When my middle-school English teacher gave the class carte blanche for our fall book reports, I was the only one whose pick had been turned into a horror movie. I Know What You Did Last Summer was currently playing in theaters back then, and I had yet to read the literary basis by Lois Duncan. So my choice felt natural. Had I known the novel varied so greatly from Jim Gillespie’s movie, though, I probably would have written about something else.
Being a young and inexperienced horror fan who preferred the genre’s most simple and overt pleasures, I initially found Duncan’s more subdued approach to a hit-and-run, as opposed to the slasher execution penned by Kevin Williamson, somehow less interesting. It wasn’t until years later that I realized my mistake.
While a more accurate interpretation of Duncan’s 1973 novel has yet to manifest on either the big or small screen, I detect notes of that classic morality tale in the 2021 update of I Know What You Did Last Summer. This eight-part television series takes after its cinematic predecessor, of course, however, in combination with the gruesome stalking is a deeper look into the minds of the guilty party.
The 1997 IKWYDLS diverged from its source material, much to the frustration of Duncan, but that adaptation has nothing on the fundamentally different TV show that came years after. Creator Sara Goodman took little more than the novel’s title and inciting incident, not to mention the carnage of Gillespie and Williamson’s collaboration, for her own unique rendering of Duncan’s fictional guilt trip. Like in both the book and the movie, the show has teens covering up a heinous crime, then suffering the grisly consequences of their actions a year later. From there the IKWYDLS series transforms into a separate entity and, for better or worse, embraces its darkness.
Image: Madison Iseman (Alison/Lennon) and Bill Heck (Bruce) in I Know What You Did Last Summer (2021).
To emphasize how haunting the past has become, the show opens on the aftermath and not the accident. The wrongdoing has to feel like a ghost that’s always creeping up on the characters. So until the flashbacks kick in, we follow the main character, former cool girl and co-conspirator Lennon (Madison Iseman), as she returns to her small Hawaiian hometown. A year away at college wasn’t long enough to forget what happened last summer, and Lennon is immediately reminded of her transgression. There inside her closet someone has left her a welcome home “gift,” which includes a severed goat head. The opening episode then propels you to the ill-fated night when Lennon and her friends made the worst decision of their young—and, for some of them, short-lived—lives.
Julie, Helen, Ray and Barry seem downright wholesome compared to the teens found in this more contemporary iteration of IKWYDLS. The expository flashback alone shows the characters and their peers indulging themselves while in earshot of their oblivious, or simply permissive, parents. Drugs, booze, nudity, and sex are in plain view at this rather debauched house party. And as everyone else merely celebrates the end of high school and the beginning of adulthood, the underlying tensions of Lennon’s small friend group come to a head. Once more, Lennon ignores the affection of her best friend and not-so-secret admirer Margot (Brianne Tju), and Riley (Ashley Moore), everyone’s go-to supplier of illicit substances, quietly pines for eternal sad boy Dylan (Ezekiel Goodman). He’s too consumed with Lennon’s identical twin Alison (also Iseman) to take notice of anyone else. In fact, it’s his fixation that helps trigger this evening’s deadly chain of events.
The IKWYDLS series is shades darker than the previous adaptation. As proof, the victim of this hit-and-run is a member of the central clique. After betraying Alison at the party, Lennon hits the road and accidentally runs over her distraught sister. Margot, Dylan, Riley and other bestie Johnny (Sebastian Amoruso) go from passengers to accomplices in mere minutes as they decide that they are better off pretending Alison ran away than admit to vehicular manslaughter. And to dispose of the evidence, everyone leaves Alison’s body in the very same sea cave where the twins’ mother killed herself years earlier. So, already, the show raises the stakes by twisting the crime into something more personal and disturbing. That’s saying a lot, given how the novel’s victim was a child.
Image: Ezekiel Goodman (Dylan), Ashley Moore (Riley), Madison Iseman (Alison/Lennon) and Brianne Tju (Margot) in I Know What You Did Last Summer (2021).
As if killing a loved one wasn’t awful enough, the series reveals the twin trickery didn’t end with Lennon sleeping with Dylan while posing as her sister. No, the driver behind the wheel was actually Alison, who Margot and the others presumed was Lennon, their friend, as they jumped into her car that night. Alison didn’t correct them then or after the accident. The fraud only continues as the twins’ own father Bruce (Bill Heck) keeps up the charade and pretends that Lennon, who everyone now believes is Alison, indeed ran away. This single parent can’t stand to lose another child, even the one he possibly favored less than her more popular and accomplished sibling. Having a “spare” kid is certainly no cold comfort for Bruce, but there is solace in the idea that Lennon can stay alive through Alison.
