Warning: This post contains MAJOR spoilers for I Know What You Did Last Summer!With its latest installment, I Know What You Did Last Summer officially beat the Scream franchise to a shocking twist. Both slasher franchises originated in the 1990s with movies written by Kevin Williamson, each following an ensemble cast filled with potential victims for a bloodthirsty, masked killer.
Scream first received the legacy sequel treatment in 2022, and now it’s I Know What You Did Last Summer‘s turn. Directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, the new movie effectively takes the same premise as the 1997 original – a group of friends is responsible for a fatal car accident, and then a year later find themselves hunted by a killer with a fisherman’s hook – and brings it into 2025.
While the core cast consists of new characters, I Know What You Did Last Summer brings back the two main stars of the original films, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr., to connect the new tale to the past, as is common practice for legacy sequels.
Hewitt and Prinze Jr. play Julie James and Ray Bronson, respectively, the only two people to survive both rounds of brutal killings inflicted by the original Fisherman. However, while most sequels are careful with how they depict their original leads, this slasher takes a bold swing instead.
I Know What You Did Last Summer Actually Turned One Of Its Heroes Into A Villain
It’s Something Scream Fans Have Waited Years For
As revealed in the I Know What You Did Last Summer ending, Ray has become the thing he once feared, turning into the latest iteration of the Fisherman. The main killer is his young employee Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon), someone he’s looked out for since her father skipped town years before.
After Stevie and her friends were responsible for the car accident that killed one of her closest confidants, Stevie sought revenge and began targeting everyone. Ray joined her, as his own repressed trauma pushed him to a devastating breaking point. This culminated in a showdown between Ray and Julie, a moment made all the more impactful by their shared history of being survivors.
I Know What You Did Last Summer‘s decision to turn one of its original heroes into a killer is a surprising one, particularly because many have speculated Scream could do the very same. For years now, there have been endless theories over whether original final girl Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) will someday don the Ghostface mask.
This has extended into the rebooted Scream movies, which have laid the groundwork for their newest leading lady, Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), to become Ghostface. Sam is the daughter of the franchise’s original killer, Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), and the climax of 2022’s Scream even revealed the killers wanted to frame Sam for the murders purely because of her lineage.
So far, though, Scream hasn’t taken this step, making I Know What You Did Last Summer‘s Ray twist even more interesting. The two slasher franchises have, at times, been in compeтιтion with each other; both stemmed from roughly the same time period and were established by the same person, leading to frequent comparisons.
I Know What You Did Last Summer’s Twist Fits The Franchise Better Than It Would Scream
It Would Hit Differently – And Not Necessarily In A Good Way
If I had to pick a winner in the apparent Scream vs I Know What You Did Last Summer debate, I’d say, with no offense intended to the loser, that Scream comes out on top. Not only has it simply produced more movies – six so far to IKWYDLS‘ four – but they’ve also been more warmly received by critics and audiences.
|
Movie |
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score |
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score |
|---|---|---|
|
Scream (1996) |
78% |
80% |
|
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) |
46% |
41% |
|
Scream (2022) |
76% |
82% |
|
I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) |
40% (As of July 18) |
69% (As of July 18) |
However, in the case of this particular twist, I Know What You Did Last Summer is the clear winner. Yes, it got to it faster than Scream, but it also suits this franchise far better than it would the other.
The 2025 movie touches upon the lasting trauma both Ray and Julie have faced since 1997, and by putting the two characters at opposite ends of the spectrum, it becomes a surprisingly poignant turn in their stories. Julie clung to her humanity with all she possibly could, while Ray spiraled and became a monster.
Beyond that, though, this works better for I Know What You Did Last Summer simply because we, as an audience, have spent less time with Ray. If Scream were to make Sidney Ghostface after five movies of her being the hero – and an inspirational survivor – it would be a bitter twist that would alter the way we view everything else.
Scream perhaps could’ve gotten away with this twist with Sam, but Barrera won’t be returning for the upcoming seventh movie. There is a certain appeal to seeing a hero become the bad guy, since it raises a number of complex questions about human nature and the impact of trauma. Plus, it’s just fascinating to watch.
However, since I Know What You Did Last Summer has the benefit of Ray’s character not being quite as set in stone as Sidney’s, we’re able to watch his killer turn with a disbelieving, giddy glee. I don’t think it would have quite the same effect in the Scream franchise, so hopefully that twist will remain a simple fan theory.
