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Stephen Thompson
In the original I Know what yout did last summer, some very 90s teenagers are targeted by a killer after they attempt to cover up a crime against him. The original film was hugely profitable, but its sequels yielded mostly diminishing returns. Nearly 30 years later, a new sequel with the same name fires up a very similar plot, albeit with new young people and a few key survivors from the first go round. But does it live up to the legacy of the original? I'm Stephen Thompson. Today we are talking about I Know what yout Did Last Summer on Pop Culture Happy Hour from npr.
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Stephen Thompson
Joining me today is Vulture TV critic Roxanna Hadati. Hey Roxanna.
Roxanna Hadati
Hello. Thank you for having me on.
Stephen Thompson
It is a pleasure. Also with us, freelance music and culture journalist Rhianna Cruz. Hey Rhianna.
Rhianna Cruz
Hey Stephen.
Stephen Thompson
And rounding out the panel is Jordan Crucciola. She's A writer and producer and the host of the podcast Feeling seen on Maximum Fun. Hey, Jordan.
Jordan Crucciola
Hello. Thank you so much for having me.
Stephen Thompson
It is a pleasure to convene this panel for this most important issue. So the first I Know what yout Did Last summer brought together 1997's equivalent of the Brat Pack. Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Geller, Ryan Phillippe, and Freddie Prinze Jr. All hid a shameful secret involving a fateful car accident the prior summer. They were stalked and in some cases, slaughtered. A killer clad in fisherman's garb and armed with a great big hook. Now I Know what yout Did Last Summer has been sequelized with a new gaggle of young people led by Ava, played by Chase Swee wonders and Danika, played by Madeline Klein. You've got your car accident, your cover up, your reunion a year later. All of it taking place in the same town of Southport, North Carolina, where the original murders took place. Which means, of course, that we check in on the first film's key survivors. Julie James, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, has moved away in while her ex husband Ray Bronson, played by Freddie Prinze Jr. Has stayed in town and opened a bar. Both of them are brought in to try to help and to sprinkle in Easter eggs. For fans of the original movies, the new I Know what yout Did Last Summer was directed and co written by Jennifer Cayton Robinson. It's in theaters now. Jordan, I have one question for you.
Jordan Crucciola
Yes.
Stephen Thompson
What did you do last summer?
Jordan Crucciola
Last summer I bumped into Jennifer Catton Robinson in Stamp Proper goods on Hillhurst in Los Angeles when I think she was working on I know what you did last Summer literally happened. And I am here to say I am thrilled with the fruits of her labor. And apparently I'm here to fight today.
Stephen Thompson
You are fighting, I think with a lot of people who have seen this movie this far.
Jordan Crucciola
Like most of the time, I understand when I'm going to be at odds because that happens to me.
Rhianna Cruz
And.
Jordan Crucciola
And I'm like, all right, listen, I will be the defend. But this time I'm like, how is everyone so far away from my experience of this movie? Having had a great time, I'm genuinely shocked at the consensus feedback on this.
Stephen Thompson
You are pro this movie.
Jordan Crucciola
To be clear, pro this movie walked out and was like, what a good time.
Roxanna Hadati
Shocked.
Jordan Crucciola
This is not the common experience.
Stephen Thompson
Well, we'll get to on what basis you feel this way in a moment. We're gathering some general impressions. Roxanna, what did you think?
Roxanna Hadati
Yeah, no, I'm so worried about George on a variety of levels. Look, I will say that I found this moderately entertaining. I think my biggest issue with it is I think that the movie itself does not know how much it is satirizing the entire idea of what it's doing versus genuinely redoing the first movie. Right. So I think there's like an inherent tension with like, is this intentionally funny? Is it unintentionally funny? And I also think that a lot of this movie is also unclear as to whether it likes the characters that it has created or like, if it hates young people in general and just wants to like kill them all off. I don't know. It's sort of a fascinating artifact.
Jordan Crucciola
I am sure it's not that one.
Roxanna Hadati
I don't know.
Jordan Crucciola
Listen, I will get into as the delegation who lives with a 25 and a 24 year old and that will be a part of this conversation.
Rhianna Cruz
I'm 25 and I hated it.
Roxanna Hadati
Yes. That's where I am. I'm in a mid place.
