‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’: Legacy Sequel Outdoes Its Predecessor in Slasher Absurdities

Alci Rengifo

They should have just done an actual remake. “I Know What You Did Last Summer” plays the now common game of being a sequel and reboot at the same time. “Legacy sequels” are what they tend to call these now. The overall goal is to bank off ‘90s nostalgia. 1997’s original “I Know What You Did Last Summer” retains a following among the horror crowd as one of the decade’s silliest teen slasher entertainments. It premiered at a time when genuine youth idols could attract crowds along with killer soundtracks (remember, back when you had to go out and get the CD). While its twists were eventually quite absurd, it still had a sense of dumb fun. This new movie only aims for dumb.

We are back in the coastal small town of Southport and once again it is Fourth of July. Ava (Chase Sui Wonders) has returned home from who knows where to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of best friend Danica (Madelyn Cline) and Danica’s bro fiancé, Teddy (Tyriq Withers). Also joining the fun is Ava’s old high school crush Milo (Jonah Hauer-King). This is not exactly the wildest bunch of young people with money. After bumping into another old friend, the very working class Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon), they decide to go out for a ride to the best beach spot to see fireworks. When they screech to a halt along the road and Teddy gets out being a drunken fool, a car swerves in, barely missing them but crashing through a rail and over a cliff. Someone has clearly been killed. The friends make a pact of silence. A year later, Ava, deeply haunted by the event, returns because Danica is now marrying someone else. A note and a murder alert the gang that a killer is out for revenge.

That note, delivered this time in a card during Danica’s bridal shower, of course contains the message that is also the movie’s title. Director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson and writer Sam Lansky are straddled with the need to re-tell the plot of the original while somehow continuing it. The 1997 movie was written by “Scream” creator Kevin Williamson, who was loosely adapting a 1973 novel by Lois Duncan. Williamson threw in a horror angle inspired by an urban legend, which resulted in the famous slasher walking around with a hook while dressed in a fisherman’s coat. It’s an entertaining parable enjoyable for its simplicity and self-contained plot, driven by a basic lesson about drunk driving and covering up a crime. The cast was composed of stars like Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe and Freddie Prinze Jr., who none of the new lineup can hope to match. In 1998 there was an infamously bad sequel, “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer,” which still featured Brandy. 

Robinson and Lansky’s take isn’t out to even pretend at saying anything. It’s more about forcing references to the original. The characters are purposefully written as dumb, with Danica in particular being the personification of the airheaded blonde stereotype. At least in the original everyone had a distinct personality. Here the characters are just hook fodder. In the original film there were also subtle issues of classism. It was easy for a rich kid like Ryan Phillippe’s character to suggest a cover up since he had no worries about getting a good lawyer. Now they’re all very privileged with the exception of Stevie. Teddy’s dad basically runs the town through apparently real estate power. The one new character who makes the most sense is Tyler (played by model/singer Gabbriette Bechtel), a true crime podcaster who wants to investigate the Soutport murders from 1997. We first meet her hooking up with Ava in an airport bathroom before providing the recap for anyone who hasn’t seen the first movies. However, she’s quickly disposed of when the new hook-wielding killer in a fisherman’s coat appears. A shame, she had an actual reason for existing. 

The model being followed is clearly the recent “Scream” legacy sequels, which make more sense because they have a narrative similar to the “Halloween” movies when it comes to generational traumas and serial killer DNA in the family. The best this movie can do is bring back Jennifer Love Hewitt, whose character Julie James now teaches at a university. Freddie Prinze Jr also returns as Ray, who was going to propose to Julie in “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.” Their marriage didn’t last and he now runs the Southport bar where Stevie works. How convenient that their expertise is now needed for a pattern of murders exactly like the ones from 28 years ago. Sarah Michelle Gellar is also back, though fans will remember she met a terrible end in the ‘97 movie. It’s nothing a little crafty writing and digital de-aging can’t fix. Millennials might find this material as compensation for the rest, since it will be irresistible to smile at these former teen idols reuniting. Even if you don’t care for the plot, the memory banks will momentarily open to remember “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Can’t Hardly Wait” and “Cruel Intentions.”

What there is of a plot becomes too dependent on murders that get rather mundane by the third act. There are only so many ways for the hook killer to ram it up someone’s chin, hang corpses off ledges or impale someone. The only visually memorable killing has two victims strung up like big fish by a dock. There’s no real tension in trying to guess the culprit, and when the revelation does come, it’s even more absurd than the first time. You may recall the original movie revealed the killer to be a fisherman left for dead by the teens who ran him over, who was also out at night getting revenge for the death of his daughter. Here the reasoning behind someone imitating 28-year-old murders makes no sense beyond the writers desperately throwing ideas at the wall. It’s the sort of revelation where you just say out loud, “you could have just told them who it was in that car.” Stay for the bonus end credits scene, which will be another bit of warm millennial nostalgia. Aside from that, this franchise can be left at the bottom of the ocean.

“I Know What You Did Last Summer” releases July 18 in theaters nationwide.