In the mid-1990s, the slasher film made a comeback thanks to the SCREAM franchise, which led to a series of similar attempts. One of the more successful and memorable efforts with 1997’s I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, which took some of the popular young stars of the time like Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Anne Heche. The concept was pretty simple, a group of friends are out for a fun night, and accidentally kill someone with their car, only to cover it up and swear to each other they’ll never discuss it again. A year later, they start receiving messages saying “I know what you did last summer”, and then someone in a rain coat carrying a hook starts taking people out. The first movie did well enough to spark a sequel, which brought back Hewitt and Prinze, and added singer Brandy Norwood, and eventually we got a lackluster third film with a new cast, and even an attempt at a series. Now we’ve got a new take on I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (following in the sometimes annoying modern tradition of using the same title as the original instead of a new one), that is both a reboot and a sequel, bringing in a new cast of characters, and featuring the return of Hewitt and Prinze to boot.
Like the events of 1997, five friends accidentally cause a deadly car accident, and cover up their involvement while making 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, that someone knows what they did last summer… and is hell-bent on revenge. As one by one the friends are stalked by a killer, they discover this has happened before, and they turn to two survivors of the legendary Southport Massacre of 1997 for help… but this time, anyone who gets in the way isn’t safe either, and Southport is getting a bleak reminder of a past they’d like to forget.
Directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (she wrote on THOR: LOVE & THUNDER), the new cast includes Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Billy Campbell, Gabbriette Bechtel, Austin Nichols, Lola Tung, and Nicholas Alexander Chavez… and sadly, with the possible exception of Wonders, who is technically a supporting lead to the main character played by Cline, almost all of these new characters are fairly forgettable or in some cases just unlikable. I found myself rather complacent about their fates, and even the brief appearances by original stars Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt aren’t really enough to make this new take anything memorable. Heck, even the charming Billy Campbell fails to bring much to his role as the town big wig trying to ignore the horrors of the town’s past.
This is a by-the-numbers slasher thriller that doesn’t really deliver anything new. There are moments of promise and potentially interesting concepts that just don’t go anywhere. There’s a goth girl who visits the town because she’s recording a true crime murder podcast – see, now there’s an interesting and topical idea, but she’s taken out of the story almost as soon as she’s introduced. There’s also the concept of the town elders covering up the murders of the past, in an effort to sell land development deals… again, that’s interesting, and could be a way to make the story more meaningful or perhaps ironic, but it’s never really used to full effect. Even the deaths in the film are kind of standard fare, nothing terribly creative or unique.
The biggest problem with the new I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER is the erratic tone, which shifts back and forth from ultra-serious horror thriller to what sometimes feels like a satire on the genre. There are weird dialogue exchanges that come across like the filmmakers are trying to make these characters feel quirky and naturally awkward, but it just doesn’t land right and plays more odd than it should. The movie also plods along at times, never earning its sometimes laggy run time, just under two hours. There’s a big twist at the end that doesn’t really feel earned or even sensible, especially considering who is involved. You can tell they were trying to make something that felt like a spiritual sequel to the original, even bringing back more of the original characters than you might expect, but the end result just falls a bit flat. And while the whole production is unfortunately mediocre, it ends (in a mid-credit stinger no less) with an overly-ambitious set-up for a sequel that will likely never be desired. Like some of the more recent SCREAM sequels, this attempt at a new I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER just doesn’t capture the magic or charm of the original film, and I have a feeling it’s not likely to spark any follow-ups… though horror fans may be more forgiving than I am.
Born and raised in Dallas, Mark has been a movie critic since 1994, with reviews featured in print, radio and National TV. In 2001 he started the Entertainment section of the Herorealm website, where he contributed film reviews and celebrity interviews until 2004. After three years of service there, he started Bigfanboy.com, which has become one of the Dallas film community's leading information websites. Bigfanboy hosts several movie screenings in the Texas area, and works closely with film and TV studios and promotional partners to host exciting events and contests. The site also features a variety of rare celebrity and filmmaker interviews, and Bigfanboy.com regularly covers the film festival circuit as well. In addition to Hollywood reporting, Mark has worked for many years as an advertising and sci-fi/comic book artist. Clients have included Lucasfilm Ltd., Topps Trading Cards, The Dallas Mavericks and The Dallas Stars. From 2002 until 2015 he managed the Dallas Comic Con, Sci-Fi Expo and Fan Days events in the DFW area. He currently catalogs rare comic books and movie memorabilia for Heritage Auctions, and runs the Dallas Comic Show conventions, but remains an avid moviegoer and cinema buff. 
