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The I Know What You Did Final Summer season franchise was resurrected this summer time, and we all know simply what it did to get killed within the critiques. The brand new 2025 movie shares a title with the unique 1997 film. Each heart on a gaggle of buddies with a darkish secret who’re being stalked by a murderous stranger wielding a hook. The 1997 movie, which starred decade-defining expertise like Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Sarah Michelle Gellar, was a industrial success that may generate two sequels and a tv present, and is credited partially with the revitalization of the slasher style.

Thus, naturally, when the reboot of I Know What You Did Final Summer season hit theaters this summer time with fashionable stars Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, and extra, viewers’ first intuition was to check the brand new to the previous. I Know What You Did Final Summer season (2025) is sort of an endearing mess. It isn’t excellent. In a means, although, that makes it a trustworthy homage. Regardless of all of its iconic attributes, there may be one essential factor that folks appear to overlook in regards to the unique I Know What You Did Final Summer season: it was not excellent, both.

‘I Know What You Did Final Summer season’ (1997): A Mid-However-Enjoyable Film

In style? Sure. Essential? Definitely. However a high-quality movie? No, by no means was. That is okay! “Dangerous films” are paramount to our society and to the event of cinema at massive, and few have had the cultural impression of I Know What You Did Final Summer season (1997). Upon launch, it grossed over $125 million towards a funds of solely $17 million, staying within the high spot on the field workplace for 3 weeks straight and periodically re-emerging as a high movie in theaters and on streaming platforms to at the present time. Conversely, on Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 47% rating from audiences. Some widespread buzzwords that present up in critiques for I Know What You Did Final Summer season (1997) embrace “tedious,” “routine,” and “formulaic.”

That is probably as a result of the movie is deliberately constructed on the foundations of horror films that got here earlier than, with Scream popping out simply the yr earlier than and sparking a renewed curiosity in masked killers. It was not meant to be groundbreaking, and even something new. It was meant to revisit the slasher style faithfully, with emotional stakes that had been simply excessive sufficient, with a whole lot of scorching actors. It did. Followers of the slasher style praised its tribute to the basic traits of the shape, and customarily, individuals appeared to be entertained. The title, weighty however easy premise, and promise of gore drew individuals in, and nonetheless clearly does. I Know What You Did Final Summer season has been getting away with a status of status for many years, nevertheless it has by no means claimed to be something greater than entertaining and worthwhile.

‘I Know What You Did Final Summer season’ (2025): One other Mid However Nonetheless Enjoyable Film

Now, we’ve got I Know What You Did Final Summer season, once more. On this iteration, a gaggle of 5 children (versus the unique’s 4) dwelling in Southport, North Carolina, discover themselves in an virtually similar state of affairs to the characters within the unique; they by accident commit manslaughter (or a minimum of understand it occurred), maintain it a secret, then mysterious notes and our bodies begin showing. Nevertheless, this time it’s 27 years after the occasions of the unique, they usually all speak like Gen Z influencers (diva).

Whereas I Know What You Did Final Summer season (2025) might not have grossed as a lot as its predecessor, it’s nonetheless creating wealth and setting data (on the time of writing, it has made $46 million worldwide towards an $18 million funds). Notably, on Rotten Tomatoes, the reboot has a worse essential rating than the unique however a greater viewers rating. So, whereas by some definitions it was much less profitable than the supply materials, by some it was extra. The most typical critiques of I Know What You Did Final Summer season (2025) appear to concern its blatant expositional dialogue, over-reliance on nostalgia, and pacing. The causes that it isn’t excellent differ from I Know What You Did Final Summer season (1997), nevertheless it’s simply as not good.

One should think about the context by which each films had been launched, in fact. The primary got down to be a run-of-the-mill slasher and didn’t attempt for extra. The brand new one is fan service, and a modernized horror film with extra grotesque kills than you could possibly present within the ’90s. Each films are flawed however function companions to at least one one other, someway​​​​​​. Each movies are popcorn filler, and that is kind of lovely. Nevertheless, the brand new I Know What You Did Final Summer season is unquestionably not worse; it is simply not retro.

I Know What You Did Final Summer season (1997) is now streaming on MGM+, and I Know What You Did Final Summer season (2025) is now enjoying in theaters in all places.