Forget what they did last summer
Strap: Keep your secrets close—The Fisherman’s back July 18. The thrills? A bit dead on arrival
Byline: Ravi Kiran
Pop culture isn’t just cyclical—it’s in full-blown déjà vu mode. With Scream leading the charge in rebooting ‘90s slashers for the TikTok generation, it was only a matter of time before I Know What You Did Last Summer clawed its way out of the depths, hook in hand. But while Scream sliced with purpose, this legacyquel swings wildly—and mostly misses.
The premise is familiar: five teens commit a fatal mistake, swear to keep it secret, and are soon haunted by a killer who definitely knows what they did. Enter The Fisherman—our beloved, hook-wielding menace—and a string of murders that nod heavily to the 1997 original. Add to that the return of Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. as weary survivors, and you’ve got a recipe for delicious nostalgia. Or at least, you should.
But instead of carving out something fresh, the film gets tangled in its own fishing line. The story struggles to justify its existence—failing to answer basic questions like: how is The Fisherman back? Is this even the same man? Is there a supernatural twist now? The original films, for all their flaws, kept their world grounded. This one feels like it’s inventing rules as it goes along, hoping you’re too distracted by callbacks to notice.
What truly sinks the sequel is its new cast. Attractive? Sure. Compelling? Not really. The chemistry is flat, the dialogue wooden, and the stakes never feel urgent. When Hewitt dramatically asks, “What did you do last summer?”, it’s meant to echo her scream-queen heyday—but instead, it lands as a meme-worthy moment that outshines everything else around it.
Worse, the film doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be. A slasher revival? A meditation on guilt and generational trauma? A teen soap with blood splatter? It flirts with all, commits to none.
In the end, I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) is a glossy echo of a better film—hooked on nostalgia, but empty beneath the surface. Legacyquels work when they expand the mythos; this one just paddles in place.