{"id":603,"date":"2025-07-16T17:46:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T17:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/603\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T17:46:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T17:46:08","slug":"i-know-what-you-did-last-summer-cleverly-hooks-a-new-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/603\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I Know What You Did Last Summer\u2019 Cleverly Hooks a New Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new\u00a0I Know What You Did Last Summer<\/a> offers a bold, refreshing take on horror requels that\u2019s a worthy successor to the original film. While stars of the 1997 film Jennifer Love Hewitt<\/a> and Freddie Prinze Jr<\/a>. reprise their roles as Julie James and Ray Bronson, it\u2019s a relief that they are not the parents of any of the new gang of accidental murderers. This isn\u2019t just I Know What You Did: The Next Generation, and the fact that it isn\u2019t speaks to the new film\u2019s desire to do something more than just soothe your horror nostalgia.<\/p>\n

Instead, the 2025 reboot-quel introduces us to a new friend group of fresh-faced youths who are up to no good on the Fourth of July. After an engagement party, they decide to be on the road recklessly, leading to the death of a driver in an oncoming vehicle that almost strikes the groom-to-be, Teddy (Tyriq Withers), before he\u2019s saved by his best man, Milo (Jonah Hauer-King). Teddy\u2019s bride-to-be, Danica (Madelyn Cline), helps him convince their friends to let his rich developer father sweep what happened under the rug to save their skins. Eva (Chase Sui Wonders) and Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon) protest but ultimately are convinced to keep quiet. A rift develops between Eva and her friends once she leaves town, but when she returns a year later for Danica\u2019s bridal shower, there is, of course, a note with one simple message: I Know What You Did Last Summer. And we know that\u2019s never a good thing.<\/p>\n

\"I\u00a9 Sony Pictures <\/p>\n

A bloodbath quickly ensues once again in the sleepy beach town of Southport, much like the one Teddy\u2019s father scrubbed from the internet\u2014which happens to be the very hook murderer killing spree Julie and Ray narrowly survived in the events of the first film in the series. It\u2019s a clever conceit, one that lets the new cast of characters who\u2019ve moved into Southport be in the dark about its history while also satisfyingly giving I Know What You Did Last Summer\u2018s new hook-wielding killer an air of mystery.<\/p>\n

And as that mystery, and the dread surrounding it, begins to build, I Know What You Did Last Summer equally cleverly weaves in a lot of humor with the tension. In particular, Danica and Teddy keep the levity even as things get intense, and Cline and Withers\u2019 performances make you fall in love with the best friends who got everyone into the mess. Danica might be modeled after the franchise\u2019s fave dead girl, Helen Shivers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), and Teddy on the long-deceased Barry (Ryan Phillipe), but Cline and Withers steal this movie. Their relationship, like Eva and Milo\u2019s, becomes so easy to root for. You really grow to care about the bonds between the friends in this installment and don\u2019t really want to see any of them get the hook, which makes it all the more shocking when whoever gets it inevitably gets got.<\/p>\n

\"Jennifer\u00a9 Sony Pictures <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a similar deftness to how the film handles the return of its legacy stars. As the bodies start to pile up, Eva reaches out to Julie James, the franchise\u2019s original final girl, now a professor. Hewitt\u2019s return to pass the final girl mantle to Eva is such a great moment that doesn\u2019t overstay its purpose. Meanwhile, Prinze shows up in a similar capacity to offer guidance to the new crew going through similar trauma. Both act as ways to help the film\u2019s new leads come to terms with the past, rather than simply feeling like excuses to bring back familiar faces.<\/p>\n

I Know What You Did Last Summer is a fantastic slasher flick on its own terms, one that offers a refreshing new vision while not being entirely rooted in nostalgia. Director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson carves out a place for this reboot in the cadre of the horror genre\u2019s best for a new generation. The horror lies in the film\u2019s tension and isn\u2019t wasted on only jump scares, but propels its peril with unexpected turns (building to a legitimately killer last act that will leave you shook to your core, in so many ways). It\u2019s a smart, slick slasher that cleverly builds on what made the original film so iconic without being totally beholden to its legacy\u2014and will get you hooked all over again.<\/p>\n

I Know What You Did Last Summer opens in theaters July 18.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new\u00a0I Know What You Did Last Summer offers a bold, refreshing take on horror requels that\u2019s a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,75,987,988,337,989],"class_list":["post-603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-i-know-what-you-did-last-summer","tag-jennifer-kaitlyn-robinson","tag-movies","tag-sony-pictures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}