111 min | R | July 18, 2025 | Sony Pictures Releasing
Jennifer Kaytin Robinson reboots the slasher franchise with meta commentary and returning legacy characters. The film knows what it is and cannot transcend that knowledge.
Slasher reboots in 2025 face an impossible task. The genre has been deconstructed and reconstructed so many times that genuine scares are almost impossible. I Know What You Did Last Summer acknowledges this by going meta. Five friends cover up a deadly car accident. One year later, someone starts killing them. The film knows you know the formula. It tries to subvert expectations by acknowledging them directly. The problem is acknowledgment is not the same as innovation.
Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Sarah Pidgeon, and Tyriq Withers play the doomed friend group with energy that never develops into character. They are types. The hot one. The smart one. The guilty one. The film does not give them room to be anything else. Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. return as Julie and Ray from the original films. Their presence provides nostalgia without purpose. The film cannot decide if they are mentors or victims.
Jennifer Kaytin Robinson directed Do Revenge and understands how to shoot attractive young people in danger. The kills are inventive and brutal. The film earns its R rating. But the meta commentary undercuts any genuine tension. Every scare is preceded by a character noting how stupid they are being. Every trope is called out before it happens. The film thinks this makes it smarter than its genre. It just makes it exhausting.
The Fisherman killer is rendered with practical effects and genuine menace. The final act delivers violence and mayhem. But the whole thing feels calculated to please fans of the original while attracting younger audiences. It does neither effectively. This is a reboot that exists because IP has value, not because anyone had a story worth telling.