Amazon’s I Know What You Did Last Summer series is a reimagining of the Lois Duncan novel of the same name that also inspired the R-rated 1997 movie. Fans of the slasher hit may not be surprised to learn that Amazon’s latest show is similarly rated 18+, especially with horror heavyweight James Wan attached as an executive producer. Wan is co-creator of the Saw and Insidious franchises, as well as sole creator of The Conjuring Universe, the second highest grossing horror franchise of all time.
Amazon released the first four episodes of I Know What You Did Last Summer on Friday and it’s clear how the show earned its rating. There’s language and nudity, including non-sexual full-frontal male nudity. These aside, by far the biggest factor in the adult rating is the gratuitous gore. While the film featured a hook wielding killer slashing his victims to death, the series’ deaths are far more varied and gruesome.
So far only half of the show has been released and its death toll has already matched the movie. One of the benefits of an eight part series compared to a film is having the time to develop more characters, which also makes for more potential victims. Each of the murders so far has been grisly, albeit inventive. From a live streamed beheading to death by frozen slushie, I Know What You Did Last Summer doesn’t spare any gory details.
The 1997 movie had a relatively slow build to the bloody scenes, but the Amazon series comes out of the gate swinging. Madison Iseman stars as twin sisters Lennon and Alison and is the first to be contacted by the stalker who knows her secret. She and four friends were behind a deadly hit and run after an alcohol and drug fueled night of partying the summer after graduating high school. The group agrees to cover up their accident to avoid jail time, but one year later, things start to unravel as someone claiming to know their secret starts killing those closest to them one by one.
When Iseman returns home from college one year after the fatal car accident, she is greeted with the ominous message “I know what you did last summer” scribbled on the mirror of her bedroom closet, accompanied by a blood-soaked goat head. The show’s first two deaths aside from the car accident are downright shocking, and the camera lingers for dramatic effect. One man’s face is pulverized by falling free weights; another is hooked up to a frozen slushie machine until his entire body is the same Smurf blue color. The first of the circle of friends involved in the car accident to die is decapitated while the killer live streams it to the rest of the horrified group.
Though it’s probably no surprise that Amazon’s I Know What You Did Last Summer series is rated 18+ given the 1997 film’s R rating, some audiences may still be startled by the show’s more graphic violence.
The first four episodes of I Know What You Did Last Summer are available to stream on Amazon Prime, with new episodes premiering every Friday.
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