I Know What You Did Last Summer: Sam Lansky Interview

In 1997, screenwriter Kevin Williamson adapted Lois Duncan’s novel, I Know What You Did Last Summer, into a genre-defining cultural phenomenon that reignited interest in teen horror films.

The straightforward premise followed five friends from Southport, North Carolina, who accidentally take a man’s life in a car accident, only to be hunted down by a mysterious Fisherman with a hook. Producer Neal Moritz’s poignant message resonates: “The choices we make in childhood follow you through to adulthood,” highlights the tragic folly of youth at Reaper’s Curve, where bad deeds can’t be undone.

With a star-studded cast including Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Johnny Galecki, and Ryan Phillipe, the film became a landmark slasher film classic. Fast forward nearly three decades, and it’s clear that the tale is ripe for a fresh interpretation aimed at Generation Z. It is a chance to blend nostalgia with today’s slasher movies and trauma-informed storytelling.

Lois Duncan’s characters were restoried by Leah McKendrick (who also has a cameo as a newscaster) and Jennifer Kayton Robinson (who directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Sam Lansky). Neal Moritz returns to produce almost three decades later. The core message of actions having consequences that can’t be wiped away no matter how good-looking or popular you are has been finessed into a more pointed: “You can’t erase the past.”

The 2025 version of the film co-stars Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr., reprising their iconic roles from the original films to bring renewed enthusiasm to the franchise along with fresh faces including Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Tyriq Withers, Jonah Hauer-King, and Sarah Pidgeon.

Sam Lansky. Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures

This character configuration juxtaposes characters who witness their friends being hacked to pieces by a hooked Fisherman for the first and for the second time.

Screenwriter Sam Lansky (I Wish You All The Best, Do Revenge) spoke with Creative Screenwriting Magazine to discuss his opportunity to rework one of his favorite movies in his formative years.

“I was raised on Lois Duncan’s books. Not just I Know What You Did Last Summer, but Down a Dark Hall, and Stranger with My Face,” recalls Lansky.
“I was forged in the elements of school sleepovers and watching the works of Kevin Williamson and Neal Maritz and their adaptation of Lois Duncan’s work. All of those are the pieces of my childhood that make me who I am as a writer, as a person, and as a lover of popular culture. We’re talking about the triumvirate of people who have formed my sensibility,” he continues.
Ultimately, it was his friend Jennifer Kaytin Robinson who kick-started the process of bringing Summer back to the screens – during summer. The entire movie was driven by her creative vision as a filmmaker.

27 Years Later – Pop Trauma

Like all remakes, I Know What You Did Last Summer needed a new introduction to the story. Lansky comments that fans have long awaited a new version of the story and the characters who believe that if they stop talking about their wrongful deeds, all will be forgotten.

As a devout Summer fan, Lansky approached the movie by asking what the next chapter might look like in terms of fun, wit, winks, laughs, scares, and embracing pop culture references. On a deeper level, the writer wants to explore the psychological impact on these characters, some of which have endured trauma from the first movie. They most likely won’t get over a hook-wielding serial killer easily. They’re buckling from the emotional toll of dealing with guilt, secrecy, and friendships under strain.

The mandate was to examine these elements in a “fun and poppy” rather than in a “heavy-handed and burdensome” way.
Sam Lansky describes the aesthetic of I Know What You Did Last Summer as speaking the language of “self-help” and “self-care.” The DNA of the film is exploring a “trauma-informed society.”

This was a conscious narrative choice. The filmmakers wanted to explore the concepts of collective and individual trauma in a way that doesn’t “completely crush your spirit and break your heart.”

As modern culture and norms encourage more open discussion about our “communal understanding of trauma, and how it shapes our lives,” the filmmakers simply wanted to make the trauma “pop more.” Trauma has gone mainstream.

Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures

We wanted to play with the vocabulary, in the way characters talked, and in the way history is being recreated.
One aspect of all the Summer films that has formed the backbone of the franchise’s DNA is the richness of the characters’ friendships. “It hinges on the incredible chemistry between those actors and the depth and conviction of their friendships.” Lansky hopes this encourages fans to root for them and want them to survive.

Creating Characters

Sam Lansky cut his writing teeth as a novelist and journalist. He spent many years as the West Coast Editor of Time Magazine. During his tenure, he booked, edited, and wrote features that continued to shape the culture and entertainment landscapes – including profiles on the likes of Bradley Cooper, Timothee Chalamet, and Greta Gerwig.

His key to writing rich and textured characters for Lansky is never to go in with an agenda. He is always open, with a burning desire to understand people. Initially, this focus was on himself. His novels The Guilded Razor and Broken People were based on his life. Then he moved to journalism where he shifted his attention to other people.

“I spent a lot of that time profiling people, trying to understand them, and getting under the hood of what makes them tick. I never went in with a gotcha. I just always went in curious,” reveals Lansky.

Lansky also notes that he relies on his fearlessness about interviewing high-profile people. “I’m not super squirrely. I’m not skittish. I don’t scare easily. I’m not easily intimidated. I just like love talking to people and I just want to roll up my sleeves and dig in with them. My mom was a therapist, so talking to people about their feelings is my mother tongue,” he jokes.

Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures

What Does Fisherman Represent?

In many slasher films, the killer wears a mask, whether they be Mike Myers (Halloween), Leatherface (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), or Ghostface (Scream). Similarly, Fisherman’s identity is largely concealed in I Know What You Did Last Summer.

“I think Fisherman represents the masked face of a moralizing culture, a culture that thirsts for vengeance, a culture that wants an eye for an eye, and a culture that wants to see beautiful young people who behave with reckless self-indulgence punished for their sins,” elaborates Lansky.

Some argue Fisherman represents communal guilt and society’s quest for justice at any cost.

by Staff Writer

From our in-house editorial team.