Right after Scream redefined horror in 1996, Kevin Williamson’s name became shorthand for smart, emotionally grounded teen thrillers. I Know What You Did Last Summer was the first film to hit theaters in its wake—a blood-soaked follow-up that traded meta-commentary for urban legend chills, but carried the same youthful urgency and heartbreak.
Based on Lois Duncan‘s book, it starred Jennifer Love Hewitt (already part of the Party of Five family alongside Neve Campbell), Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Ryan Phillippe—each of them a charisma bomb waiting to detonate. And detonate they did. For many of us, this was the first slasher we experienced on the big screen. And yes, we still haven’t emotionally recovered from what happened to Helen Shivers.
Tomorrow, the requel arrives. Directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, this new chapter doesn’t reset the clock—it reverberates with memory.
Legacy sequels: A conversation across decades
The trailer and early clips have made it clear: this is a film that knows its lineage. From visual callbacks to Helen Shivers’ doomed alley chase, to the framing of certain shots that echo late-’90s genre style, the requel builds on iconography rather than replacing it.
It also understands its place in the broader Kevin Williamson-verse. This isn’t just a spiritual sibling of Scream—it’s part of the same DNA. The reflective windows, the painful secrets, the burden of survival and grief all stem from the same pen that gave us Sidney Prescott.
And let’s not forget: Sarah Michelle Gellar is one of the very few scream queens who met grisly ends in both universes—Scream 2 and I Know—in the span of a single year. Those performances became templates for what a horror death could feel like. Now, this new chapter subtly honors that legacy, without ever falling into parody.
Kevin Williamson’s Multiverse
Back in the ’90s, the lines between horror and heartache were already blurring across Williamson’s work. Between the release of Scream in December 1996 and I Know What You Did Last Summer in October 1997, he wasn’t just reshaping the slasher formula—he was building an emotional multiverse, where fear, longing, guilt and survival shared the same frame.
And nowhere was that crossover more visible than in Dawson’s Creek.
Dawson’s bedroom was a shrine to the horror renaissance he was just a little too young to have lived—but not too young to revere. Scream and I Know VHS tapes sat prominently on the shelf. Horror posters lined the walls. A Ghostface mask occasionally peeked out in the background, a subtle nod to the creator’s other life in genre filmmaking.
In the Season 1 episode “The Scare,” Williamson staged his own WB-friendly slasher: creepy phone calls, killer POV shots, a hook-wielding figure in the dark. It was a Halloween episode that fully leaned into the tropes he had just helped resurrect on the big screen. That same episode guest-starred Scott Foley, long before he’d appear in Scream 3 as Roman Bridger.
Final Girls Forever
In a fitting twist of fate, a few days ago, Jennifer Love Hewitt posted a series of Instagram Stories connecting herself to Neve Campbell and celebrating their shared legacy—not just as ‘90s icons, but as Final Girls who shaped a generation. The posts were quickly reshared by none other than Jamie Lee Curtis—the ultimate Final Girl, who also happened to star alongside Jennifer in House Arrest (1996).
It’s the kind of quiet full-circle moment that reminds us these stories are bigger than any one film. They’re part of a lineage. A conversation. A chain that started with Laurie Strode, passed through Sidney Prescott and Julie James, and now continues with a new generation of survivors.
What are you waiting for?
Now, with this new requel, the timeline circles back. The younger sibling of Scream is stepping into the light once again. And if you grew up screaming, swooning or sobbing through the ‘90s, this is the kind of return that matters.
Catch I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) in theaters this weekend.
