There’s officially a new entry in the enduring horror subgenre of “really beautiful people doing bad things and being punished for them.”
At least, that’s how writer-director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge, Someone Great) and her I Know What You Did Last Summer co-writer Sam Lansky (a TIME contributor and author of The Gilded Razor and Broken People) describe the category of films that their legacy slasher sequel belongs to. (Think cult classics like Jawbreaker, Prom Night, and The House on Sorority Row, for example.)
Now in theaters, I Know What You Did Last Summer follows in the footsteps of the 1997 original by setting its group of privileged 20-somethings on a crash course for serial killer vengeance in the idyllic seaside town of Southport, N.C. This time around, rather than accidentally hitting someone with their car while driving back from the beach on Fourth of July night, as in the first film, the friends—Ava (Chase Sui Wonders), Danica (Madelyn Cline), Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), Teddy (Tyriq Withers), and Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon)—cause an accident that leaves an injured driver dangling over the side of a cliff before his truck plummets to the rocks below. Instead of remaining at the scene of the crime and waiting for the cops to arrive, the group flees and calls on Teddy’s rich and powerful father to cover up what they did.
If you’re at all familiar with the franchise, you’ll know what comes next. The following year, when the guilt-ridden and now-somewhat estranged friends reconvene in Southport, Danica receives an ominous note: “I know what you did last summer.” And thus, an even more brutal murder spree, orchestrated by a mysterious new Fisherman wielding more than just a hook, commences. “A reference that we talked about was David Fincher’s Se7en,” Lansky says of the leveled-up violence. “There is an element of performance to these kills in the world of the movie that is not present in the original.”
While it wasn’t a critical darling, the 1997 I Know What You Did Last Summer, directed by Jim Gillespie and written by Scream‘s Kevin Williamson, coasted to a strong box-office showing (earning over $125 million worldwide) and cult-favorite status, largely on the strength of the chemistry between its then-up-and-coming core cast members: Jennifer Love Hewitt (who plays Julie James), Sarah Michelle Gellar (as Helen Shivers), Freddie Prinze Jr. (as Ray Bronson), and Ryan Phillippe (as Barry Cox).
“There is a depth and poignance to the friendships in that movie that transcends what most films of that era were able to do. You really feel it in a pretty deep way,” Lansky says. “Julie and Helen and Ray and Barry are your people. So when things start to unravel, it’s heartbreaking.”
Now, nearly 30 years on, Robinson and Lansky are aiming to give a new generation of horror fans that same feeling, that these gruesome attacks are “happening to your friends.”
“We wanted to make sure we assembled a cast that felt like it could be as bright, shiny, and wonderful as the original,” Robinson says. “That was always the North Star—not necessarily to replicate it, because we didn’t want to go one for one with any of the characters, but to replicate the feeling.”
The new film also brings back Hewitt and Prinze Jr., who previously returned for the 1998 sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer alongside Brandy as the iconic Karla Wilson, but were absent from 2006’s I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer and the 2021 TV adaptation of the story, which was canceled after one season.
“You don’t want to lose the thread of fun while realistically addressing how massively traumatized somebody would be after going through what Julie [and Ray] did in those first two movies. There’s a reason there’s a joke about The Body Keeps the Score in like the first five minutes of the movie,” Lansky says of what he and Robinson hoped to convey about the lives of their legacy leads. “We wanted to be conscious of how serious and horrific what these characters experienced was, while also making sure it didn’t feel heavy-handed or self-serious. Fun was the imperative for us the whole way through.”
Just as the 1997 movie was held up against the original Scream, the reboot is bound to draw comparisons to the latter franchise’s recent two “requels,” which both achieved critical and commercial success, grossing a combined total of nearly $309 million globally. While I Know What You Did Last Summer is tracking similarly to the original in terms of initial critical reception, it’s looking solid heading into its opening weekend, with an anticipated $17 million at the domestic box office on a reported budget of $18 million. The movie’s association with the Scream series is something Robinson says she feels “agnostic” about. “I love those movies. They’re really fun,” she says. “I would hope ours feels like it stands on its own and is its own thing.”
As for what she believes allows a horror reboot to accomplish that feat, Robinson says it’s all about getting audiences hooked on your new take on a tried-and-true premise. “It’s about rooting every choice, every twist and turn and death, in the specific story you’re telling rather than trying to retcon or figure out how to make something fit,” she says. “The homages in this film are woven in in a way where you don’t have to know anything about the original movie to enjoy this one. There are Easter eggs and jokes that will play on multiple levels if you have a deep familiarity with the canon. But if you don’t, it’s still a blast.”
In the end, fans will simply have to decide for themselves whether they’re on board with this fresh stab at a franchise revival. As Julie James would say, “What are you waiting for, huh?”
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