'I Know What You Did Last Summer' gets hooked on nostalgia

By Stephen Thompson,

Reanna Cruz, Jordan Crucchiola, Roxana Hadadi, Carly Rubin, Mike Katzif, Jessica Reedy

Published July 22, 2025 at 8:55 AM EDT

Chase Sui Wonders in I Know What You Did Last Summer. — Chase Sui Wonders in *I Know What You Did Last Summer*.

In the original I Know What You Did Last Summer, some very '90s teenagers are targeted by a killer clad in fisherman's garb and armed with a hook. Nearly 30 years later, a new sequel fires up a very similar plot. The movie includes a new group of young people — including Chase Sui Wonders and Madelyn Cline — and a few key survivors from the first go-'round (Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr.) But does it live up to the legacy of the original?

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Stephen Thompson

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)

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