I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)

A bunch of dumb morons cause a highway accident and have to endure the consequences. Just as Scream originally inspired it, it once again inspires this reboot/legacy sequel (or "requel" as the cool kids say). Somehow they roped Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. back into the fray, and the results are predictable. Somehow manages to ruin everything that came before it, if that's even possible. Worse yet, they threaten us with yet another sequel...

1 speargun out of 5

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)

The world's most patient killer waits another year before striking again, following their victims halfway across the world to the Bahamas, for some weird reason. Immediately jumping the shark, the survivors from the first film go through the same shit all over again. Any way you slice it, it's a shameless cash-in sequel, from a clever title to an uninspired retread that essentially amounts to cheesy '90s kitsch. You might find some enjoyment if you hold a particular fondness for that era, or just wish to revisit it for old times' sake.

1½ dreadlocks out of 5

I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

Four dumb teens hit someone with their car and decide to cover it up rather than report it to the police. The following summer, they're all contacted by a blackmailer threatening to expose them, and the body count piles up.

This film is quintessentially '90s, or at least the way Hollywood tried to depict it back then. Kevin Williamson attempts to recreate some of that magic from the previous summer's hit horror whodunnit Scream, and it mostly succeeds based on a memorable hook and highly quotable title alone. In the years since its release, it's been reappraised as somewhat of a modern slasher classic, although it was mainly mocked mercilessly at the time. Regardless, it remains a simple, solid premise that more or less holds up some 30 (!) years later.

2½ urban legends out of 5