Preamble

“Well, well, well”, as Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent once said. There’s no reason for the quote other than to create a dramatic opening to the post. This is perhaps the longest time since I last saw a film and wrote about it. It’s not for lack of trying. It’s partly been down to time and a genuine bafflement about how I feel about the film itself. However, that stone has been turned, and with that said, have you seen the new I Know What You Did Last Summer? Let me know in the comments below.

Brief Consideration

Despite having the same screenwriter as Scream (Kevin Williamson), the original I Know What You Did Last Summer was a far more humble genre picture. It barely rose above mediocrity, thanks to some exciting sequences, its coastal setting, and a likeable cast. With this in mind, a legacy sequel would seem like a low-stakes and non-offensive trifle. However, the 2025 entry is anything but with an angle that shoots for the moon but never leaves the stratosphere due to a fundamentally muddled approach.

Taking place nearly 30 years after the original, the legacy sequel tells the story of Ava (Chase Sui Wonders), who returns to Southport for her friend’s engagement party. Whilst out there, she catches up with old college buddies who decide to take an inebriated, light night drive. Tragedy strikes when one of the friends causes a driver to steer off course. Whilst the group tries their best to save the driver from falling from a great height, they ultimately fail and vow to walk away, keeping the event a secret of silence. A year later, Ava’s best friend Danica (Madelyn Cline) has another engagement party. But this time, it has an ominous air as she receives an anonymous letter with the declaration- “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” The message sparks a chain of events that has echoes of the 1997 Southport attacks.

The second sequel exists on a tightrope between brutal and subversive. For every new grisly slasher sequence, there’s a twisty plot element. In theory, this is exciting, but in execution, it comes across as quite flawed. Critically, the new slasher film aims to add a dimension of empathy (especially around its central female friendship), but instead, it ends up feeling quite callous. For every instance of emphatic check-in and concern, there’s a shot fired at the notion of self-care. This chiefly comes in the film’s best sequence, where Danica’s boyfriend is murdered whilst she’s listening to a relaxation tape in a bubble bath. Through some savage editing and exacting medium shots, the sequence has tension and fun. However, it solidifies the film’s fine line between subversive and genuine.

This aspect is encapsulated in the twist ending. Conceptually, it builds upon some of the red herring material from the original film. However, given the events of the second film and the thematic mines this movie attempts to explore, it comes across as relatively shallow. As a means for the events of the original to gain prominence, it’s interesting. Still, we never hear the other side of the conspiracy beyond the superficial, immediate effects for some of the central cast. Along with an interesting idea of how one of the characters is processing the events sexually, you have a film that has more bark than bite. This is a shame as Jennifer Love Hewitt’s and Chase Sui’s performances occasionally imbue the movie with a fleeting sense of emotional truth.