Everything you Need to know about “I Know What You did Last Summer”, the new Amazon series

On October 15, the first four chapters of "I Know What You Did Last Summer" hit Prime Video, Amazon Studios' new adaptation of the 90s classic in a serial format. Thus, this new production joins the Netflix trilogy "The Street of Terror", the return of Chucky, Michael Myers and Scream as examples that keep the slasher genre alive, before an audience that loves products that appeal to nostalgia.

I know what you did last summer (2021)

After a night of partying, four teenagers calmly return home, until the fun turns to tragedy when they run over a person in the middle of nowhere. Still in shock, they decide to hide what happened and promise to keep it into a secret. A year later, everything is apparently "fine" for them after the tragic event. However, everything changes when they begin to receive messages that confuse them and that are directly related to what happened. The messages stop being the worst when the deaths begin to happen, turning into a bloody hunt.

This is the basic premise of "I Know What You Did Last Summer", the new series from Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures that arrives direct with four episodes on October 15, while the next four will premiere individually every Friday to complete the season. In the main roles we will have Madison Iseman, Brianne Tju, Bill Heck, Ezekiel Goodman, Ashley Moore, Sebastian Amoruso, Cassie Beck, Brooke Bloom and Fiona Rene. Among the producers stands out the name of James Wan, director responsible for successes of the genre in franchises such as Saw, Insidious and The Conjuring, and also in other genres with films such as Furious 7 and Aquaman. So one of the things viewers can look forward to is seeing Wan's stamp on screen in the production, as he is not serving as director this time.

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Another "revived" classic

When reading the main premise of the new Amazon series, surely you have also thought about the 1997 film version, this is important because the Amazon Studios production is not a remake of the film, but a new adaptation of the 1973 book of the writer Lois Duncan. It should be noted that the writer was disappointed in the 1997 film about her novel because it had been transformed into a slasher, when her work originally is not. In this regard, Duncan commented: "I was horrified when my book became a slasher film. As the mother of a murdered child, I do not find violent death something to scream and laugh about", according to the B&S About Movies site. As it is not an adaptation of the film, but of the book, one of the expectations about the series is whether it will respect the essence of the novel or if it will follow in the footsteps of the film, although the trailer suggests that it will be the latter.

So, as viewers we must know that it is not necessary to have seen the 1997 film (adaptation of the book), nor its two sequels that have nothing to do with the novel. The series is a new adaptation of the book that ignores what happened in the film. The only reason to watch the film or read the book is if you are curious to make any comparisons between the book, the film adaptation, and the series, which will be unavoidable among critics after its release. The series, like other adaptations of the 80s and 90s, have the great challenge of transforming the story to the technological environment of today, so in "I know what you did last summer" we will have a murderer who could take advantage of social networks and the internet in general to more easily harass their victims, without having to be present on the spot. We will also see if the misogyny of which the slasher genre has been accused for decades continues or if, following the current trend, there is any change in the role of women and how they are portrayed in these types of films.