Review: ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer' is ‘Love Island,' but with murder
There are impossibly good-looking, 'Love Island'-like young people at a sun-dappled seaside resort occasionally hooking up with lots of drama, then murders spoil the fun.
Although it is the first feature theatrical release in the franchise since 1998's 'I Still Know What You Did Last Summer,' it seems so familiar. The first two are a constant staple on streaming and cable, and a one-season Prime Video series, which like the original 1997 film was based on Lois Duncan's 1973 young adult novel, debuted in 2021.
The current film is not a remake, but a sequel, and one of its drawing cards is that original cast members Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. reprise their roles. Plus another person, but we're not allowed to say.
But it's most definitely the year 2025 and it's a young person's show. While not a game changer in any way, director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Netflix's ' Do Revenge ') has delivered an appealing, efficiently packaged but rather predictable slasher film with a game cast.
In other words, it's as advertised — no more, no less.
The weird thing, though, is that the 'crime' that gets the young people in trouble isn't really a crime. In the original, they accidentally hit a pedestrian and then sank the body in a nearby river to hide the evidence. That's a couple of crimes at least.
In this one, a careening car goes off the cliff trying to avoid hitting a clowning around Teddy (Tyriq Withers) as a group of five young people are enjoying Fourth of July fireworks. 'That's manslaughter!' says one as they justify fleeing the scene.
Uh, not really. Any good lawyer can prove that the car was driving dangerously.
Anyway. The damage is done, and Teddy and the rest of them — his fiance, Danica (Madelyn Cline of ' Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery '), her best friend Ava (Chase Sui Wonders of Apple TV+'s ' The Studio '), Ava's current crush Milo (Jonah Hauer-King of ' The Little Mermaid ') and the group's estranged friend Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon of Hulu's ' Tiny Beautiful Things ') agree never to tell anyone.
Nonetheless, a year later, at Danica's bridal shower, she gets a greeting card with the ominous 'I know what you did last summer' scrawled in blood. The bodies then begin to pile up, courtesy of what I call the Gorton's Fisherman's evil twin.
There are plenty of twists and turns — by the killer's signature hook as well as the plot — as the 20-somethings band together to stay alive and solve the crime. They look to Julie James (Hewitt), a survivor in the first two films, for advice; Ray Bronson (Prinze) is a bar owner who is mentoring Stevie.
Look, 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' is fun, recapturing a '90s slasher film vibe. It's no 'Bring Her Back,' the Aussie horror chiller released around Memorial Day, but it's not meant to be.
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