Review: I Know What You Did Last Summer

Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing.

Horror reboots have become so prevalent that the release of the first theatrical "I Know What You Did Last Summer" film in the 21st century should come as a surprise to no one. 

In recent years, there have been some reboots that have been marginally successful - the first of the new "Scream" and "Halloween" movies - and some not so much ("The Exorcist"). I have yet to see the new "Final Destination" movie, which received surprisingly good reviews, and I can't say I'm looking forward to the umpteenth attempt to reboot "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Please, folks, don't feel the need to bring back "Urban Legend."

In this latest "I Know What You Did," a group of teens - once again in the small town of Southport - find themselves in the similar scenario of having done something bad the previous summer. In this case, a bout of drunken revelry in the middle of the road on a winding hill leads to a car flying off the edge and killing its driver.

Like clockwork, the group of friends - Ava (Chase Sui Wonders), her BFF Danica (Madelyn Cline), old flame Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), party boy Teddy (Tyriq Withers), and former friend Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon) - start receiving threatening notes and some side characters who have connections to the group start getting picked off by a person in a rain slicker with a hook (and various other weapons).

The group researches the massacre that took place in the town in 1997 - a word, like Forrest Gump's name, that you could place a drinking game with, considering how many times it gets mentioned - and seeks out its survivors: Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr), now a local bar owner who seems a bit cranky, and Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt), who had apparently married Ray after the events of the 1998 sequel, but has since divorced him, seemingly not amicably.

Julie is now a teacher and lives in a town far enough away. She tells the group of teens who seek her advice that she wants nothing to do with it, but we know she'll be drawn back in anyway. In terms of plotting, "I Know What You Did Last Summer" is by-the-numbers and the violence, while occasionally gruesome, seems tame compared to some of the gorier series of the modern era.

There's a genuine surprise near the film's end that deserves some credit because it's the sort of thing that the "Scream" films have mostly avoided in the sequels. But the film's end otherwise lands with a thud, primarily setting up the possibility of a sequel (I also apparently missed a post-credits sequence that moves the needle further in that direction) and the film seems to end mid-thought in the middle of a conversation between two characters.

There are worse horror movies out there than this semi-legacy sequel (I've now seen all three "Terrifier" movies and can honestly say that I don't get the appeal), and plenty of other bland films of the genre populating the cineplexes these days (I missed the mostly lambasted "Megan" sequel, but just saw the mostly forgettable "Until Dawn"). In other words, it's just another of many films of its type flooding the marketplace that has little in the way of differentiating itself from the pack. 

While the "Scream" films - at least, certainly the first one - were a revelation at the time of their release and helped the genre to regain popularity, the original "I Know What You Did" films were never that good. The first one had atmosphere and was watchable, but the series probably didn't need a reboot. As one character in this latest entry notes, "Nostalgia is overrated."