’90s campy slasher I Know What You Did Last Summer returns with a nostalgia sequel that honors the past, but stands on its own.
“Nostalgia is overrated,” a character declares in I Know What You Did Last Summer. But as with any legacy sequel, nostalgia is anything but.
If you looked at Southport, North Carolina, in 2025, you’d think the seaside oasis has always been full of charm. That’s by design: the town has tried to scrub its history of its 1997 murder spree (as seen in the original I Know What You Did Last Summer) and draw vacationers. For locals, the murders are a thing of the past, too. It’s a playground for rich vacationers and locals alike.
I can still recall our last summer.
After their engagement party, preppy lovebirds Danica (Madelyn Cline) and Teddy (Tyriq Withers) join friends Ava (Chase Sui Wonders), Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), and Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon) to watch fireworks at Southport’s best coastal roadside spot.
But the seaside fairytale evening halts to an abrupt end when the quintet causes a fatal accident. After a fair bit of debate, they absolve themselves of responsibility. They do their best to forget their involvement in someone’s death, but can only lay low for so long. A year later, a threatening note arrives, bearing the all-too-familiar words: “I know what you did last summer.” And, just like 27 years ago, a fisherman slicker-wearing killer with a hook and a harpoon gun is on the loose in Southport.
The film follows the same beats as the original (much as 2022’s Scream did with 1996’s Scream), with a Gen Z flair. Danica calls her friends “diva”; a shoutout to Nicole Kidman’s AMC Theatres intro gets a great laugh. Ava crosses paths with a nonchalant podcaster (Gabbriette Bechtel) whose interest in true crime sparks suspicion. “This place is to die for,” Bechtel says in droll monotone, wandering around Southport. For a film set in 2025, it’s rife with modern references yet surprisingly low on cell phones and social media. You’d think those are useful tools for catching a killer, given Southport’s reluctance to acknowledge its violent past.
Familiar faces and places.
It’s not a true nostalgia sequel without some throwback appearances. Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze, Jr. reprise their roles from the original films. If you’re new to the series, have no fear about catching up with Hewitt and Prinze’s significance in Southport. Their involvement and trauma in the 1997 murders is repeated often. The screenplay isn’t exactly subtle, with threads and gags that lead nowhere. (Ava’s deceased mother is only mentioned in the opening scene; repeated references about Danica’s French life coach serve only to make her sound out of touch.) Other throwbacks set up an obvious plea for a sequel.
It’s the bloodiest film in the franchise, and unafraid to take risks in its murders. Not every slasher leaves the impression that everyone is at genuine risk of death, but the film takes no prisoners. Nostalgia sequels are often afraid of letting their characters change or grow beyond giving sage advice to newcomers. But anything can happen to anyone in Southport, and the stakes are real.
A film about a group bonded by circumstance is only as good as its cast. Of the five protagonists, Cline steals the show here as she did in another murder mystery (Glass Onion, anyone?). Danica could be a privileged airhead in the wrong hands, but Cline makes her warm, funny, and dimensional. The non-legacy adults of Southport (Billy Campbell as Teddy’s father, Austin Nichols as an unsettling pastor) are given less time to make a mark, but round out the cast of suspects all the same.
The bottom line.
You’d be forgiven for asking, “Did we need another I Know What You Did Last Summer”? In a time when any IP can (and does) return, a legacy sequel is an easy sell, but not an indicator of quality. I Know What You Did Last Summer shares the exact same DNA as its predecessor, but it’s a fun slasher in its own right.
I Know What You Did Last Summer is out now in theaters. Watch the trailer here.
Images courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing. Read more articles by Claire Di Maio here.
REVIEW RATING
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I Know What You Did Last Summer - 7/10
7/10
Claire was once asked in elementary school why her go-to question was always, “Watch anything good lately?” It’s still her go-to question, because she loves hearing what other people are passionate about. She often sacrifices sleep in the hopes that she will one day clear her to-watch and to-read lists (a futile effort so far).
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