The new “I Know What You Did Last Summer time” just about follows the plot of the 1997 movie of the identical identify: A bunch of well-to-do younger individuals get stalked and killed by a vengeful killer in a rain slicker with an ice hook. It even has a few of the identical stars.
“It is 1997 over again. It is so nostalgic,” says Freddie Prinze Jr., who stars in each, this time round. Responds one other returning star, Jennifer Love Hewitt: “Nostalgia is overrated.”
That line deserves a giant chortle from a so-called “legacy sequel” that blends outdated and new to resurrect a franchise lengthy dormant however is not positive the place it sits in 2025. A wink right here, an eye-gouging there.
By aping the construction of the authentic — maddeningly calling itself by its predecessor’s identify — the new model of “I Know What You Did Last Summer time” is each too tentative a step ahead and but too reliant on the previous to totally break freed from that gravitational pull.
The new installment follows a bunch of post-high college associates (Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Sarah Pidgeon and Tyriq Withers) who trigger a deadly automotive wreck on July Fourth and swear to maintain their involvement a secret. However a 12 months later, somebody desires them lifeless, providing the anniversary warning: “I do know what you probably did final summer time.”
This can be a franchise that obtained a bit misplaced in the shadow of the “Scream” dynasty, however nonetheless helped make family names of such Gen X heroes as Prinze, Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe. A relaunch is sensible nevertheless it’s fairly vapid stuff till the OGs arrive.
In truth, chances are you’ll end up rooting for the killer. The 5 children who’ve grown up in Southport, North Carolina — “the Hamptons of the South” — largely dwell lives of nepo privilege, consuming from flasks, driving Volvos, munching on macarons and taking Adderall. One lives on a 156-foot (48-meter) yacht with three decks.
The film largely muddles alongside like a TV particular, solely coming to life when Prinze and Hewitt arrive, requested by the hunted children for steering. In spite of everything, the duo survived the 1997 assaults. “Get them earlier than they get you,” Hewitt’s Julie advises.
Director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, who co-wrote the screenplay with Sam Lansky, mixes ugly stabbings, harpoon impalings and corpses displayed on hooks like fish at the dock with jokes that needle every little thing from Nicole Kidman’s tacky AMC commercials to our fling with true-crime podcasts.
The filmmakers make half-hearted makes an attempt to clarify the ripple results from trauma however we’re not right here for generational ache; we’re right here for the slashy-slashy. There’s one dream sequence with a shock returning OG that is value the ticket value alone.
The tone is throughout the place — whimpering victims one second, attractive the subsequent. The police in Southport are nefarious — in a nod to “Jaws,” they cowl up the murders for concern of turning off tourism — however there is a “Scooby-Doo” vibe right here (even a point out) that appears much less playful than idea-deprived. There are parts of spoof, too, like a useless lady who has simply misplaced somebody shut in a grisly massacre however worries about her skincare.
Look, we hate to interrupt it to you, it isn’t going to finish effectively for a lot of of this privileged set, as they hunt whoever is searching them. Coherence can be stabbed rather a lot as a result of a transparent motive for the mass homicide is actually laborious to grasp.
Regardless of: We get the scene when a scared sufferer with a large knife protruding of her again shoots a harpoon gun at the hook killer, and that is why we got here in the first place. We additionally get Hewitt screaming her catchphrase, mocking her attacker: “What are you ready for?” Effectively, what are you ready for?
“I Know What You Did Last Summer time,” a Sony Photos launch in theaters Friday, is rated R for “bloody horror violence, language all through, some sexual content material and transient drug use.” Operating time: 111 minutes. One and a half stars out of 4.
