TheI Know What You Did Last Summerfranchise was resurrected this summer, and we know just what it did to get killed in the reviews. The new 2025 film shares a title with the original 1997 movie. Both center on a group of friends with a dark secret who are being stalked by a murderous stranger wielding a hook. The 1997 film, which starred decade-defining talent like Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt,and Sarah Michelle Gellar, was a commercial success that would generate two sequels and a television show, and is credited in part with the revitalization of the slasher genre.
Thus, naturally, when the reboot ofI Know What You Did Last Summerhit theaters this summerwith modern stars Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, and more, viewers' first instinct was to compare the new to the old.I Know What You Did Last Summer(2025) is kind of an endearing mess. It is not very good. In a way, though, that makes it a faithful homage. Despite all of its iconic attributes, there is one crucial thing that people seem to forget about the originalI Know What You Did Last Summer:it was not very good, either.
‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’(1997): A Mid-But-Fun Movie
Popular? Yes. Important? Certainly. But a high-quality film? No, never was. That’s okay!“Bad movies” are paramount to our societyand to the development of cinema at large, and few have had the cultural impact ofI Know What You Did Last Summer(1997). Upon release, it grossed over $125 million against a budget of only $17 million, staying in the top spot at the box office for three weeks straight and periodically re-emerging as a top film in theaters and on streaming platforms to this day. Conversely, on Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 47% score from audiences.Some common buzzwords that show up in reviews forI Know What You Did Last Summer(1997) include “tedious,” “routine,” and “formulaic.”
This is likely because the film is intentionally built on the foundations of horror movies that came before, withScreamcoming out just the year before and sparking a renewed interest in masked killers. It was not meant to be groundbreaking, or even anything new.It was meant to revisit the slasher genre faithfully, with emotional stakes that were just high enough, with a lot of hot actors. It did.Fans of the slasher genre praised its tributeto the classic characteristics of the form, and generally, people seemed to be entertained. The title, weighty but straightforward premise, and promise of gore drew people in, and still clearly does.I Know What You Did Last Summerhas been getting away with a reputation of prestige for decades, but it has never claimed to be anything more than entertaining and profitable.
‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’(2025): Another Mid But Still Fun Movie
Now, we haveI Know What You Did Last Summer, again. In this iteration, a group of five kids (as opposed to the original’s four) living in Southport, North Carolina, find themselves in analmost identical situation to the characters in the original; they accidentally commit manslaughter (or at least know it happened), keep it a secret, then mysterious notes and bodies start appearing. However, this time it is 27 years after the events of the original, and they all talk like Gen Z influencers (diva).
WhileI Know What You Did Last Summer(2025) may not have grossed as much as its predecessor,it is still making money and setting records(at the time of writing, it has made $46 million worldwide against an $18 million budget). Notably, on Rotten Tomatoes, the reboot has a worse critical score than the original but a better audience score. So, while by some definitions it was less successful than the source material, by some it was more. The most common critiques ofI Know What You Did Last Summer(2025) seem to concern its blatant expositional dialogue, over-reliance on nostalgia, and pacing. Thereasonsthat it is not very good differ fromI Know What You Did Last Summer(1997), but it’s justasnot good.
One must consider the context in which both movies were released, of course. The first set out to be a run-of-the-mill slasher and did not strive for more. The new one is fan service, and a modernized horror moviewith more gruesome kills than you could show in the ’90s.Both movies are flawed but serve as companions to one another, somehow. Both films are popcorn filler, and that’s sort of beautiful. However, the newI Know What You Did Last Summeris definitely not worse; it’s just not retro.
I Know What You Did Last Summer(1997) is now streaming onMGM+, andI Know What You Did Last Summer(2025) is now playing in theaters everywhere.
I Know What You Did Last Summer
