The Best Horror Reboot Of The Decade Is Here

Someone once said that I Know What You Did Last Summer walked so Scream could run — and that’s not exactly a lie. They were being worked on alongside one another by scribe Kevin Williamson, who went on to perfect his paranoid slasher formula with the Ghostface vehicle that became a classic of not just the genre but cinema in general, when it dropped in 1996 — one year before IKWYDLS. That being said, with writer-director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s reboot of the classic summer slasher, it feels as though Scream — the requel, that is — walked so I Know What You Did could run.

The new I Know What You Did treads a similar trail to the original, of course, as all self-respecting reboots do. Years after the 1997 tragedy that slaughtered Helen Shivers and Barry Cox, a night of fireworks and fun goes wrong for a group of five best friends from Southport who become embroiled in an innocent death. A year after they make a pact to keep their involvement secret, they realize there’s no erasing the past when someone starts hunting them — someone who resembles the original 1997 murderer, slicker and hook and all.

It’s all very “reboot,” very “rehash and do the same thing again for the nostalgia bait” — and the film even knows it at points, leaning into the bit with self-aware hilarity that delights even when it doesn’t entirely hit the mark. But there’s something in that; no, I Know What You Did isn’t the perfect reboot, but it feels more cohesive and engaging, and plays infinitely more fun and purposefully crafted than basically any of its requel contemporaries. It’s not afraid to stand on its strengths and put them in the forefront, and it’s even brave enough to make some big swings that don’t entirely land. But it’s hard not to fall for the movie that surrounds them, so it’s easy to give those things a pass and let yourself go along for the ride.

As for I Know What You Did’s central strengths, the thing that stands out immediately is casting. It’s impossible not to adore Madelyn Cline’s Helen surrogate Danica. She ends up not only providing the majority of the movie’s witty comic relief, but she also brings depth and resonance to a role that could simply be played for laughs and an easy murder for the plot. She’s hilarious and genuine, and she commands and, frankly, steals every scene she’s in.

Her Julie James is played by Bodies Bodies Bodies star Chase Sui Wonders, who absolutely holds her own as the determined final girl archetype who will stop at nothing to solve what’s happening to her and her friends. As Ava, she’s forceful in the right moments, dryly funny in others, and easily makes the audience believe that the crisis of faith she experiences after the film’s inciting incident shakes her to her core, giving tangibility and truth to the character’s sense of morality. It’s crucial to fracture the foundation of these young people’s lives and everything they see for their futures because it makes them vulnerable in a whole new way — and Wonders leads that charge with a true sense of humanity and strength, no matter the darkness that awaits. It’s a great showcase for what she’s capable of, and paired with Cline, the duo gives audiences a lot to look forward to as far as what’s next for them.

Cline and Wonders aren’t the only cast members doling out the laughs, though. Tyriq Withers plays the sweet yet stubborn himbo of the group, Teddy, and I’m going to be honest: He’s definitely auditioning to be the new Channing Tatum with this role. Not only is he a heartthrob with abs who spends a lot of the movie showing them off, but he also shares a similar vocal tone, cadence, and even delivery style as the Magic Mike star, both dramatically and comedically. That being said, he somehow totally nails the whole thing, so it becomes less of a negative and more of a major positive quite quickly. Teddy is funny, silly, and genuinely someone you might want to be friends with, even when his bad qualities — his pride, his ability to compartmentalize to a fault, how his privilege has shaped his ethics — rear their ugly heads.

Finally, there’s Stevie, the film’s most mysterious character. Actor Sarah Pidgeon is a chameleon as the outcast friend of the group, perfectly embodying all the stages of Stevie’s unpredictable journey: the uncertainty of returning to past friendships, the all-in people-pleasing, the complete 180-degree turn to embrace her pain. Pidgeon is an absolute joy to watch, adding a particularly complex and human sense of realism to every frame she inhabits.

When all is said and done, it feels fair to say that Robinson’s reboot plays like I Know What You Did fan fiction — but make no mistake, I mean that in the best possible way. There’s a real reverence for the original film, and it shows in the way she and co-writer Sam Lansky play with the original film’s central archetypes, repurpose and reinvigorate legacy characters, and even in the way they find new life for some of the film’s most iconic moments and lines. Though they modernize the dialogue (and they really do, Gen Z, we promise), Robinson and Lansky are sticking to the slasher roots and keep their hands well within the playbook, while also taking some big-swing liberties that feel worth it simply because they tried. Add in a grand, sweeping score that harkens back to some of the most rousing horror scores ever put to film, and you’ve got yourself a solid time at the movies.

Don’t get me wrong, the new I Know What You Did Last Summer is not perfect. In fact, it’s wonky in quite a few places: There are lines that don’t hit, cuts that feel rushed or disjointed, and even decisions to tell and not show that end up lessening the blow in some really pivotal places (like that ending line, sheesh). But the fact remains that despite those faults, this slasher reboot is doing legacy sequels right, among several other things that make this movie an undeniable good and gory time. In fact, it could even be argued that this movie has the best legacy cameo of them all so far — and you know we’ve got more than our fair share to choose from these days.

I Know What You Did Last Summer is everything you could possibly want from a reboot, especially one that comes so late in the modern requel game. Learning from the mistakes of the likes of the new Scream films and even rehashes like Netflix’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I Know What You Did juggles legacy and modernity with precision and tension that builds into a break-neck fast, paranoia-laced, and endlessly fun experience. The movie proudly wears its predecessors on its sleeve, easily cementing itself as the best modern horror reboot we’ve got. In fact, I’d stake my hook on it — wait, I wasn’t supposed to tell you about that.

I Know What You Did Last Summer opens in theaters July 18.