Stephen Thompson
You're in a mid place. All right. Rihanna, you maybe have tipped us off to how you're feeling.
Rhianna Cruz
Yeah. I did not like this movie. I did not find it enjoyable. I was rolling my eyes the entire time. I feel like this movie for me is the endpoint of the new gen franchise sequel reboot. And it's hard for me to not compare this movie to like other franchise reboots that I liked. Like, I think this movie lacks the campiness of the Scream reboot. I think it lacks the inventiveness of the Final Destination reboot. The magnitude even of like the Halloween reboots, I feel like is not here. I think this movie kind of just feels disposable. None of the cast members left a lasting impact on me. The cinematography looks like it's all like vertical for TikTok videos, you know, like the type of video designed to watch in like 180 parts. You know, I know what you did last summer. 2025, full movie. What bumped for me is that I feel like this movie doesn't really have any stakes from the OG car accident. You know, I think like something that the first movie. Right. The 1997. I know what you did last summer. As they repeated several times in the movie. What that movie did is kind of frame the characters in this sort of air of guilt and grief that they have over hitting somebody with their car. In this movie, the initial accident, nobody hit somebody with their car. A guy swerves off the road. They can't pull the car back to save the guy. And so they're all guilty about it. And for me, it's like, okay, there is a dubious culpability there that does not drive the plot effectively for me.
Stephen Thompson
Yeah, I agree with you completely, Rhianna. I found the whole kind of catalyzing scene, to me made very, very little sense. All the arguing that they're doing in the aftermath of, like, oh, we have to keep this a secret. I'm sitting here like, right. We've just heard a broad range of opinions and my opinion is that I like and enjoy Jordan Cruciola enormously.
Jordan Crucciola
Much like I like and enjoy film enormously, as is my role on this program.
Stephen Thompson
I just found this completely. I just thought this was a mess. I thought the script was bad. I too, was kind of constantly trying to figure out whether the filmmakers were kind of in on the joke. Kind of like with the recent Jurassic park, where they're centered on this concept that the public is bored with dinosaurs. And it's clearly a metaphor for people are bored with Jurassic park movies. So why are we making one? This has these several sequences where like the Jennifer Love Hewitt character at one point is like, yeah, nostalgia sucks. And it's like, yes, why are you here? I found it so clunky. Particularly I thought The Freddie Prinze Jr. Performance was really a problem.
Jordan Crucciola
Yeah, I really liked him in this. I loved salt and pepper grizzled Freddie Prinze.
Stephen Thompson
I got no problem with salt and pepper or grizzle. I am the last person who should have a problem with such a thing. I thought his lines were badly written. I thought his lines were badly delivered. I found plot wise, especially once you start answering some of these questions and kind of solving the whodunit. Obviously we're not going to spoil anything. I thought the explanations made no sense at all. I found it completely unconvincing and completely silly, but not necessarily crossing over. Fun bad. At times, it tips into fun bad. But compared to a fun bad movie like, say, Trap, this film did not reach those dizzying highs of so bad it's good. It mostly was kind of going through the motions and it just didn't work for me at all.
Jordan Crucciola
I'm just so far afield from every single one of you.
Stephen Thompson
Well, talk about what you love. What did you love?
Jordan Crucciola
Okay, the thing is, I'm watching a summer slasher.
Rhianna Cruz
Sure.
Jordan Crucciola
The car crash ish thing happens. I too was watching it. Being like this actually doesn't seem like a big deal. And you could explain easily, like, hey, I was out near my car in the road and somebody swerved and this accident occurred. And it seemed like a pretty easy explanation. But once we moved on from the scene and I understand that those are the table stakes, I don't care. I was like, no. But this is the reason they're all upset. So I know that. So now we're moving forward. I can goldfish in a bowl. And like the cast, that was probably the thing I was most nervous about coming in. Because even when you have somebody like at the top of their game, like say everything in the production is going great cast chemistry from particularly from that aughts millennial teen horror era is the thing you just cannot bottle. But like Chase Swee wonders has a following. Actually loved her in this. I thought she was a really good leading girl. I thought she was really dynamic in that like distressy scream king kind of role. Madden Klein gave me bimbo supremacy. We don't do great bimbos in horror that much anymore. And her as like the rich girl speaking in sort of like self help ease very much. Kind of like the most sort of stereotypical Gen Z Avatar thought the true crime girly was very fun. Tariq Withers, I thought he was super compelling in your Avatar Ryan Phillippe character. I liked the whole this place is gentrifying. And that caused a problem because I was like, why are we watching a bunch of rich kids this time? It's kind of funny. But then it played out in a way it made sense. I was scared. I got scared throughout this movie. I jumped throughout this movie. I got a gay scene where Renee rapped. New music was playing in this movie. This was what I went to a summer movie theater for. I am befuddled. I'm out of step with as often the critical consensus. But truly the passion with which the critical consensus is seemingly blaming this movie for the entire fact of the reboot. Conceit has blown me clear out of those North Carolinian ocean waters.
