A Lazy Replace On A Franchise That Ought to Have Been Lengthy Useless By Now

Although nobody requested for it, the following installment of I Know What You Did Final Summer time is again on the massive display screen. Nonetheless, it would not take lengthy earlier than the movie makes a powerful case in opposition to letting legacy sequels ever see the sunshine of day. Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt return to the franchise, transitioning from victims to mentors for the recent group of younger folks. These younger persons are performed by Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, and Sarah Pidgeon, who make up the brand new batch of characters being chased round Southport by a determine in a hook.

Directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, identified for Somebody Nice and Do Revenge, the brand new I Know What You Did Final Summer time drips with slang and topical references that already date the challenge. It would not take lengthy for the movie to make each enchantment it may possibly to youthful audiences, as Gabbriette Bechtel’s small function and allusions to the marketability of true crime attempt to show simply how in contact the challenge is. Nonetheless, whereas Southport and its enjoyable set items would possibly look higher than ever, this new coat of paint cannot fight the truth that we did not want one other I Know What You Did Final Summer time.

I Know What You Did Final Summer time Depends On The Legacy Of The Authentic To Excuse Lazy Storytelling

The Reboot Does not Attempt To Have A Contemporary Perspective

The brand new characters are aged as much as post-college life, and have extra complicated relationship dynamics than we have ever seen within the franchise. This time round, they know there ought to at all times be a chosen driver. Cline’s Danica is a spotlight, as she takes on the Helen-esque character who by no means has to take the occasions as severely as Marvel’s Ava, who shoulders the burden of just about all of the guilt and self-seriousness. Aside from Hewitt and Prinze Jr., who cellphone it in from the soar, the performances are often respectable.

Nonetheless, I Know What You Did Final Summer time isn’t courageous sufficient to make its characters really unhealthy, unlikable, or present that they’ve felt the after-effects of the guilt and trauma the film loves mentioning. Counting on the viewers’s information of the early motion pictures and the widespread acceptance of remedy communicate on the web, the movie is snug sufficient to be lazy in constructing the motivations of its characters, particularly its villains. The reboot expects near-limitless goodwill from audiences, however there’s solely a lot left to present when there are this many franchise revivals hitting screens.

I Know What You Did Final Summer time would possibly declare it thinks “nostalgia is overrated,” however this isn’t a part of the film’s ethos. Nostalgia is in every single place, pouring out of each scene, like all of the reboots which have come earlier than it. Whereas it is thrilling for long-time followers of the franchise to see Hewitt, Prinze Jr., and the various photos of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Helen that pop up all through the story, their characters and the historical past of Southport are all that give the narrative any sense of weight, and it appears like an echo.

I Know What You Did Final Summer time makes up for the dated parts of the unique by means of its fashionable themes and plot factors. The movie provides its feminine characters extra company, subverts the ultimate lady trope, and de-centers romance as the one vital kind of relationship. All of those parts are nice on paper, and I might have cherished to see Wonders’ Ava get to discover her sexuality much more than she already does. Nonetheless, it comes off as if the movie is checking off bins on a to-do listing slightly than embracing the significance of its personal ideology.

That is solely additional cemented by the truth that the movie is estranged from its sense of id. Each clarification in regards to the plot and characters feels just like the film is trying to get forward of a Reddit thread that may unpack the logical fallacies of the story. Nonetheless, I Know What You Did Final Summer time has too foolish an idea at its core for viewers to count on something aside from fantasy. The characters are good sufficient to do their analysis and follow the buddy system, till abruptly they are not, and are silly sufficient to face in graveyards alone.

I Know What You Did Final Summer time Does not Need To Scare You, It Needs To Make You Snigger

Outdoors A Few Gory Moments, The Movie Is Decided To Be Extra Foolish Than Scary

Whereas nobody involves a horror film like I Know What You Did Final Summer time trying to be scared, this legacy sequel will battle to frighten probably the most squeamish viewers members. The movie is sort of too well-lit for there to be a query about who’s hiding at midnight. The polished veneer would possibly give the reboot a extra critical look, nevertheless it detracts from the roots of the story and the way horror finds that steadiness between satire and terror. This is not helped by the truth that we by no means get the prospect to care about virtually anybody however Danica and Ava.

There are moments when the movie is genuinely humorous, and even a bit of candy, however the stakes are too low and nebulous to be troubled about who shall be gutted subsequent. The movie’s last-minute twist did not do something to make up for this, as even in the event you did not see the killer’s reveal coming, it is not stunning. I by no means discovered myself genuinely questioning who the assassin was, which is not a superb signal. I Know What You Did Final Summer time is not the worst long-awaited horror sequel ever put to display screen, nevertheless it would not attempt to be something however a shallow reflection of its predecessor.

I Know What You Did Final Summer time

4/10

Launch Date

July 18, 2025

Runtime

100 minutes

Director

Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

Writers

Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, Sam Lansky

Producers

Neal H. Moritz

• Madelyn Cline

  Danica Richards

• Chase Sui Wonders

  Ava Brucks

Execs & Cons

• The actors give respectable performances and do not take themselves too severely.
• I Know What You Did Final Summer time makes some fashionable updates that may enchantment to new followers of the franchise.

• The movie depends on the viewers’s goodwill & information of the franchise to make up for lazy character motivations.
• All of the makes an attempt to replace the story & make it extra logical come off as disingenuous.