I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) is a direct sequel to 1998’s I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, ignoring the events of the 2006 straight-to-DVD sequel. Directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson and written by Sam Lansky & Robinson, the film stars Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Billy Campbell, Gabbriette Bechtel, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Jennifer Love Hewitt. 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.

The first two entries were iconic to my generation as a teenager as we opened ourselves to more movies, especially horror. To be honest, I didn’t remember much from them. They felt more like snippets I saw in passing. After revisiting the movies – yes, even the third straight-to-DVD movie – I still can’t say I was all that excited. Even before my rewatch, it felt like mostly everyone felt the same way. It only seemed interesting at best to to revisit this world. Unfortunately, this is proves that not every iconic movie needs a legacy sequel.

Within the movie’s first ten minutes, I was strongly considering leaving the theater. It wasn’t a bad theater experience. The first ten minutes were just unbearable. The reason why I stuck around was thinking that it still couldn’t be as bad as the third movie. It’s not, but it’s awfully close. Even with movies like Madame Web or Freelance, I haven’t thought about leaving since 2019’s The Hustle. The point is that while I had low expectations, everything this movie did damaged those expectations so much that it made me regret going to see this in theaters.

The film’s set up feels like a remake of the first, except this time, everyone talks in exposition dumps like its normal. A character lights up a Jay in her room like its normal. When together, the friends wouldn’t act like this. What leads to the film’s inciting incident genuinely made me think I was being gaslit like everyone else was in the first two movies. What causes the main accident had nothing to do with anyone except one person. When everyone starts to freak out thinking they were murderers, it set the tone for what this film would be: confused.

As the film goes on, it never knows how to properly push these characters forward, nor does it know how to keep them compelling. I understand I have seen a lot of movies, but the direction this film goes in is insanely predictable. Characters get killed off that didn’t surprise me at all. I will give credit where credits due and say that the film does a good job at keeping a steady pace as though things are consistently on edge. I actually felt like they genuinely wanted to scare the audience. I can’t say I felt that way in the prior movies.

By the time the film brings Jennifer Love Hewitt & Freddie Prinze Jr., it feels like its too late. It actually made me question why this film just didn’t focus solely on them. I wouldn’t be surprised if the two had no more than five minutes of screentime all together. While it is great to have them back, they are severely wasted. Hewitt is the heart & soul of the movies. Prinze Jr.’s character is a product of character assassination. His story is incompressible. Now, I understand why fans hated Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. What they do with him acts as though nothing he did in the prior movies at all.

I said before the intensity is the film’s strong point, but the editing makes it look messy. Characters manage to get randomly trapped, find random locations, and teleport to new locations. There’s a scene where a character in a sauna sees a threatening message on a fogged window. The next scene, he’s back home where he does get attacked. So, what was the point of this sauna scene. There’s absolutely no sense of location or time. The main killer is instantly revealed to be the killer with a snap of a finger after you find out about it. It’s simply lazy writing.

You know what? I will give credit where credits due again and say that I commend the film not ending the same way it has in the past. That was probably one of the rarest of new things this film does. Between the climax and the resolution, another ridiculous reveal for one of the characters is ludicrous. There is a mid-credits scene that also makes zero sense. It’s clear this franchise it has no idea what it’s doing going forward. They are making it up as it goes, hoping nostalgia will be the main draw. As we have recently seen, relying solely on nostalgia offers nothing at all. If you’re feeling nostalgic, rewatch the original. Re-release the original in theaters. Anything but this.

Overall, I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) is a chore to get through. Not only did I question leaving the theater, I genuinely thought to myself that I never wanted to see another one of these movies ever again. The film tries too hard on bringing out the past, and in turn, only serves nostalgia without purpose. What they do to this legacy severely hurts what the first film attempted to do. I am going to act like I was blinded by the Men in Black and forget this was ever made.

VERDICT: 1/5 (Horrible)