Roxanna Hadati
I could not be more on the other side of everything Jordan just said. I really. I did not think that this cast had any believable chemistry whatsoever. I really needed more.
Jordan Crucciola
I am not a hater. The Milo character absolutely did not register for me. Did not exist. Do not remember.
Roxanna Hadati
Which is so funny because I think he had the only line delivery that really worked for me in the scene where they are researching the 90s phenomena. Because a conceit of this film is that the events of 1997 have been erased from collective memory for some convoluted reason. And they realized that you know, things popped off back then with a note that was sent saying, I know what you did last summer. And Madeleine Cline is like, oh, I got a note that said, I know what you did last summer. And the actor who plays Milo was like, yes, that's why we're here. And that deadpan delivery is the only moment where I was like, I think that this cast is in on the joke to a certain degree. But the characters were so thin for me, the relationships did not feel lived in in any particular way. It really just made me long to watch that Sarah Michelle Gellar performance again from the first one, because I feel like that had something tangible that I just did not connect with with this new group.
Rhianna Cruz
Yeah, I watched the first one right before going to the theater to watch this new one because I was like, okay, let's compare and contrast. And I think the cast was a really big sticking point for me in both movies because I think the first one, you really get attached to these characters, you know, their specific personalities. This one, the new one, it feels kind of like random, kind of cobbled together personality traits. And when I was watching, like, the motivations for each of the characters felt very strange and kind of unmotivated. I particularly think of, like, Chase Swee Wonders who, like, has two random sex scenes, you know? Like, I'm all for bringing sex scenes back into movies, you know? Like, I think we've been missing them lately, but I felt like this movie was so, like, unnecessarily horny because it's like, why is this character having sex in the middle of this movie, which is part camp, but also, like, kind of confusing for me. I don't know. I was just, like, not really connecting with what these characters were doing and why they were doing it. And it felt like often they just, like, cast people based on, like, oh, we need a Freddie Prinze type character. Okay? Like, this guy's going to be Milo, you know? And it's like, all right.
Stephen Thompson
Yeah. I definitely felt like several of these people were sort of cast as avatars from the first film, as you guys have mentioned.
Jordan Crucciola
Oh, for sure.
Stephen Thompson
My issues with this film aren't even as much with the young cast and their performance so much as this script, which is so clunky and so all over the place and really feels like it's been workshopped enough times that you have a bunch of scenes that just don't go anywhere. I think when you're talking about the sex scenes and how out of place those sex scenes fit in this film, And I too, am always happy to have, you know, movies be horny.
Rhianna Cruz
Yeah, exactly. I love De Palma.
Jordan Crucciola
There's a drought of effectively horny movies. So true.
Stephen Thompson
Right. And so that stuff is fine, but it all just feels like a jumble. It feels disjointed. Like you're seeing a lot of scenes that don't actually have a reason to exist.
Rhianna Cruz
Yeah, it felt very unmoored.
Roxanna Hadati
I think what it comes down to for me is like, by changing what kicks off the movie, by changing it from. This is something they actively do. They actively choose to dump a man's body into the water and either drown him or cover up his death. By changing it from something they make.
Stephen Thompson
An explicit decision in that first.
Roxanna Hadati
Yeah, yeah, yeah. They commit a crime.
Jordan Crucciola
Oh, yeah. They commit a crime.
Roxanna Hadati
Right. This is not. They choose to do something. This is something happens to them. And I just think changing it from like a proactive beginning to a reactive beginning really colors the rest of the film. I do think that there are some jump scares here I don't like. Primarily, the jump scare conceit in this film is just screeching noises and flashback to the accident, which I don't love.
