Between the "Scream" franchise, "The Blair Witch Project"-induced "found footage" phenomenon and M. Night Shyamalan mind-benders like "The Sixth Sense" and Oscar-winning thrillers like "Silence of the Lambs," the 1990s were a great time for horror.
One of the most crowd-pleasing (if not exactly critically acclaimed) titles in the slasher genre is "I Know What You Did Last Summer," which sees an iconic foursome of Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Ryan Phillippe battle a hook-wielding maniac in their small seaside town.
The movie comes from director Jim Gillespie and screenwriter Kevin Williamson, the latter of whom recently tapped into the "murderous coastal town" genre yet again with his new Netflix show "The Waterfront."
And, as is always the case with the platform's ever-changing library, you now only have a few days left to catch the '90s horror favorite on Netflix before it departs the streamer on July 1. With "IKWYDLS" officially getting a present-day reboot scheduled for theatrical release on July 18, it's high time to revisit the jump-scare original.
Here's why you should add "I Know What You Did Last Summer" to your watch list this weekend.
What is 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' about?
![I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER [1997] - Official Trailer (HD) | Now on 4K Ultra HD - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/rEnCEM48QaY/maxresdefault.jpg)
"I Know What You Did Last Summer" centers on four teenage friends who accidentally hit a pedestrian following a beach trip to celebrate July 4. They don't alert the authorities and instead dispose the body, vowing to never discuss the horrible incident again.
However, a year later, Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt), receives a letter revealing that someone else was on the road that night and knows exactly what they did. Seeking revenge, a hook-wielding killer fisherman begins haunting the four friends throughout their town of Southport, North Carolina, set on taking out the kiddos one by bloody one.
Why should you stream 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' on Netflix?
Again, the original "I Know What You Did Last Summer" wasn't exactly an immediate hit with professional critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, where the film holds an approval rating of 48%, the critical consensus reads: "A by-the-numbers slasher that arrived a decade too late, the mostly tedious 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' will likely only hook diehard fans of the genre."
However, some critics were more charmed by the horror flick, which, along with "Scream" a year earlier, helped revive the slasher genre. Derek Elley of Variety called it a "polished genre piece with superior fright elements that should perform at better-than-average theatrical levels," while Richard Harrington of The Washington Post dubbed it "a smart and sharply-drawn genre film with a moral center, and with a solid cast of young actors to hold it."
In the decades since its release, "I Know What You Did Last Summer" has endured among horror fans (and been the subject of many a funny parody) thanks to its very nineties-ness, from those Williamson-penned precocious teens to the megawatt '90s names playing them ("Party of Five" star Jennifer Love Hewitt, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" icon Sarah Michelle Gellar.)
It's a bloody-good-fun relic of a long-gone era, but one that's clearly still resonating with viewers all these years later.
Watch on Netflix until June 30, 2025
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