People talk about how pop culture is cyclical, but man, it is really cyclical.
After the original Scream proved to be a surprise smash hit in the mid-1990s, reinvigorating interest in the moribund slasher genre, a whole slew of copycats flooded into theaters and video stores. One of the more distinguished of Scream’s spiritual successors was I Know What You Did Last Summer, featuring a cast of on-the-rise stars (including Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ryan Phillippe, and Sarah Michelle Gellar) and a screeplay by Scream co-creator Kevin Williamson.
Cut to 25ish years later. Scream returns in a new legacyquel, introducing new characters and bringing back the survivors of the original franchise. That film is also a hit. And wouldn’t you know it? Now the movies that follows the O.G. Scream are getting their own legacyquels.
I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) seems to follow the Scream (2022) playbook fairly closely. The slasher killer of the old movies is back (The Fisherman! He has a hook!). There’s a new cast of attractive young people for him to terrorize. And wouldn’t you know it? The survivors of the original Last Summer (Hewitt and Prinze) are back too.
You can see them all in the trailer for the new film below:
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I have to tell you, when Jennifer Love Hewitt dramatically turned out and said “I just have one question: What did you do last summer?” I gave this trailer a standing ovation. Alone, in my kitchen. Bravo.
Here is I Know What You Did Last Legacyquel’s official synopsis:
When five friends inadvertently cause a deadly car accident, they cover up their involvement and make a pact to keep it a secret rather than face the consequences. A year later, their past comes back to haunt them and they’re forced to confront a horrifying truth: someone knows what they did last summer…and is hell-bent on revenge. As one by one the friends are stalked by a killer, they discover this has happened before, and they turn to two survivors of the legendary Southport Massacre of 1997 for help.
I Know What You Did Last Summer is set to open in theaters on July 18.
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