Jordan Crucciola
That really worked for me. I thought that was actually really well deployed in this one. And normally that feels like this is what you missed on Saw to me. But I actually really liked the panic flashbacks in this.
Roxanna Hadati
See, I feel like it goes back to the earlier point of. This was a movie created to be spliced into pieces on TikTok. And so you need the flashbacks to remind people of what happened. If you missed an earlier clip of the 180 clips that this is now in on TikTok. And so that was an issue for me. And so it's like there are moments here that are really bloody and really gruesome and some really great images, like Danika using a blood red bath bomb. Like, there are some really smart things, I think, and they're just sort of weighed down by, like, to Steven's point to me, this script that I'm like, okay, if the villain was gentrification all along, I'd love to see the other parts of this town. I'd love to see the other people who live here. I'd love to have a greater understanding of what this is doing to this community. And the movie felt very insular for too long, I think.
Jordan Crucciola
Like, I was thinking that as well. Like, I was kind of wondering about the greater nature of the town in the movie. Like, that is definitely something I was doing. I can See how if you were unsure of, like, how in on it are the people in this movie of, like the sad eye or of the joke or the lo winx. I just felt very bought in. Like, I don't like to cite, like, the person who made this movie, but, like, I feel like with Jen, Kate and Robinson and she co wrote it with Sam Lansky, you look at the stuff that she's done and with sweet vicious and with do revenge, it feels like she's such an in on the joke kind of entire sensibility. And you, you look at the humor that excites her and the characters that she chooses to write and like, there was never a moment for me where I was going to, I think, question whether or not she loved these characters and she loved their, like, sense of humor they were going for in their personalities. So I think foundationally, I wasn't having that undermining feeling that might have matriculated out throughout the rest of the movie and maybe like, shooting holes at it the entire time. Like, that was something that was very much built in the foundation of how I was watching it was like, understanding that for being like, yeah, I believe she is on the same page as these characters and she knows where the.
Roxanna Hadati
Humor of this is going.
Jordan Crucciola
So I was like, linked arms with her sensibility in that way.
Rhianna Cruz
That's interesting. I feel like when it comes to the director and the way that the script is written, it's a vibe that you have to catch and I just don't catch it. And.
Jordan Crucciola
Yeah, yeah, I hear that. I hear that.
Rhianna Cruz
I like, saw that the director of this movie had directed two movies prior to this. One, Do Revenge and Someone Great. Two movies that I really did not like and also would give two stars. So a great consistent filmography. To me, I absolutely.
Jordan Crucciola
That is not anything I would even try and make an argument. It was just like, if it's not the vibe that you've ever caught, there's no reason why you would catch it here. Like, if those movies didn't sit right with you, this is not going to be the one that converts you to this person. So I 100% agree with that.
Rhianna Cruz
Yeah.
Roxanna Hadati
I want to ask 2 out of 5 or 2 out of 10, like, what star level are we talking?
Jordan Crucciola
Question. Fair question.
Rhianna Cruz
I would give it, you know, on letterboxd, I gave it a two out of five. I think I would bump it down to a one and a half out of five.
Stephen Thompson
Wow.
Rhianna Cruz
The more I think about it, you know, one of those things that, like you said, sit with it and you wrestle with it and you're like, actually, I think I gotta bump this down to half star.
Jordan Crucciola
Okay. My one question, as with the original, what would it be? And I know what you did last summer movie if it was not compared to Scream. This is the movie's legacy. This is the movie's bags that it carries with it.
Roxanna Hadati
Absolutely.
Jordan Crucciola
You know, you said that you preferred, like, the direction that, like, the Scream movies. What was it about that in this movie's closest comp. Where in the parlance of our times, one might have described in 1997. I know too did last summer is screams, quote unquote, reheated nachos. What did you find that the revamps of Scream were doing more effectively in this movie's sort of older sister kind of comparison that you weren't feeling in this one?
Rhianna Cruz
Yeah, I mean, I think, like, the Scream reboots, the closest analog I have is, like, the campiness. When you're rebooting a franchise in horror now, you know, there, like, needs to be an element of, like, being in on it.
Jordan Crucciola
Sure.
