Poor Julie James can’t seem to catch a break. Jennifer Love Hewitt‘s then-teenage character was first traumatized by a certain Ben Willis (Muse Watson), the vengeful fisherman who killed his victims with a fish hook. So traumatized that she had to yell “What are you waiting for?!” not once but twice in the first two movies. She did manage to get rid of the somewhat unstoppable Ben Willis at the end of the second movie in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.
Besides, emptying the bullets from a revolver all over his chest at point-blank range should be more than enough to kill him for good. But then again, Julie’s nightmare was far from over. Ben Willis was somehow alive, and the last time we saw him, he ended up pulling her from under the bed. Wasn’t he supposed to die, or was it just Julie having a nightmare that it looked too real? That was 27 years ago, and while there was a third film called I Always Know What You Did Last Summer, it was more of a standalone sequel with none of the original and sequel cast returning.
It took the franchise long enough to return with a direct sequel to the 1998 second movie, combining both original stars, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr., reprising their roles as Julie James and Ray Bronson with new characters. The latter becomes the main focus for the first half of I Know What You Did Last Summer as the movie gets off to a familiar but promising start: Ava (Chase Sui Wonders) is in town at Southport to attend her best friends Danica’s (Madelyn Cline) and Teddy’s (Tyriq Withers) engagement party. That night happens to be a Fourth of July celebration, and the three, along with Ava’s high school beau Milo (Jonah Hauer-King) and their fifth friend Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon), are out for a night drive to watch the fireworks from the cliffside on Reaper’s Curve.
Like the first movie, what begins as a fun drive soon turns into a nightmare, especially after the drugged-out Teddy causes an accident. Then comes the argument and reluctance that end up with five of them vowing to keep this a secret forever so they can move on with their lives. One year later, everything seems fine at first with Danica now about to marry Wyatt (Joshua Orpin) after she and the troubled Teddy called off their engagement. But it doesn’t take long before Danica receives a greeting card with handwritten words that read: “I Know What You Did Last Summer”.
Complicating matters is the arrival of Tyler (Gabbriette Bechtel), a podcaster who is obsessed with investigating the 1997 murders that once rocked Southport. Then, there’s Teddy’s father, Grant Spencer (Billy Campbell), a wealthy and highly influential developer who uses his power to cover up anything that can potentially tarnish Southport. The hook-wielding killer, completely obscured from the all-black bucket hat and fisherman’s slicker, soon dispatches the victims one by one, leaving Ava and her friends with no choice but to seek help from Julie, who is now working as a professor specializing in trauma.
Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Sam Lansky, sticks to the slasher-movie formula, going as far as mirroring the 2025 version with the 1997 original since both movies involved accidents at Reaper’s Curve in Southport on the night of the Fourth of July. Robinson even pays homage to the first movie’s iconic murder scene of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Helen Shivers during a thrillingly staged, elaborate set piece that takes place in a building. The kills are brutal and graphically violent, with the victims not just maimed by a fisherman’s hook, but this time, the killer also diversifies the choice of weapons from a harpoon to a rope and a knife.
Fans of slasher movies can expect obligatory, though mostly predictable jump scares and red herrings, allowing audiences to play armchair detectives to guess who’s the killer behind the massacre. But here lies the problem that I bet it’s going to be divisive once the killer is revealed, which is frankly, doesn’t do the legacy sequel justice, with Robinson and Lansky’s screenplay looking like they are trying too hard to make a strong impression. Some may find it bold, but personally, it’s a dumb and yet awkwardly misplaced decision, making me wonder if this legacy sequel even deserves its existence in the first place.
As for the cast, the younger ones are pretty much a mixed bag, with Chase Sui Wonders and Sarah Pidgeon excelling the most as Ava and Stevie. It’s nice to see Jennifer Love Hewitt returning to her iconic role that gave her the big-screen breakthrough nearly thirty years ago. But the same cannot be said with Freddie Prinze Jr.’s older and supposedly world-weary Ray Bronson, whose acting is somehow questionably stiff.
Robinson tries to strike a balance between a straightforward slasher and campy horror, but it is largely a hit-and-miss affair. The legacy sequel may not upstage, let alone match the 1997 original, which came out at the right time when the slasher genre was back in popular demand, thanks to the surprise hit of Scream. But if there’s any consolation, it was at least a step above the much-maligned I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.
