’s best friend, is inexplicably one of the only men at Danica’s bridal shower; and Stevie’s previous falling out with the group is never really elaborated on. Even the returning Julie and Ray are kept at a distance, without any significant insight into the dissolution of their relationship. Though none of these undercooked story beats make any of the killings less consequential, they do inhibit the strength of the final reveal.

If this new version of I Know What You Did Last Summer offers any impressive upgrades, it’s within the special effects department, which considerably elevates the level of gore. While the original’s director, Jim Gillespie, intentionally eschewed gratuitous violence, Robinson relishes in it. Blood spews, hooks sink, new orifices are torn into flesh. It’s gnarly stuff, a necessary and visceral touch to a film that otherwise lacks cohesion. Several threads are dangled but never tied—a Jaws-esque plot to refrain from starling tourists with news of murder, an uptick of “gentrifislaytion” in the once-quaint fishing town, the insensitivity that permeates much of true-crime content, the power of religion to help and harm in equal measure—but at least the film’s violent register remains consistent. 

Unlike a recent franchise reimagination like 28 Years Later or even the pop culture savvy remix of 2022’s Scream (side note: both Wes Craven and Gillespie’s original films were written by Kevin Williamson), I Know What You Did Last Summer doesn’t successfully subvert its storyline nor glean anything remarkable by setting it in our current era. Even Julie’s climactic dismissal of nostalgia lacks cutting commentary: If not motivated by outright nostalgia, why dredge up characters and plotlines that were all perfectly fine remaining in 1997?

Director: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
Writer: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, Sam Lansky
Starring: Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Billy Campbell, Gabbriette Bechtel, Austin Nichols, Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt
Release Date: July 18, 2025