Rhianna Cruz
Or you have to, like, subvert the formula at this point. We've seen so many horror reboots that are about, like, trauma, and trauma sticks with us, and the trauma is around, and we need to acknowledge it. And I think what the Scream reboots did really well is, granted, they were, like, one of the first in recent memory to do that. But also, they leaned into the campiness that has always been inherent to the Scream franchise. I think the I Know what yout Did Last Summer, the first one specifically, not talking about the Brandy one, not talking about I'll always know what you did last Summer.
Jordan Crucciola
The Source Code.
Rhianna Cruz
Right. The first movie, I don't think it's particularly campy. I think it has an air of dread to it. I think there's a really heavy emotional guilt that lies over the movie.
Jordan Crucciola
I know what you did last Summer is a sincere movie.
Roxanna Hadati
Right.
Rhianna Cruz
And I think what the Scream reboots did well is tap into the camp that was in the original movie. There is really no camp in the original. I know what you did last summer. And that's why, if there was camp in this, because I didn't see it, but I'm sure there is. It did not land for me.
Jordan Crucciola
Gotcha. Okay.
Roxanna Hadati
I think also the new Screams, actually, I don't really enjoy. I feel like they're chasing the feeling of watching Skeet Ulrich suck fake blood off his fingers. Like, those movies, to me, are, like, chasing the high of that image. And I don't think that they get there. But I do agree with you that I think one of my biggest issues here was just tonality and the fact that it doesn't really fit what I think of as the lineage of this movie, which is really about the impending doom of becoming an adult. And I just. I didn't get that from this, really. I didn't get the sense that, like, I don't know what any of these people were doing in their lives before they came back home, you know, so it just felt like that level of, like, they're characters who are created to be creatively killed off. I wanted more than just, like, the blood that spills out of their bodies, if that makes sense.
Rhianna Cruz
Yeah. I think a movie that I really liked from this year is Final Destination Bloodlines, because you watch it and it's like the way that these characters are being killed off and disposed of is obviously the main event. But when you compare something like that with. With the new I know what you did last summer, it's like the kills don't really land super well because you're like, oh, okay. Like, you know, maybe the hook is tired at this point. I don't know. Honestly, the best part of the movie for me is when they shot somebody with a harpoon gun. I was like, okay, yes.
Jordan Crucciola
Yeah, that was outstanding.
Rhianna Cruz
I was like, we need more of that. And.
Roxanna Hadati
Yeah, yeah, it was.
Rhianna Cruz
I was just looking for something that I think was. Wasn't there.
Jordan Crucciola
Yeah, Gotcha.
Roxanna Hadati
Okay.
Stephen Thompson
And the award for outstanding achievement in the field of harpooning goes to. All right. We want to know what you think about I Know what yout Did Last Summer. Find us on Facebook@facebook.com PCHH and on Letterboxd@letterboxd.com NPRpopculture. We'll have a link in our episode description that brings us to the end of our show. Roxanna, Hadati, Rihanna, Cruz, George Jordan, Cruciola. Thanks so much for being here.
Rhianna Cruz
Thanks for having me.
Roxanna Hadati
Thank you. Thank you.
Stephen Thompson
This episode was produced by Carly Rubin and Mike Katsif and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello. Come in. Provides our theme music. Thanks for listening to Pop Culture Happy hour from npr. I'm Stephen Thompson, and we will see you all next time.
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Pop Culture Happy Hour: "I Know What You Did Last Summer" Episode Summary
Release Date: July 22, 2025
Podcast: Pop Culture Happy Hour by NPR
Hosts: Linda Holmes, Glen Weldon, Stephen Thompson, Aisha Harris
Guests: Roxanna Hadati (Vulture TV Critic), Rhianna Cruz (Freelance Music and Culture Journalist), Jordan Crucciola (Writer, Producer, Host of "Feeling Seen" Podcast)
In this episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour, host Stephen Thompson and his panel delve into the 2025 sequel of the horror franchise "I Know What You Did Last Summer." The discussion centers around whether the new installment lives up to the legacy of the original 1997 film, exploring themes, character development, and overall reception.
The original "I Know What You Did Last Summer" (1997) introduced audiences to a group of teenagers—Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Freddie Prinze Jr.—who become targets of a vengeful killer after attempting to cover up a tragic car accident. The film was a commercial success, but its subsequent sequels failed to maintain the same level of acclaim.