Beneath the surface of a standard cat-and-mouse, vengeful slasher story is now this heady and morose psychodrama where the ostensible Final Girl plays a tiered role unlike any seen before in the IKWYDLS space. Iseman is wearing multiple hats here and does so fantastically. Grief, deceit and humiliation mark Alison’s portrayal of Lennon; she’s quietly devastated to learn how few folks mourn Alison, even after her body later washes ashore. Or rather, they don’t grieve in the same way they would for Lennon. There’s also mention of how Alison wasn’t anyone’s friend to begin with; she was just Lennon’s mopey, underachieving and outcast twin who never got over her mother’s bizarre passing. The notion that people will say kind things about you once you’re gone is not remotely the case for Alison. She instead has to endure the general apathy towards her own former existence—from friends and family—as she lives out the life of her more cherished sister. So, in essence, it really was Alison who died that night, and her death made little impact.
If you found the mystery component of the ‘97 IKWYDLS to be somewhat lacking and flimsy when scrutinized, then the TV show’s attempt at a whodunit could provide satisfaction. Once the victim herself is ruled out, it’s anyone’s guess who might be the killer. The suspect list here is long and diverse. There are those questionable supporting characters to consider, such as Riley’s mother and Bruce’s housecleaner Courtney (Cassie Beck), and Lennon’s scuzzy F-buddy Dale (Spencer Sutherland). You also wouldn’t be judged if you stopped to ask if Bruce was exacting retribution after the loss of his daughter. Maybe even with the help of his remaining child, all in an effort to clean up loose ends.
However, the prime suspect, when looking beyond the main circle of characters, is Clara (Brooke Bloom), a surviving member of the now-gone local cult that largely perished in a mass suicide. The puzzling Clara not only witnessed Margot and the others entering the cave with “Alison’s” body that night, she radiates madness and instability. Alison and Lennon’s mother being from the same cult is an additional motive to ponder, if you were to think there was an otherworldly and ritualistic proponent behind the slayings. Suffice it to say, figuring out the culprit is less easy and straightforward than anticipated.
Image: Madison Iseman (Alison/Lennon) and Brianne Tju (Margot) in I Know What You Did Last Summer (2021).
In light of the critical reviews since its airing, this IKWYDLS is a touch too overhated by the masses, although I would be remiss to not bring up some vital caveats. The characters are, in a word, unpleasant, possibly enough to make you abandon ship early on. If Jennifer Love Hewitt’s Julie came across as difficult and miserable, wait until you meet these misfits. For starters, the twins continue to fight, even when one of them is now six feet under. Conceptually speaking, Lennon is this show’s Laura Palmer, except Alison’s dead sister is meaner and more difficult to sympathize with, on account of how cruelty and selfishness are her forte (and later her legacy). Lennon was self-destructive and spiteful to the very end. As for Alison, she’s gloomy to a fault and clearly making the worst life decisions, yet looking past everything, and without glossing over the snags in her design, there lies a pitiable character trapped in a lose-lose situation.
Then there is the entertainingly messy and frank Margot, who brings life to this pathetic lot of young malefactors. Her unerring ability to stay current and hip, along with her low filter, offers levity whenever the story gets much too dour. And rivaling Alison’s depression, more so perhaps, is Dylan, whose own overwhelming sense of guilt gives rise to mistrust among his friends and those of us watching. Has he too sipped from the same cup of cult as Clara and the twins’ mother? It would appear that way as the ending looms in view. That said, it’s safe to assume you’re in for a surprise once the killer’s mask does come off. Will the reveal appease everyone? Probably not, and that epilogue is a tad silly, but I can always appreciate a bold slasher unmasking.
I can’t speak for everyone when I say the original I Know What You Did Last Summer movie played a big role in my formative years as a horror fan. Acknowledging the shortcomings that only become more obvious with age, that adaptation still had the good fortune of showing up first in the post-Scream slasher revival. Its influence, whether you like it or not, is felt in this TV version, regardless of the numerous differences between them. Once again, and severely this time around, the bulk of Lois Duncan’s affecting lament is just grazed. So I have no inkling as to when a faithful translation will surface, if ever, but at the very least, this Summer had more time and opportunity to get inside the heads of its characters. While the kind of grief and guilt on display here isn’t an exact match for what Duncan imagined, that doesn’t make it any less upsetting. And if upsetting was what this show aimed for, then it did so with flying colors.
The new I Know What You Did Last Summer movie is out in theaters starting on July 18, and the TV series is available for streaming now on Prime Video.
Image: The scene of the crime in I Know What You Did Last Summer (2021).