A lot has changed in Southport, North Carolina, since 1997. After that year’s string of bloody murders, the sleepy fishing burgh cleaned up its act and swept its gruesome history under the rug, and now, with some help from an enterprising and rapacious developer, the town is a hot, bougie vacation destination. Hooray!

Unfortunately for Southport, it’s still prone to horrible car accidents that happen on the Fourth of July, and murderers who wait a symbolic (or maybe it’s just logistical) amount of time before exacting their bloody revenge the following Fourth of July.

That’s what happened in the 1997 teen slasher film “I Know What You Did Last Summer”: Four friends accidentally killed a man and covered it up; a year later, a hook-wielding murderer in a fisherman’s slicker came after them. Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.) survived; Helen Shivers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Barry Cox (Ryan Phillippe) weren’t so lucky.

Now it’s happening all over again in the very fun 2025 film, confusingly also called “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”

In this requel — Or is it a legacy sequel? What are we calling movies that aren’t really sequels but also aren’t remakes or reboots because they’re aware of the events of the original film? — these manslaughtering youths are a little older, a little wiser and a lot more self-aware, but they’re still prone to goofing off in and around moving vehicles.

As directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Sam Lansky (the story is credited to Robinson and Leah McKendrick), this film is sexier and more reflective than the original, entirely in on its own joke and enjoying a lot more showmanship in its grisly murders. Anchored by excellent lead performances, this movie does what it does really well, and with a distinctly 2025 sense of humor.

One Fourth of July, old friends Ava (Chase Sui Wonders), Danica (Madelyn Cline), Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), Teddy (Tyriq Withers) and Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon) accidentally cause a fatal car crash, and instead of taking responsibility they walk away and Teddy’s rich dad (the aforementioned rapacious developer) covers it up. But someone knows what they did, and a year later the revenge-killings begin. As the bodies pile up, these friends turn to 1997 survivors Julie and Ray for help.

So yes, there are appearances and cameos from some of our favorite ’90s teen stars and plenty of Easter eggs for fans of the original to spot, but the comedy, while sometimes very silly, is loose enough that it doesn’t choke on its own self-referentiality.

The film also ignores the more puritanical rules of both the original slasher films and those that leached into the ’90s updates, and allows its characters a lot more personality than their 1997 predecessors. In particular, three cheers for the genuinely charming, story-grounding friendships between Danica and Ava and between Teddy and Milo.

I won’t tell you who survives to the end credits, but I will tell you that I think I like them enough to follow them into a new franchise. And a franchise this now baldly is, following the path “Scream” started forging, lo these 29 years ago.

Do I think we need more reheated IP that uses our collective nostalgia as catnip to cover up the fact that we didn’t actually care that much about the original film? Nah, of course not. But if you’re gonna make it, make it well, make it fun and make it stand on its own two narrative feet. This update pulls that off, and with a bloody high body count to boot.

———

'I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER'

3 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for bloody horror violence, language throughout, some sexual content and brief drug use)

Running time: 1:51

How to watch: Now in theaters

———

© 2025 The Seattle Times. Visit www.seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.