Cast: Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Billy Campbell, Gabbriette Bechtel, Austin Nichols with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt
Genre: Horror
Director: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
In Irish Cinemas: Now
Hurried into cinemas in the wake of Scream’s surprise 1996 success, I Know What You Did Last Summer has always lived in its more iconic sibling’s shadow—perhaps unfairly, perhaps inevitably. On the surface, the comparisons were inescapable: another glossy teen slasher, another cast of fresh-faced CW-adjacent actors, and another screenplay from Kevin Williamson. But the spirit was different. Where Scream deconstructed the genre with a wink and a scalpel, I Know What You Did Last Summer played it straight—more earnest, less clever, and admittedly, a lot sillier. If Scream was attempting to reinvent the wheel, then IKWYDLS was content to keep it spinning, even if it wobbled.
As a franchise, it quickly mutated into the very kind of low-effort, trope-heavy fare that Williamson had initially set out to critique. A sun-drenched, senseless sequel (I Still Know What You Did Last Summer) stranded its cast in the Bahamas with little more than bad weather and worse writing. And the third instalment (I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer), dumped straight to video like an afterthought, sealed its fate as a relic of a waning era. With audiences moving on and the slasher genre entering another hibernation, the hook-handed killer was quietly retired.
But Hollywood, as always, has a hard time letting go—especially when nostalgia is a reliable cash cow. With Scream enjoying a surprisingly successful modern revival—two hit entries and a third on the way—it was perhaps only a matter of time before the fisherman got back in his boat. And so here we are: a reboot/sequel hybrid (call it a “requel” if you must) dragging the franchise back from the depths, complete with returning legacy stars and a new crop of doomed 20-somethings. And like its predecessors, it’s still lurking in Scream’s shadow—less witty, more melodramatic, and somehow endearing in its refusal to be anything other than what it is.
Tempering expectations is key, and if you do, there’s a surprisingly decent time to be had here. The familiar structure remains intact: a group of friends commits a terrible mistake, someone starts picking them off one by one, and a mystery unfolds as secrets come to light. The 2020s spin includes an obligatory intergenerational crossover, as original stars Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. reprise their roles as Julie and Ray. Their characters were always more archetypes than human. Still, the actors slip back into them with surprising ease, especially in a one-on-one reunion scene that offers more emotional weight than anything given to the returning characters in Scream’s recent sequels. Julie, now a college professor (because, of course, she is), is drawn back to Southport when a new group of friends receives a familiar ominous message one year after a preventable tragedy.
This new ensemble—anchored by Bodies Bodies Bodies standout Chase Sui Wonders, Glass Onion’s Madelyn Cline, and Tony-nominated Stereophonic star Sarah Pidgeon—elevates material that doesn’t always rise to meet them. They’re stronger than the clichés they’re saddled with, and while the original film drew power from the dread of adolescence ending, this one muddles that tone by reconfiguring the central accident in a way that strips away some of the guilt and horror. In trying to surprise us, the script—co-written by journalist-author Sam Lansky and director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson—occasionally forgets to justify itself. The friends’ decision not to go to the police feels more like a plot requirement than an organic response to trauma.
Still, Robinson, best known for Netflix’s razor-sharp teen satire Do Revenge, brings a sense of polish and sincerity often missing from genre revivals. The film is slick, vibrant, and cinematic—refreshingly not styled like a Netflix original—and avoids leaning too hard into meta commentary or self-aware irony. When the script does reach for humour, it’s mainly through a soft-focus LA lens—astrology jokes, guided meditations, the kind of dialogue that feels workshopped for an Instagram story. The attempts don’t always land, but they rarely distract.
Unlike the first film, which offered a few genuinely tense and memorable moments (Sarah Michelle Gellar’s chase scene remains a high watermark), this entry leans more heavily into gore than suspense. The kills are creatively grisly, but the rhythm feels off, and Robinson is more invested in the glossy, soapy unravelling of the mystery than in sheer terror. There’s an enjoyable Scooby-Doo quality to the plot’s twists and turns, a nod to the franchise’s literary roots in 1970s YA fiction. A character even jokes about the comparison, and they’re not wrong. The final act delivers a double-reveal that’s borderline absurd and almost entirely devoid of tension, not helped by both major climactic sequences being set in broad daylight. Still, there’s a loopy charm to the whole thing, especially if you grew up on these movies and know exactly what kind of nonsense to expect.
And then there are the Easter eggs: a wild dream-sequence cameo, a mid-credits stinger that rivals Marvel for sheer audacity, and enough fan service to suggest someone, somewhere, really thinks we’ve been dying to revisit Southport. Maybe we have. Perhaps the 90s teens this film targets—now grown, nostalgic, and quietly delighted to see familiar faces—are being shamelessly pandered to. If so, it’s working.
Early reactions suggest that Gen Z doesn’t quite care about what happened last summer, and Millennials aren’t entirely sure they recall the event. It’s likely this latest entry won’t leave much of a lasting legacy. However, in a media landscape flooded with rehashed IP—Clueless, Legally Blonde, and Urban Legend are reportedly next in line—this entry manages to be sincere and stylish enough to justify its existence. Necessary? No. Entertaining? Absolutely. If this is the franchise’s final summer outing, it’s a surprisingly fun one to end on.
Overall: 6/10
Movie Reviewer
