I Know What You Did Last Summer 2025 Movie Review
The original 1997 film and its 1998 sequel were both successful because of the loveable cast and characters, the story, the tone, the atmosphere, the intensity, the kills, the chase sequences, the mystery and of course the killer reveal. It’s hard to recreate that. But, somehow I Know What You Did Last Summer 2025 succeeded in every way. The cast are all sensational at making all the characters likeable in their own unique ways, the kills are brutal, the chase sequences are intense, and the over all mystery is a fun and enticing story that has the essence of the original, whilst not being a direct copy and paste.
The biggest stand out of the film is that it is unpredictable. With so many ‘slashers’ remakes and stand alone films made over the past 25 years, it is hard to make sequences unpredictable and unique. But the film does an incredible job of making you think you know what’s going to happen, but then goes in a completely different direction.
Obviously we have to talk about the return of Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr). After watching the trailers, most people would admit that going in to the film, they didn’t expect much screen time for the legacy cast. Once again, it was unpredictable, as Julie and Ray become a part of the story and have a surprising amount of screen time, and relevance to the over all plot. Jennifer Love Hewitt is an outstanding performer, proven by her very successful career. However, one small critique would be that the script didn’t quite capture the essence of Julie James. But, Jennifer Love Hewitt does her best at bringing back the loveable final girl and by the end of the film it feels like Julie is on the screen, not Jennifer.
It is hard to find big faults in the film, and there are only minor flaws that could have elevated the films intensity to a higher level. A few major sequences and the films climax takes place during the day. If these scenes had taken place at night, the darkness, the mystery of not being able to see everything would have made a huge impact on those scenes and the climax. All fans remember the terrifying chase sequence of Helen Shivers (Sarah Michelle Gallar) where she is being hunted by Ben Willis (Muse Watson), in his slicker with his iconic hook, across the quiet streets of Southport. Fans also remember the horror of Julie and Ray being secluded in the dark on the killers boat surrounded by black water, with nothing insight to help. The scenes in this 2025 film could have elevated the ferocity by having the isolation in the dark atmosphere that was so successful in the two original films.
The only other critique would be that the ending was unnecessarily extended. Without spoilers, there are three scenes after the climax, two of those scenes seemed out of place and completely pointless, leaving the ending of the film to be bizarre and unemotional. The credits roll and suddenly we’re met with a mid-credit scene. It was a strange choice by the director to have a mid-credit scene that was undoubtedly one of the most exciting fan service scenes of the film that sets up a potential sequel. Instead of the underwhelming ending with the main cast, the mid-credit scene should have been the ending of the film. If they cut the useless additional scenes and had the mid-credit scene as the ending, the film wouldn’t just have a satisfying ending, it would have gone out with a bang, leaving audiences excited about the possibility of a sequel.
Overall it’s hard to find big faults, so with those minor details that could have taken the film up a level, I rate it as 9/10. The film is fun, intense and captures the essence of the original I Know What You Did Last Summer.
