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I Know What You Did Last Summer
Movie

I Know What You Did Last Summer

2025 • Horror

Woke Score
6.8
out of 10

Plot

A group of friends are terrorised by a mysterious killer who knows about a gruesome incident from their past.

Overall Series Review

The 2025 sequel/soft-reboot of the slasher franchise modernizes the core 'guilt and vengeance' plot for a new generation. The movie focuses on a diverse group of privileged young friends in a small coastal town who accidentally cause a death and attempt a clumsy cover-up. The narrative is heavy with Gen Z-coded dialogue, social media references, and popular music, which often undercuts the atmosphere of a classic horror film. The story introduces a strong political and class-based subtext through the themes of coastal gentrification and the corruption of local authority figures. The dynamic among the female leads takes center stage, showcasing complex, high-agency young women. However, the film receives criticism for its inconsistent tone, undeveloped character culpability, and a lack of genuine horror or suspense.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics7/10

Diversity is aggressively prioritized through the casting of the main friend group and surrounding figures, which includes race-swapped characters and a significant non-white presence. The core villain is a wealthy, white, male politician who uses his privilege to corrupt the town's institutions and cover up crimes, framing 'whiteness' as the source of systemic oppression. One of the original protagonists, a white male, returns as a traumatized, broken antagonist, signifying the deconstruction of the classic hero.

Oikophobia6/10

The traditional American coastal town setting is explicitly framed as corrupt and dying, being ruined by 'Villainous Gentrification' at the hands of the wealthy elite. The wealthy, entrenched system (represented by a politician and his family) is shown to be exploiting the local community, promoting a view of the homeland as fundamentally tainted by class and power abuses. Local institutions and authority figures are presented as shields for chaos and immorality, not order.

Feminism8/10

The director and main writers are female, leading to a narrative centered on female agency and a 'Girl Boss' perspective. The two main characters are female, with the new central figure described as undergoing an 'insane transformation' in a way that recalls a powerful female horror protagonist. The narrative frames one of the eventual killers as a 'strong empowered woman' who is being 'labeled as crazy,' suggesting sympathy for the vigilante power dynamic. Men are largely portrayed as either corrupt politicians, self-absorbed crypto-bro clichés, or secondary, disposable figures.

LGBTQ+4/10

The primary narrative focus is on the crime, the cover-up, and the subsequent slasher action. Alternative sexualities and gender ideology are not themes central to the plot or character definitions, which are instead concerned with class, wealth, and guilt.

Anti-Theism9/10

A traditional authority figure, the town pastor Judah Gillespie, is directly implicated in the cover-up, taking a bribe to secure his silence. This shows a core religious institution as fundamentally corrupted by money and power, not a source of strength or transcendent morality. The killer's motivation is driven by a subjective sense of vengeance and moral justice against the guilty, fully replacing the notion of a higher moral law or objective truth with personal, secular retribution.