We only have one new movie this week, but a handful of classic oldies to go along with it:

* “I Know What You Did Last Summer” the new 2025 one, the reboot/requel/whatever.

* “The Toxic Avenger” from 1984 in preparation for the new version that will be coming

* “Santa Sangre” from 1989

* “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare” from 1994, which completes our coverage of ALL the Freddy movies.

* “Seed of Chucky” to continue that series, we only have “Curse” left to watch.

And as usual, we’ve got a stack of shorts for you!

* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #48, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com

Mainstream Films:

2025 I Know What You Did Last Summer

* Directed by: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

* Written by: Sam Lansky, Jennifer Kayton Robinson, Leah McKendrick

* Stars: Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 51 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Once again, a group of young people cause a death, cover it up, and in delayed revenge a year later someone starts picking them off. It’s a long-after sequel, not a reboot. It takes place in the same town as the original movie, many years later, and some of the original cast join in the fun. It’s well done and entertaining, with Kevin liking it a bit more than Brian.

Spoilery Synopsis

Ava arrives home and tries on a bunch of outfits; she’s going to Danica’s engagement party. Danica wants her to hook up with Milo tonight after the party. Teddy and Milo have the same conversation from afar. Everyone toasts Danica and Teddy, will Milo and Ava be next? That night, the fourth of July, the four all drive and look at Stevie, who didn’t go off to college like they all did. They invite her along to watch the fireworks.

Teddy’s high and standing in the middle of the road, which causes an accident. The truck teeters on the edge of the cliff, and they all try to hold it teetering on the edge. They fail, and it goes over the edge far down into the waves below. The man inside the truck grabs Teddy’s jacket before falling. Teddy says he called the police, but now they all need to leave the scene. They all swear each other to secrecy.

One year later, Ava has become a lesbian. She ends up taking Tyler back to her hometown, and she makes an impression on Milo. It’s time for Danica’s bridal shower, and everyone shows up. As she opens the gifts, she gets a note: “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” Danica has broken up with Teddy, so she thinks he sent the note. She’s with Wyatt now. “What if someone saw what happened?”

They all go to visit Teddy, who’s a full-blown alcoholic now. He insists that he had nothing to do with the note. That night Danica takes a bath with headphones on. In the kitchen, someone harpoons Wyatt; it’s a fisherman in full cover rain gear with a hidden face, and a big hook. Danica finds him in a posed situation, and it’s clear that it was murder.

Danica and Ava talk about the intervening year and how they’ve grown apart. The five from last year get together and discuss who knew what.

Tyler has a murder podcast, so they think she might be involved– she even did a podcast about the events of the first movie, from 1997, right here in this town. Tyler tells Ava all about the Fisherman and the story we already know. Sure enough, the Fisherman shows up and menaces them both. Somehow, Ava winds up in a cage and Tyler’s podcasting days come to an end.

Since the cops are on Tyler’s father’s payroll, they aren’t going to help, so the group decides to talk to Julie James, one of the survivors of the 1997 massacre. They talk about the connections between the two cases. The man who died last year is a bit mysterious, and they don’t really know who he was. She basically says that they need to find the killer before he kills them all.

There’s a town hall meeting, and Ray, from the 1997 occurrence, shows up to warn everyone that this could all be connected. They go see him after the meeting; Stevie works for him at his bar. They track down the stolen car the dead man, Sam Cooper, was driving, and the truck belonged to Pastor Judah, the local preacher.

At the cemetery, the Fisherman chases Danica all over the place after killing the caretaker. Teddy jumps in at the last moment and runs the killer off. Everyone sleeps together at Danica’s house that night. Ava likes it rough, which confuses Milo. He goes outside to think about that, and the Fisherman kills him before he goes back inside. Ava sees his car drive off and thinks he left.

Elsewhere, