All 4 I Know What You Did Last Summer Movies Ranked

(Photo by Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection. I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER.)

After seeing the explosive and eye-popping success of Saw X and Final Destination Bloodlines, the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise hook-scratched its chin and said, “Why not me? Ow.” After all, if torture porn could release such a celebrated legacy sequel, then how about a reversal of fortune in kind for this dormant teen slasher, just like its Scream ilk in 2022.

Based on the Lois Duncan school library mainstay, the original I Know What You Did Last Summer grabs the novel’s mystery & suspense plot and gnashes it into a bloody affair, getting the killer to drop the gun and instead pick up a fishing hook to stick it to the victims, real personal-like. Starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Freddie Prinze Jr., they portray recent high school graduates who make a pact of silence after their reckless driving leaves a pedestrian dead. But now, a cloaked stalker terrorizes them with a sharp blade and mash notes of threats and vengeance.

Released just before Halloween 1997, I Know What You Did Last Summer was the first major teen slasher after Scream jolted the genre awake for the decade in 1996. Summer beat Scream 2 to release by a few months, and then got its own sequel in 1998 with I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. The 2006 direct-to-DVD I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer makes it a trilogy, crucially.

Over 25 years after their last appearances, Hewitt and Prinze Jr. return for 2025’s I Know What You Did Last Summer to guide the next generation of piss-poor drivers, co-starring along Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, and Sarah Pidgeon.

#1

I Know What You Did Last Summer

(2025)

46%

#1

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: When five friends inadvertently cause a deadly car accident, they cover up their involvement and make a pact to keep [More]

Starring:
Madelyn Cline, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Chase Sui Wonders

Directed By:
Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

#2

I Know What You Did Last Summer

(1997)

45%

#2

Critics Consensus: 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.

Synopsis: A year after running over a fisherman and dumping his body in the water, four friends reconvene when Julie (Jennifer [More]

Starring:
Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Freddie Prinze Jr.

Directed By:
Jim Gillespie

#3

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer

(1998)

10%

#3

Critics Consensus: Boring, predictable, and bereft of thrills or chills, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is exactly the kind of rehash that gives horror sequels a bad name.

Synopsis: A year after killing vengeful hit-and-run victim Ben Wills (Muse Watson), who gutted her friends with an iron hook, college [More]

Starring:
Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Brandy Norwood, Mekhi Phifer

Directed By:
Danny Cannon

#4

I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer

(2006)

0%

#4

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: A mysterious killer stalks a group of friends who kept an accidental death a secret. [More]

Starring:
David Paetkau, Brooke Nevin, Don Shanks, Torrey DeVitto

Directed By:
Sylvain White