Note: We previously reviewed Sony’s 2022 25th Anniversary 4K release of this title. Portions of that review are repeated here.

It’s the Fourth of July and four friends are celebrating their final summer together in the small seaside town of Southport before they head off to colleges in different states. Newly-crowned Croaker Queen Helen Shivers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her boyfriend, quarterback Barry Cox (Ryan Phillippe), and Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and her boyfriend Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.) enjoy drinks and telling ghost stories by a campfire, followed by some romantic time on the beach. As they are driving back home late at night, they accidentally strike a stranger walking in the middle of the road with their vehicle. Rather than going to the police, they decide to cover up what they’ve done in order to protect their futures, making a pact to never speak of the incident ever again. However, one year later, on the anniversary of the incident, the teens start receiving ominous messages stating “I Know What You Did Last Summer”, and soon find themselves being stalked by a hook-wielding maniac dressed like a fisherman in a black slicker and rain hat. Now they are desperate to figure out who knows their secret so that they can stop him before they literally take what happened to their graves.

The immense success of Scream is what really kicked off the major resurgence of the horror film in the late 1990s. Writer Kevin Williamson followed up the success of Scream with I Know What You Did Last Summer, which is more of a straightforward horror movie rather than Scream‘s sometimes comedic, and more self-aware take on the genre.

As I sat down to re-watch the film for review, it had been well over 10 years since I had last watched I Know What You Did Last Summer, so I went into it somewhat fresh, unable to remember the details or even who the killer turns out to be. The film still holds up very well. Other than some older phone and computer technology, this movie could have easily taken place today. It has all the makings of a classic slasher film, though, it’s nowhere near as gruesome as most modern slasher flicks, with just a couple bloody scenes here and there. However, the tension and feeling of danger is still always present for the main characters, and the story takes several twists and turns that keep you guessing the identity of the killer, and who will survive their wrath. The fisherman with a hook makes for an iconic and creepy killer. I found myself just as engrossed in the mystery and nervous for these main characters as I did the first time around 25 years ago.

The young cast is great, featuring many folks who went on to have great careers. Only Jennifer Love Hewitt was on a hit series (Party of Five) at the time the film was made, Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer had only started airing a couple weeks before this film was released, and the guys were hardly household names at this point in their careers. But all four actors really bring these characters to life, turning what could have been just one-dimensional slasher stereotypes into well-rounded characters you care about. It’s easy to see why they all went on to do so many more films and TV shows. The cast also includes several other recognizable faces, such as Bridgette Wilson as Helen’s overbearing older sister, Anne Heche as a somewhat odd and suspicious young woman, and Johnny Galecki as a townie with a crush on Julie.

Even this early in his career, Kevin Williamson proves that he is great at writing both teen drama and horror, and here he combines the two perfectly. We even see some references to what’s to come for the writer, with the beach being named “Dawson’s Beach”. Director Jim Gillespie also does a great job, especially with this being his feature film directorial debut.

This month Mill Creek is re-releasing several Sony films in new Walmart-exclusive Blu-ray SteelBook packaging. It feels like the the transfer used for this release of I Know What You Did Last Summer is the same one used for Sony’s previous Blu-ray release. The picture quality generally looks really good, with a natural film grain and a nice level of detail throughout. Even the darker scenes look pretty solid. Oddly, Mill Creek has decided to give this disc a 2.0 stereo audio track rather than the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track from the previous Blu-ray, or the newer Atmos track that had been created for Sony’s recent 4K disc release. Dialogue is clear, but the film is missing the immersive feeling of those surround tracks.

Sony’s 2008 Blu-ray release included a lot of legacy bonus material that was ported over from the DVD, and the 2022 4K release also included a pair of new interviews and some deleted scenes. Unfortunately none of that material has been carried over to this new SteelBook release. Instead, we get a single new interview with the film’s composer, which feels like it was probably produced around the same time as the interviews for the 4K release, but inexplicably left off that disc.

Mill Creek’s new Walmart-exclusive SteelBook release comes on a single Blu-ray disc placed inside a beautiful-looking SteelBook case showcasing the cast—the interior and exterior of which can be seen below. The case is placed inside a plastic sleeve that fits over the case and adds the title and the hooked killer.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:40:52)

• 1080p / Widescreen 2.35:1
• Audio: English DTS-HD MA Stereo
• Subtitles: English

Extras:
Unfortunately none of the previous bonus material has been carried over, but the release does include one new exclusive featurette.

• I Know How You Scored Last Summer: An Interview with Composer John Debney (19:59)
  In this brand new interview, composer John Debney talks about how he got the job of working on this film, how he wanted the score to be more romantic and wistful in tone, other scores that influenced him, the main themes of the score, the lower budget of the movie, some of the specific sound choices he made, and more. The composer primarily talks over a scored montage of footage from the film that fills the screen, which periodically switches to a side-by-side view of this footage next to a black and white video recording of Debney commentating from his studio. There are some gaps in the commentary where Debney stops talking. The footage of him also feels slightly out of synch.

Final Thoughts:

Mill Creek has re-released the original I Know What You Did Last Summer classic on Blu-ray in a beautiful new Walmart-exclusive SteelBook packaging. However, this release comes less than 2 years after Sony gave us a 25th Anniversary 4K edition. While the film’s video presentation is pretty solid, the disc opts for a stereo audio track rather than the surround ones on previous releases, and doesn’t carry over any existing bonus material. Instead, it offers one new 20-minute interview with the film’s composer. There is no digital copy included. This release is really for the SteelBook collectors. Others who don’t care about the packaging are better off getting the cheaper previous Blu-ray release, or Sony’s 25th Anniversary 4K release if they have the ability to play that. I don’t think the new interview is worth a double-dip for those who aren’t package collectors.