I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) is one of the most notable slasher films in the last three decades, building a massive following and earning the title of a cult classic film. So to revive a beloved franchise almost two decades later was always going to be a risky move. Would 2025’s I Know What You Did Last Summer embody the same campy cliched energy of the first two films? Or will it be forgetful and unoriginal like the direct to video film that came out in 2006?
This fourth film instalment finds us back in the small town of Southport, North Carolina, right where the massacre of 1997 first took place. But the horrific past is seemingly long behind the citizens of Southport, as we meet Ava Brucks (Chase Sui Wonders), who’s in town to celebrate the engagement of two of her friends from high school; her best friend Danica Richards (Madelyn Cline), and her fiancee Teddy Spencer (Tyriq Withers). Ava’s high school ex boyfriend Milo (Jonah Hauer-King) is also at the engagement party, where Danica sneakily tries to plot a plan to get them back together by suggesting they visit the best spot to watch the fourth of July fireworks and get high – the same spot they frequented as teens. As they’re leaving the engagement party, they bump into another old friend Stevie Ward (Sarah Pidgeon), who’s working the party and became estranged from the group after a troubled and unstable relationship with her father.
They invite her to tag along like old times and drive up the windy roads together, parking alongside one of the most dangerous bends on the road. Too carefree and stoned to care, Teddy stands in the middle of the road while watching the fireworks, when a pick up truck suddenly comes around the sharp corner and veers into the guardrails to avoid hitting Teddy. The truck barely hangs on as the group tries to save the man in it, as it falls straight off the cliff and into the water. Feeling completely traumatised, they agree to call the police and leave the scene to report it in person. But Danica and Teddy have other plans, and force the group to never speak of what happened that summer again. Until a year later, where history begins to repeat itself.
I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) is exactly what it needed to be. While there were many moments that were clearly filmed for the purpose of fan service with references and fun cameos that die hard horror fans would love – cue “What are you waiting for?” – in every way, the film delivers on what you’d expect from slasher movies. It features a group of hot friends getting murdered one by one by a masked killer, and mirrors the same thrills, scares, gruesome deaths, and incredibly cheesy one-liners that made this genre so famous in the 90s and early 2000s, all while staying completely relevant to this day and age. Although the incessant use of the terms like “diva” and other internet buzzwords can take you out of the world, as it feels like a very forced way to connect with a “woke” Gen Z audience. But otherwise the film does what it intends to do, which is to entertain and scare; and in true slasher film form, reveal an unexpected twist at the end.
It also helps that the storyline is driven by the fact that what happened in 1997 is happening again to a whole new group of people in 2025. So it’s hard to go wrong when the blueprint of what people love from the first film is right there.
Hopefully this reboot can bring in a new appreciation for the first film from a whole new generation – especially with some of the internet’s current favourite girlies and newest scream queens, Chase Sui Wonders and Madelyn Cline being added to the mix. It would also be a disservice not to mention how they were the two perfect Final Girls to hero this movie. Not to say that the rest of the cast don’t deserve their flowers, but their performances definitely stand out from the film, where their characters were so real and plausible that you felt their fear and pain too.
The already star-filled cast also featured Gabbriette Bechtel, who plays a stereotypical crime podcaster named Tyler Trevino, obsessed with the 1997 massacre; armed with merch of Helen Shivers to truly realise the capitalist nature of what true crime podcasts have become. And it wouldn’t be I Know What You Did Last Summer without legacy characters like Jennifer Love Hewiett and Freddie Prinze Jr.’s, reprising their roles as Julie James and Ray Bronson, as well as surprise cameos from Sarah Michelle Gellar and Brandy. A real treat for the dedicated followers and lovers of the slasher genre.
This film unapologetically plays into the cliches and thrills of a slasher film. Where slasher movies evoke emotions of fear and anxiety by forcing us to hold onto the anticipation of unmasking the killer until the very end. We watch how the mystery unfolds and are looking for clues we can pick up on to unmask the killer before the big reveal. We sit there and root for the main characters and beg them to turn around when the killer is behind them. And you think every character that feels a little bit off is the killer. So while it’s not the perfect film, it hits the beats of what makes this genre so intriguing and exciting, and it’s safe to say that I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) proved its place in the franchise.
