By Jacob Cameron

I Know What You Did Last Summer is the latest in the tired trend of legacy sequels in horror. Halloween, Scream, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre have all gotten legacy sequels with questionable quality. It seemed only a matter of time that I Know What You Did Last Summer would get this treatment. And, unfortunately, it falls in line with the trends of diminishing returns.

The film was directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, and it starred Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, and the returning Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt. Like the original film, this film follows a group of young adults that cause a serious incident on the 4th of July. A year later, the group is hunted by a murderous figure wearing a Fisherman’s slicker and wielding a hook. The new group, hilariously underprepared for this fallout, sought out the lone survivors of the Fisherman’s path of rage. And stay alive in the process.

The original film has garnered a positive following throughout the years. Its impact has been felt long after its release. It spawned two sequels; and it was parodied by the first Scary Movie film from 2000. This legacy sequel takes the original premise and strips it of anything that may have been good in the original. It’s not the worst of these legacy sequels, but it’s still not good.

The new cast is functional. With the exception of Chase Sui Roberts, the new cast feels very bland and uninspired. The original cast felt like a true group of friends; there was an authentic feeling there. There are many times when you’re told that these new people are friends and not shown. There’s some effort; but there’s not nearly enough.

What’s especially frustrating is that there are kernels of an interesting story here. There’s an angle where Southport, the town in the original film, has been undergoing significant renovations and erasing the dark past. There’s another angle where the trauma from the original incident weighs on Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr’s respective characters, and they help this new friend group accordingly. Both of these are fascinating on their own; the movie decides to do both and ultimately fails in making either compelling. In fact, there is a choice made that feels very insulting to any fans of the original film.

Those two story beats are the major ones that don’t amount to anything. There’s a minor character that runs a true crime podcast who is investigating Southport. The developer of the renovations has a mysterious control over the local police. And there’s a pastor with ties to the Fisherman. The movie tries to include all of these things with the major story beats. It makes for a screenplay that is held together by a wing and a prayer.

At the end of the day, this is a film that might just kill any enthusiasm for any more of these movies. This is essentially a watered down version of a superior slasher film.

1 ½ star