I was originally in two minds about whether offering up an I Know What You Did Last Summer legacy was actually a good idea. In the minus column, despite how well known it is thanks to it taking the bronze medal in the 90s slasher Olympics (Scream & Scream 2 obviously took the higher places on the podium), the first film wasn’t exactly groundbreaking and the franchise didn’t exactly go on to deliver any other bangers either. However, despite how impressively annoying I Still Know… is, no franchise, not even one that featured Jack Black in dreadlocks, deserves to end on the no-budget bilge that was I’ll Always Know…. So back to legacy town we go as a new clutch of young fresh actors gets to rub shoulders with the OGs in a way that offers up a truly genuine I Know… experience.
By that, I mean it totally rides in on the coat tails of a Scream movie and simply just isn’t as good, but until Hollywood can stop self sabotaging Scream 7, I guess we’ll have to do.
Welcome back to Sourtport, a fishing town that’s made some changes since the massacre that hit the place back in 1997. For a start, like many towns in horror sequels desperately trying to clean up their image and get money flooding back in, the place has managed to scrub its history clean of the five murders (or six if you count the one from the year prior) and turned itself into a haven of the rich and one such example of the wealthy who live there is the upcoming marriage between rich kid Teddy Spencer and his rival bride to be, Danica Richards. To celebrate this auspicious occasion, old friends unite once again in the form of former best friends Ava, Milo and even Stevie, who dropped out of the group due to rehab issues.
But like that fateful group of kids back in 1997, they all pile into a jeep and drive around recklessly on the 4th of July while gazing at fireworks and before you know it, some fatal, vehicular carnage has occured that just might fuck up their entire futures if it was to ever get out. Panicked, rash decisions are made, angry, scared votes are cast and a rich daddy is hastily called to sweep the accidental death under the carpet, but as we fast forward to a year later, we find that this familiar act has predictable repercussions.
Once again, the trauma of getting away with manslaughter has poisoned the group, but most of them slowly return to celebrate the wedding shower of Danica’s second attempt to get married – but not to Teddy. However, when she gets a note that threateningly reads “I Know What You Did Last Summer”, it seems that the forgotten events of 1997 are about to repeat themselves. Cue a hulking figure in a fishing slicker that stomps around, looking for vengeance with the pointy end of a hook who won’t stop until bloody justice has been reeled in and gutted. With nowhere to turn, Ava goes to get help from the only person to know what to do in situations like this – original ’97 final girl Julie James.
It’s weird when a legacy sequel comes along to a movie that wasn’t all that great to begin with, because I’m not entirely sure how I’m supposed to feel about it. Jim Gillespie’s original movie was certainly fun at the time, but it wasn’t the sort of movie that would have me whooping like a Marvel fan in Endgame if random characters suddenly returned nearly thirty years later. Not to sound overly harsh, but for all her good points Julie James is no Sydney Prescot and the rampaging Fisherman doesn’t command the same levels of weight as someone dressed as Ghostface and the only way the legacy horror sequel could get any more confounding is if the Urban Legend franchise also managed to score a comeback (oh god, please don’t). However, if legacy sequel have taught us anything it’s that the returning veterans are actually just the gravy and the true people responsible for the heavy lifting are the young cast who inevitably turn to the grizzled past survivors for help and it’s here where we first realise that the movie’s in trouble.
Director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson decides to add a more playful, humourous spin to what has usually been a fairly serious franchise up until now (supernatural third installment notwithstanding) that usually involves the female characters say terms like “queen”, “slay” and “diva” at one another, but while it’s genuinely nice that a female director has been allowed to put her stamp on a pre-existing franchise, on more than one occasion the movie manages to hook itself in the foot when it comes to engaging us.
Yes, slasher flicks are usually supposed to be fun escapism and the I Know… franchise has sometimes had an uphill struggle making their characters likable after the whole plot is about privilaged white kids covering up blatent manslaughter; but the characters here are portrayed as so flippant about their situation, even the self obsessed group from 2022’s Bodies Bodies Bodies would be shocked at their behaviour. The actors (including Chase Sui Wonders, who was actually in Bodies Bodies Bodies) are an affable bunch who are quick of wit and easy on the eye, but the script has them be so cavalier about being targeted for a damn good hooking, it’s tough to give much of a shit about them. It’s a pity, because Robinson is obviously here to try and stir up conventions (Ava hooking up with a woman on her flight for casual sex and then trying to restart a spark with her old ex isn’t exactly typical final girl behaviour), but for every time she manages to do something genuinely interesting, it’s smothered by the same old problems of having the characters do some really stupid shit.
Faring far better are the classic characters, with Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prince Jr. defying conventions by being a returning couple who now are divorced and fucking hate each other’s guts. However, the movie does a cool thing where both of them sort of each become slasher movie sponsors of members of the group much in the way David Arquette was in the fifth Scream. However, even though this provides some genuinely earth shattering twists that utterly defy legacy sequel rules, it sort of feels like they were created solely from complaints from trolls concerning the last couple of installments from that rival franchise and once again, the innovation from that hefty reveal is scuppered by a climax that seems genuinely uncertain how to actually wrap things up.
However, while the new I Know What You Did Last Summer constantly frustrates by not capitalising fully on the great bits, you have to tip your rain proof fishing hat at the ramped up kills (goriest of the series by far), a far more brutal killer (why does the Fishman’s footsteps sound like they weigh 400 pounds) and some utterly batshit ways to cram yet another couple of familiar faces from the franchise into the film (hint: it ain’t Ryan Phillippe).
Nostalgia, some crazy twists and some brutal slaying can only take you so far and while this I Know… redux does some wild things, it’s ultimately thwarted by annoying characters and a serious lack of dramatic weight. I appreciate what you attempted this summer, but that’s all you’re going to get out of me if you’re fishing for more compliments…
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