It's the summer of 1997 and we can all go to the theatre to see the new horror movie with Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddy Prinze Jr. at the cinemas... Oh wait never mind it's 2025... but do not fret, we can still watch those two fend off slicker wearing killers with giant hooks. Sorry that was a terrible intro, but following the trend of so many other slasher franchises in recent years (Halloween and Scream for starters) we have the latest horror legacy sequel I Know What You Did Last Summer. The original from 1997 was actually one of the first horror movies I ever watched and I have a lot of fun with it still, so I actually felt some nostalgia going into this one. Did it live up to that? Yes and no.
The film takes place decades after the events of the first film, where the town of Southport has seemingly erased what happened to Julie (Love Hewitt) and Ray (Prinze Jr.) in 1997. A new cast of young friends find themselves on a familiar looking stretch of road by the water where they get high and watch fireworks, only for one of them to inadvertently cause an accident which... you guess it, they all agree to never speak of again. A year later the five friends reconnect as one receives a threatening note and bodies start to pile up.
This new cast was a lot of fun. Leading the way is Chase Sui Wonders, who sadly doesn't have the leading presence that Love Hewitt did in the original but is still a good lead. There are some moments where the writing of her character didn't really work for me, but from a performance standpoint she did a good job. Madelyn Cline is probably the most well known newcomer and I thought she was hilarious. Her character is quite ditsy and similarly has some bizarrely written lines, but something about how naive she is makes the character hard not to love. Jonah Hauer-King (Prince Eric from the new Little Mermaid) was maybe my favourite of the gang. He kind of plays the Prinze Jr. role as the quieter of the male leads and I just found him very charming and his character was used in a way I didn't really expect. The louder of the male leads is played by Tyriq Withers who also stars in the football horror Him coming out later this year, and he's exactly what you want from the jock archetype in a slasher movie, somewhat dumb and way overly confident. The new cast is rounded out by Sarah Pidgeon as Stevie, a friend that the gang had lost touch with until the fateful night adding an interesting dynamic to the crew. Love Hewitt and Prinze Jr. are of course more than welcome as parts of the ensemble, neither of them are doing anything fresh or exciting but both fill that legacy role well and it's great to see them on screen.
One area I didn't expect to be wowed by here was the kills. The body count is shockingly high for this type of whodunnit slasher, and some of the kills are straight up gnarly. The tension is also pretty stellar throughout, and some of the settings allow for some great set pieces. The house Withers' character lives in is particularly fun, with a lot of excessive wealth on display allowing for some fun kill scenes. For the most part I think this captured the spirit of the original well while adjusting it to current times. Some of the dialogue probably won't age well, but the town of Southport is built out more which allows the film to take on new ideas while also paying tribute to its roots. Sadly the third act let me down quite a bit. The pacing throughout can be a bit slow and repetitive but I didn't have a big issue with that because I was enjoying the dynamics and tension. The ending though feels a bit rushed and I'm not a big fan of one big creative decision that was made. The climax also takes place in the middle of the day with the sun shining so the tension is sadly stripped away, especially compared to how many great moments of fear are sprinkled throughout.
The ending left me a little disappointed but I still had a good time with this. It's a fun and at times fresh take on the franchise that plays with its roots while also tackling some new ideas. If you need a fun summer slasher, this will absolutely do the job. Oh also the soundtrack is fantastic so go watch it just for that. 3/5
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