Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for I Know What You Did Last Summer.The much-anticipatedI Know What You Did Last Summerreboot has slashed its way into theatres, bringing us back to Southport. The film, which better fits in the category of sequel, doesn’t ignore the films that came before it (except forI Will Always Know What You Did Last Summer, but really, does anyone remember that one?), and instead embraces them and invites them into the new canon.It’s a delight for longtime fans who want that dose of nostalgia, and the movie does a good job of giving new fans who aren’t familiar with the lore just enough information to keep up.
Part of this nostalgia factor was bringing backFreddie Prinze Jr.andJennifer Love Hewittto reprise their roles of Ray and Julie, respectively. However, the excitement around their return quickly dwindled by the time we reached the end of the movie, andthe killer was revealed to be Ray. Immediately, I was left wishing they didn’t even bring back the legacy characters because this choice was so baffling. But the more I stewed on it, the more I came to realizeit wasn’t the fact that they made a legacy character the killer that was the issue; it was which legacy character they chose.
Ray’s Motive Is Weak in ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’
The motives inI Know What You Did Last Summerare weak, to say the least. In the original film, the characters commit a hit and run, and the killer is the man they thought they left for dead. However, in the 2025 movie, one of the characters is standing in the middle of the road, whichcauses an oncoming car to swerve and veer off the road, eventually plummeting over a cliff. The man who died is Stevie’s (Sarah Pidgeon) best friend from rehab, and when she finds this out, she decides to get revenge on her friends for covering up the crime by taking them down one by one.But she doesn’t do it alone; Ray is her accomplice, and his motive is a bit more confusing.
‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’… and I Wish I Could Forget It — Movie Review
What am I waiting for? A less underwhelming requel.
Ray’s reasoning for donning the slicker is multiple. For starters, he wants to be there for Stevie and help her get revenge on those who wronged her and ruined her life. But on a deeper level,he feels betrayed by Southport, as the town is trying to erase the crimes that took place in 1997 to attract new tourists and residents. He feels like he’s being forgotten and so he decides to reenact the murders. And sure, it makes sense, he has a conversation with Julie earlier in the movie about how trauma manifests differently for people,but this is exactly why Julie fits the killer bill better.Freddie Prinze Jr. shared with ScreenRantwhy it was ultimately decided that Ray should be the killerbecause he anticipated a mixed response to the reveal, and his reasoning sheds some perspective on the choice:
“He never dealt with it. He didn’t get to go to therapy, he didn’t get to talk about his feelings. He’s responsible for the feelings of anger and lust, like most men my age. That’s all we can emote is just, ‘That girl’s hot. I want to fight you.’ And we don’t talk about anything else. And because of that, you kind of see this spiral over 25 years of not dealing with something.”
Julie James Should Have Been the Killer in ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’
I’ll say it: Julie James should’ve been the killer in this movie.She fits the role way better than her ex-husband. Ray calls her out early on for being able to move on and get over what happened to them so easily, but she’s quick to point out that it doesn’t come easily and that she struggles every day. We see this when she’s home alone, in the scene prior, and is checking her security cameras when she hears the smallest noise. She’s never gotten over what happened, at least not fully, and that becomes abundantly clear very quickly. And who’s to blame her? The girl can’t catch a break.Karla (Brandy)points it out herself (in what is probably the best cameo of the movie,sorrySarah Michelle Gellar) that Julie James is constantly being attacked. The killer is always coming for her. He came for her in the first movie, he followed her onto vacation, now the killer is her ex-husband and his employee. If anyone was going to snap and become a killer, surely it was going to be Julie.
Let’s be real here, Ray was barely a part of the movies to begin with.Not to diminish what he went through, because it was still traumatizing, of course, but especially inI Still Know What You Did Last Summer,he was barely around, so really, what is he so upset about? Julie had way more ammunition to turn on the town who failed her; she even makes a dig at the Southport police for being useless and not helping the new cast of characters.There was so much opportunity to make her the killer. Or, for an extra twisty twist, if it were both Ray and Julie working together to keep their legacy from being erased.
Instead, the reveal of it being Stevie and Ray fell flat. Stevie was fine; it was likely going to be one of the main characters, so that wasn’t surprising. But if the movie was going to make the killer a legacy character, the least it could have done was give the motive a little more umph.And maybe tell Freddie Prize Jr. not to play it so suspiciously from the get-go.
I Know What You Did Last Summeris in theaters now.
I Know What You Did Last Summer