Nearly three decades later, the franchise returns with a new sequel titled "I Know What You Did Last Summer." The plot mirrors the original, featuring a fresh cast of young characters led by Ava (Chase Swee Wonders) and Danika (Madeline Klein). The story unfolds in Southport, North Carolina, the same town where the original murders occurred, and reintroduces key survivors Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.), who now run a local bar.
Timestamp: [04:14]
Jordan Crucciola expresses enthusiasm for the sequel despite negative critical consensus. She shares a personal encounter with the director, Jennifer Cayton Robinson, highlighting her support for the film:
"I bumped into Jennifer Cayton Robinson... and I am here to say I am thrilled with the fruits of her labor." ([04:14])
Jordan appreciates the new cast, praising Chase Swee Wonders and Madeline Klein for their dynamic performances. She highlights specific scenes, such as the harpoon gun attack, as standout moments:
"I was scared throughout this movie. I was genuinely shocked at the consensus feedback on this." ([11:00])
Timestamp: [05:19]
Roxanna Hadati finds the sequel "moderately entertaining" but raises concerns about the film's tone and direction:
"The movie itself does not know how much it is satirizing the entire idea of what it's doing versus genuinely redoing the first movie." ([05:19])
She questions whether the film is intentionally humorous or genuinely horror, suggesting an unclear narrative purpose:
"I also think that a lot of this movie is also unclear as to whether it likes the characters that it has created or like if it hates young people in general." ([05:19])
Roxanna criticizes the lack of character depth and chemistry, longing for the emotional connection seen in the original:
"The characters were so thin for me, the relationships did not feel lived in in any particular way." ([12:35])
Timestamp: [06:31]
Rhianna Cruz delivers a scathing critique of the sequel, citing issues with plot coherence, character motivations, and overall execution:
"I did not like this movie. I did not find it enjoyable. I was rolling my eyes the entire time." ([06:31])
She compares the film unfavorably to other horror reboots like "Scream," "Final Destination," and "Halloween," highlighting its lack of inventiveness and emotional stakes:
"This movie lacks the campiness of the Scream reboot... it feels disposable." ([07:00])
Rhianna questions the film's central conceit, noting that the original's theme of guilt over a car accident is absent in the sequel:
"The initial accident, nobody hit somebody with their car. ... they all guilty about it." ([07:00])
She rates the movie severely, initially giving it two out of five stars and contemplating reducing it further:
"I would give it, you know, on Letterboxd, I gave it a two out of five... I think I gotta bump this down to half star." ([19:52])
The panelists draw comparisons between the sequel and other horror franchises, particularly "Scream." They discuss how "Scream" effectively balances campiness with horror elements, a balance they feel the sequel fails to achieve:
"The Scream reboots... leaned into the campiness that has always been inherent to the Scream franchise." ([20:54])
Roxanna adds that the sequel lacks the emotional depth concerning the characters' impending adulthood, which was a central theme in the original:
"This is about the impending doom of becoming an adult. And I just... I didn't get that from this, really." ([22:00])
Jump Scares and Flashbacks: Roxanna criticizes the film's use of jump scares and flashbacks as being overly reliant on modern platforms like TikTok, leading to a disjointed viewing experience:
"There are moments here that are really bloody and really gruesome and some really great images... but they are weighed down by... the script." ([17:59])
Cinematography: Rhianna points out the film's vertical filming style, tailored for TikTok consumption, detracting from the cinematic experience:
"The cinematography looks like it's all vertical for TikTok videos... designed to watch in like 180 parts." ([07:00])
The consensus among the panelists leans towards disappointment with the sequel. While Jordan remains a staunch defender, Roxanna and Rhianna highlight significant shortcomings in script, character development, and tonal consistency. Rhianna's final rating underscores the film's lackluster reception:
"I think I gotta bump this down to half star." ([19:59])
Overall, the episode underscores the challenges of reviving beloved franchises and the high expectations set by original films. The panelists emphasize the importance of maintaining narrative coherence, character depth, and tonal balance to honor the legacy of iconic movies.
Find more discussions on "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and other pop culture topics on Facebook and Letterboxd.