I Know What You Did Last Summer

I Know What You Did Last Summer
Starring Chase Sui Wonders, Madelyn Cline, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers
Directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

The 90s saw the resurgence of the slasher flick, with Wes Craven's "Scream" leading the pack, re-vitalizing the once-dead subgenre. A few years later, in 1997, "I Know What You Did Last Summer" came out, based on the 1973 novel by the same name by Lois Duncan, and while it never achieved the notoriety of the "Scream" franchise, it made a name out of the film's four leads - Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe - most of whom co-starred in other projects and even married in real life. While "Scream" served as a meta way of looking at horror movies, "I Know What You Did" returned to what made that subgenre great, with a compelling mystery, well-established characters and some notable kills that still hold up nearly thirty years later. Now, the "requel" is the rage, with "Scream" once again getting notoriety with its 2022 emergence, and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" followed suit once again - but this time, the result is a tired, lame, soulless endeavor that not only doesn't make sense, but it takes a big stinking turd on the franchise's legacy as a whole.

On the Fourth of July, friends Ava (Chase Sui Wonders), Danica (Madelyn Cline), Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), Teddy (Tyriq Withers) and Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon) travel up a cliffside road to watch the fireworks when Teddy acts like an idiot, causing a car to careen off the cliff and into the water below. They make a vow not to tell anyone about what happened, but a year later they start receiving notes saying "I Know What You Did Last Summer," and bodies begin piling up. With the town sheriff and mayor set on covering everything up to make Southport a thriving community after the events of 1997, Ava and her friends turn to Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) to help them solve the mystery before the killer completely gets their revenge.

As I said earlier, "I Know What You Did Last Summer" was a modest success and spawned a sequel (and a direct-to-DVD sequel that doesn't have really anything to do with the first two, but after this one I'd say it's #3 on the quality level), and the stars of the movie really broke out on their own and made something memorable, if not a bit simplistic. There was a charm to it that made it endearing, and that charm is utterly, completely gone with this "requel," as instead the movie is a jumbled mess of poor edits, lame writing, nonsensical characters, The CW-rejected actors, and twists that are seen a mile away but somehow try to act like its new, fresh, and hip - but instead they serve as the death knells on the franchise.

The edits in this movie look like someone fresh out of attending a four-year film school but getting kicked out after the first week for lack of talent. The film jumps nonsensically from moment to moment without offering a reason why, and the only thing missing was a star wipe dissolve for each scene. Characters bounce around the town like they're Sonic the Hedgehog, and the killer is even more insanely omnipresent, like a modern day teleporter Jason Voorhees. In fact, the overall feel of the movie felt like a rejected CW pilot, with it being too glossy, too neat, and too clean.

When it comes to the writing, it felt like it was written by someone who had words on a wall and thew darts to connect them. There was no making sense of things, other than the fact that the friends were being hunted by a killer. There's no emotional depth to the characters, no deeper meaning behind anything, and the killer's reasoning was overshadowed by the fact that we didn't get any of that information beforehand, and were left scratching our heads. The movie is almost two hours long, and throughout it there's no story to be had, and no character development or growth. The kills are uninspired and dull, and the twist is so blatantly obvious it's silly, nonsensical, and takes a dump on the franchise.

The characters in this movie are by far the worst in any slasher I've seen in a long time. As the ancillary characters get picked off, the main five react with shock and sadness in one scene, then giddy and laughing the next. They get threats that they're going to be next, and the next scene one character is sitting alone outside at night drinking a beer with no sense of urgency. Danica's fiancee is murdered (no spoiler, it's in all the trailers), and that night she goes back to the house that's a murder crime scene to sleep it off, laughing with her friends because she's on "Xanax." 

I could name the characters from the first film from memory - Julie, Ray, Helen, Barry. After watching this movie, I couldn't name a single character, and for good reason: none of them are memorable or even likable. Even the main girl is a whiny mess, or she's cracking jokes and doing the stupidest things. It's obvious that this is a requel because how the main characters are assigned: Chase Sui Wonders' Ava is clearly the Julie of the group, but more hardcore; Madelyn Cline's Danica is Helen with the beauty and lacking brains, but nowhere near as sympathetic; Jonah Hauer-King's Milo is Ray, the dark-haired average-looking guy and Tyriq Withers' Teddy is Barry, the muscle-bound brainless jock. Again, they hold true to the original's archtypes, but just blend together poorly.

Bringing back Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. was an obvious thing, but unlike Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courtney Cox, they serve no real purpose. Hewitt's Julie is now a professor who is literally identified by her trauma and is seemingly unable to give it up, and Prinze's Ray is a bar owner in town who is still salty over how the town is glossing over the events of the past.

Without giving major spoilers away, "I Know What You Did Last Summer" is a requel that is far worse than its predecessors due to terrible characters, stupid decisions, and a franchise-ending twist that not only doesn't make sense, but it's obviously hinted at throughout the movie and leaves a sour taste in your mouth in the end.

The Score: D