I was in my local multiplex for the opening day first showing of Jim Gillespie’s I Know What You Did Last Summer in October of 1997. As screenwriter Kevin Williamson hooked me with Scream the year prior, I was hoping to hear more of the smartass dialogue that he gave to his characters with this adaptation of Lois Duncan’s 1973 novel. Imagine my surprise when he didn’t, instead opting for a straight-up small-town horror movie; I’m not gonna lie, it scared the hell out of me. The sequel was forgettable, and I never saw the standalone third one. However, when it was announced last year that the original’s stars Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. were reuniting for a legacy sequel, I was thrilled.
28 years after the original, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s same-titled chapter in the franchise has arrived, and my hopes for a good movie have been fulfilled. Armed with good scares, laughs, and cool nods to the 1997 film (even its director gets a name drop), Robinson’s I Know What You Did Last Summer matches—and, at times, surpasses—the quality and fun of the original. Much of Robinson and co-writer Sam Lansky’s script owes a great debt to the novel and Williamson’s 1997 screenplay; the “a group of friends + reckless stupidity = dead person” story is the same, and the accident that kicks this slasher movie off occurs on the same part of the road where Julie (Hewitt), Ray (Prinze Jr.), and their friends had their own incident.
(Real talk: You’d think that the Southport police would be patrolling this hairpin curve every Fourth of July. No one’s learned.)
But where we diverge is in how Robinson and Lansky construct their story. Instead of high school graduates, we’re asked to jump in with recent college graduates with jobs and, in one case, a wedding to plan. By giving them even the smallest amount of responsibility, the stakes are inflated past those from the original; Danica (Madelyn Cline), Ava (Chase Sui Wonders), Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), Teddy (Tyriq Withers), and Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon) all have something more to lose than a beauty pageant title. Of course, when the chance comes to do the right thing and be held accountable for their actions—which have caused a pickup truck and its driver to go off a seaside cliff—one of them bails everyone out with the promise that it’ll all get swept under the rug by his powerful, moneyed father.
And yet… the bodies start to pile up after Danica receives a note saying “I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER” at her engagement party a year later. We see darkness shading her that wasn’t there a year prior, and we also wonder what the hell’s going on, as we were just celebrating her engagement to Teddy immediately after the title. This reveals how their secret has irreparably affected them, with Ava turning to the darker side of carnal pleasures, Milo burying himself in his work, Teddy diving headfirst into alcoholism, and Danica being supported by Stevie, her new best friend, who was there when everyone else wasn’t.
Robinson employs the same spiky verve she brought to her film Do Revenge, which turned it into a sleeper hit for Netflix, and gets us on the same page with this fivesome immediately by making them grounded, relatable, and smart. Well, “smart” might be too good a word for Teddy, whose idiotic machismo causes this life-altering accident, but even he’s not just some knuckle-dragging wannabe alpha; he’s thoughtful and vulnerable underneath the rich-boy front he has to put up as the son of the town real estate mogul. Danica, Ava, and Stevie are sweet and supportive, and Milo’s trying to keep good intentions in front of him while things spin out of control. Robinson and Lansky’s script paints these five with identifiable colors and differing facets to reach beyond their stereotypical appearances.
There’s no meta-dialogue here; every conversation is rooted in the here and now, trying to make sense of the predicament at hand. Robinson and Lansky layer in a little jab at the misuse of police authority, as they’re under Teddy’s dad’s thumb; they’ve swept the 1997 incident under the rug and want people to forget it ever happened. So when these new murders start up, one gets a little bit of a Hot Fuzz-type feeling when everything starts getting labeled as an accident or an apparent suicide, even though Ava and her friends know the truth. In trying to get ahead of the killer, who has brought out the fisherman’s slicker and the large fishhook, they turn to the two survivors from 28 years ago: Julie and Ray, now living separate lives.
Oh, man, this chapter’s a lot of fun. Even though it’s almost a dead-on remake of the original, there’s an energy that Robinson makes sure flows throughout. It’s not just in the way the story keeps moving or the deliberate pacing of the kills; it’s in just the mere telling of this story, keeping everyone in an airtight game and letting us get to the conclusion on our own. The requisite red herrings are deployed, keeping us on our toes, but there’s something else that grabs us: the easy rapport between the actors and characters. It’s a delight to watch Ava and Danica be in the same room together, whether they’re trying to suss out who’s behind all this catching up over a meal. Likewise, Teddy might be a little bit of a meathead, but something about the way Tyriq Withers performs him simply endears him to us. It’s not every day a slasher film gets us to empathize with its victims, but Robinson gets us to do just that.
However, there is a significant issue, at least for me, with the ending; this is why my review grade has been lowered. Don’t worry, I’m not going to spoil anything, but suffice it to say I was disappointed. Anything more would ruin the experience, but if you’d like to read what I thought of the ending, please email me at eddie@dcfilmdom.com. There’s so much more to be said about this that I cannot nor dare cover in this review. Ending notwithstanding, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson has expertly crafted a legacy sequel/remake that honors the groundwork laid in 1997. Full of surprises, wit, humor, and genuine chair-jumping frights, I Know What You Did Last Summer has risen from the ashes with this (mostly) excellent reprise.
