I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) Review Wins The Miss Croaker Crown!!

“Nostalgia is overrated”

This line is said during the I Know What You Did Last Summer legacy sequel. Since the (unexpected) box-office success of 1997’s I Know What You Did Last Summer, we’ve gotten a terrible sequel rushed into production featuring Jack Black in dreadlocks. If that’s the only thing you remember about I Still Know What You Did Last Summer then you’re luckier than most. And if you actually wasted your life sitting through the straight-to-VHS I Will Always Know What You Did Last Summer then it will prove that at least one person saw it and lived. Congratulations.

Back to nostalgia being overrated.

You wish the movie actually took that sentiment to heart because IKWYDLS ’25 leans into nostalgia so hard you wonder if the movie would be worth watching if it weren’t for Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr reappearing as Julie and Ray.

It’s barely worth watching WITH them so nostalgia is pretty much all the newest sequel has going for it and even that wanes with every uninspired kill.

I Know ’25 opens on the beloved formerly bloody shore of Southport. Fortunately the blood has been washed off and replaced by gentrification.

We meet Ava (Chase Sui Wonders) and she hasn’t been back to Southport in months. She’s here for her high school bestie Danica’s engagement party and---

Let’s give these characters a formal introduction so you can kind of remember their names while you watch the movie. The new cast is so thinly written that they can barely be distinguished from each other (“It’s that girl from The Studio” or “that girl from Glass Onion” or “the one that looks like Patrick Mahomes”). Also, this helps me pad the word count.

• Ava (Chase Sui Wonders)- The one from The Studio. She’s back and she used to date Milo and she’s definitely the killer or she’ll die third.
• Milo (Jonah Hauer-King)- Milo is super white. And in a town with no black people that’s saying something. He used to date Ava and that is the extent of his characterization. He’s definitely the killer unless he’s a victim.
• Madelyn Cline (Danica)- The girl from Glass Onion and that show on Netflix. Danica is getting engaged and that’s why everyone is at Southport before getting killed by a hook. She’s engaged to Teddy Spencer and that’s it for her character. She’s probably the killer.
• Tyriq Withers (Teddy Spencer)- He looks kind of like Patrick Mahomes. Why does he get a last name? Because Teddy’s daddy is the superrich D-bag Grant Spencer (Tom Atkins) and he controls everything in Southport. If Teddy isn’t the killer then his dad is or they’re in this together.
• Sarah Pidgeon (Stevie)- Stevie stayed in Southport all her life and had mental issues which makes definitely makes her the killer or a cleverly placed red herring.

They’re good friends that have drifted apart. You can be sure they don’t even remember each other’s names but nothing is going to keep them from celebrating Danica and Teddy’s engagement.

They decide to go on a little joyride and only most of them are drinking.

I don’t know if you remember the first I Know What You Did Last Summer, but the same things happen to these photogenic characters in a horror movie.

They end up killing someone on the SAME ROAD as the previous movie. What are the odds? They decide to cover it up despite objections from---

You’ve seen the first movie. You know what the f*ck happens.

We fast forward a year later and Danica is getting engaged to a different guy (you won’t need to know his name because he’ll be dead). While she’s opening up her presents she gets a note “I Know What You Did Last Summer”.

People will end up dead by hook or by, um, hook. The Fisherman is back wearing that slicker and leather hat in July heat. Very practical. That slicker has magical powers borrowed from The Strangers because he’ll appear behind someone without making a noise or just *know* were a victim will turn up.

Douchey Grant Spencer tried to erase the memory of the 1997 murders by scrubbing its memory from Southport. That’ll be more difficult to do once the body count rises like the tide.

If only there were characters from the first movie that could help our nondescript new cast from being killed.

• Of the new cast, only Madelyn Cline distinguishes herself as the acerbic Danica. Clyne says the movie’s funniest lines and she’s the only one the audiences feels invested in other than Ray or Julie. If she’s not dead you hope Danica makes it to the sequel.
• In many ways (and not always to the movie’s benefit), the entire movie is built up to the midpoint where we finally see legacy characters Ray and Julie. They have history (to say the least) and their scenes together are the only ones in which you feel real stakes.

• Director/cowriter Jennifer Kaytin Robinson is a credited cowriter for 2022’s underwhelming Thor Love and Thunder. Why bring that up? Because, using the Marvel model, if you have enough CAMEOS, it totally makes up for the story being substandard and the kills being generic. Fan service dopamine can be a wonderful distraction if done well. It’s only later you realize how empty that strategy is when you can’t remember anything else about the movie other than _____ showed up. You’re almost surprised they didn’t digitally recreate Anne Heche.
• It’s 2025. NO ONE gets frightened when someone is behind them in a benign manner. Unless you’re upping a cheap jump scare quota.
• Most of the movie’s attempted scares include a LOUD SOUND because why try building suspense when you can shatter eardrums.

I Know What You Did Last Summer is JJ Abrams-ish nostalgia-bation that isn’t without its minor merits if you don’t think about it too much. You’ll see it for the kills, but the only thing you’ll remember is Julie and Ray. What are you waiting for?