I Know What You Did Last Summer
I Know What You Did Last Summer
When five friends inadvertently cause a deadly car accident, they cover up their involvement and make a pact to keep it a secret rather than face the consequences. A year later, their past comes back to haunt them and they're forced to confront a horrifying truth: someone knows what they did last summer…and is hell-bent on revenge.
Hipster ZOMBIE reviewedJuly 20, 2025
The 2025 reboot of I Know What You Did Last Summer is less a revival and more a cinematic autopsy—one performed with the grace of a dull meat cleaver and the vision of a boardroom exec clutching a 90s nostalgia checklist. While “Scream” has managed to evolve with clever self-awareness and thematic depth, Summer stumbles out of the fog like its infamous Fisherman—drenched, directionless, and reeking of desperation.
This film is a text book lesson on how not to use nostalgia in a film series.
Let’s start with the so-called “new blood.” The fresh cast of characters are as hollow and disposable as bait fish. Not one of them manages to generate even a flicker of intrigue or emotional investment. They cycle through tired slasher tropes with all the charisma of a damp dishrag, each more bland and uninspired than the last. The film leans on modern buzzwords and Gen Z aesthetics, but beneath the surface, there’s nothing but a soulless void where compelling personalities or actual stakes should be. So in that aspect it’s at least true to the original that also had brain dead leads led around by a poorly written script.
And then there’s the twist—oh, the twist. In a laughably misguided attempt to inject shock value, the filmmakers wheel out Freddie Prinze Jr. as the killer in a third-act reveal that’s as cheap as it is insulting. The once-boyish heartthrob has apparently spent the past 25 years stewing in bitterness, now wielding a hook and spouting one-liners like a Dollar Store Ghostface. Worse still, the long-hyped “confrontation” between him and Jennifer Love Hewitt plays like a contractual obligation rather than a narrative climax. There’s no tension, no emotion—just two actors awkwardly trading exposition until the credits mercifully roll. And don’t even get me started on the Sarah Michelle Gellar cameo (albeit in a dream because her character died in the first film) that feels so left field and out of place. But at least her charm brought some life to this slogging film.
Creatively, the film is bankrupt. The atmosphere is neutered, the kills unimaginative, and the script—if you can call it that—is a patchwork of recycled beats from better films. There’s no mystery, no suspense, and certainly no style. Even the iconic seaside setting feels sterile and lifeless, devoid of the haunting charm that once gave the franchise its edge.
Ultimately, I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) is a textbook case of a reboot that misunderstands its source, underestimates its audience, and overestimates its own relevance. Rather than reimagine or expand the story, it desecrates what little legacy the original had left—hook, line, and stinker.