I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER… Because I’ve Seen It All Before!

I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER is directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. It stars Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Billy Campbell, Gabbriette Bechtel, Austin Nichols, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Jennifer Love Hewitt. It serves as a legacy sequel to the first two films in the series. The series was inspired by a novel by Lois Duncan.

Many years have passed since the Southport Massacre, and the town has rebuilt itself into a thriving retreat for the wealthy. When a group of friends convenes for an engagement party, they witness an auto accident, but decide not to intervene and seal themselves to secrecy. A year later, when the friends gather again, murders begin, prompting the victims to seek out Julie James and Ray Bronson, two survivors of the town’s previous massacres from nearly three decades ago.

Legacy sequels are big business these days. And the horror/suspense genre is as popular as ever. Doing a legacy sequel to I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER seemed like a sure-fire hit and moneymaker, with two of the original stars returning. Confusingly titled the same as the original 1997 film (this is a sequel, not a remake/reboot), it’s about to hit theaters. Unfortunately, it feels like a tired retread of oh-so-many suspense thrillers with a one-dimensional cast, unnecessary humor, and more plot twists in its finale than any movie like this needs. It’s cool to see Hewitt and Prinze reprising their roles, and there are some decent moments of suspense, but the more the screenwriters try to bring it together, the more it falls apart.

I’ll give this legacy sequel credit for uniting a talented group of young actors together. While they’re frustratingly given lackluster material to work with, they do the best they can with what they’re offered. I’m definitely hoping to see these young folks get more promising roles that’ll let them act to their ability.

But again, they’re condemned to play one-dimensional characters. A character at one point amid the killings says that no one should be alone because of the events at hand. A character goes off alone anyway. Can you guess what happens? Of course you can. Furthermore, the abundance of humor works against the film and undermines what should be a serious threat; half the time I had to tell myself the movie wasn’t supposed to be a comedy! The beautiful Gabbriette Bechtel is criminally underused in the film. And another character is a stereotypical “dumb blonde” trying to embrace spirituality, getting some of the movie’s biggest laughs. My question is this: What is this character doing in THIS movie? This character would’ve been great in an R-rated comedy, which I’d gladly have paid full price to see. Even the presence of Prinze and Hewitt feels forced and unnecessary, though their initial appearances still got plenty of applause from the public at the screening I attended.

The movie drags on endlessly, and completely devolves in its final half hour. When the movie’s mystery is solved, we get MORE plot twists. And more after that! Even after the main “killer” plot is dealt with, the movie drags on for another 10 minutes are so which are, once again, needlessly comedic. The film’s about 15 minutes too long, and the more you try to piece together the latest I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER film, the more it falls apart.

One character in this new I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER film says they’d rank their experience in the movie as a “0 out of 10.” The movie’s not nearly THAT bad, but it’s a legacy sequel where nothing comes together the way it should, characters make the same stupid decisions every horror character does, and the inappropriately high amount of comedy serves as a major detriment. You can’t help but wonder if Hewitt and Prinze were just in this one for the paycheck, which I do hope was substantial. If you need an I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER fix, go pick up the 4K discs of the original movies instead. There are better date night horror experiences.