I Know What You Did Last Summer Review

In the modern age of cinema, it seems like every IP gets a reboot or a sequel; however, I know what you did last summer was released back in 1997, so horror fans may have forgotten this cult 90's horror flick - what a perfect opportunity, to re introduce it to a modern audience with the legacy sequel released this summer. 

This version follows the same plot, with five friends accidentally killing someone in a hit-and-run and forging a pact to never discuss what happened on the appropriately titled 'Reaper's Curve'. However, one year later, the group receives an anonymous card, which reads I know what you did last summer and kicks off a murderous spree where the friends are targeted one by one by the same terrifying figure, from the 1997 film - a person wearing a fisherman's slicker and carrying a hook, their murder weapon of choice. 

Like its predecessor, the Friends are a cast of relatively unknowns who, in the future, may become household names, such as the stars of the 1997 film, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr., who reprise their roles as Julie James and Ray Bronson. For this version, the friends include Ava, played by Chase Sui Wonders, who is best friends with Danica, played by Madelyn Cline, the true queen bee of the group and the trope of ditzy girl in a horror film. Jock Teddy played by Tyriq Withers, who is engaged to Danica, Milo played by Jonah Hauer-King, who pines after Ava and Stevie played by Sarah Pidgeon, who is portrayed as the odd one out after leaving the friend group when she suffered a breakdown. 

All of the friends are portrayed as living a wealthy and affluent lifestyle, since Southport is now the modern Hamptons and the killings in 1997 encouraged the local council to make this town a tourist attraction once again. This also plays into the plot as Teddy's dad, who is connected within the town, can erase anything to connect the five friends with the death in the hit and run, allowing them to live their lives as if nothing had happened.. Until now. 

Like any slasher film, the audience expects gory, grisly, creative deaths as we have been spoiled by franchises such as Scream and The Final Destination, which have set the bar for deaths on screen. However, the deaths are not particularly memorable and are only used to send a message to the five that you can't erase the past. Unfortunately, the most entertaining death sequence is spoiled in the trailer featuring Danica taking a bath, listening to a meditation, blissfully unaware that a bloody death is happening below her. The editing of a relaxing voice telling the audience to take a deep breath and go to their happy place, cut between scenes of a man being bludgeoned with a hook, makes for iconic, slasher content. 

Overall, the 1997 film is iconic but not a cult classic like Scream, which warrants a legacy sequel, where fans are punching the air at seeing their favourite characters on screen again. However, seeing Hewitt, Prinze Jr and Sarah Michelle Gellar return to Southport doesn't ignite the same enthusiasm for horror fans that it should. The five main characters' chemistry is the beating heart of this film, and what makes the audience empathise with their trauma and not want them to face their untimely and gruesome deaths.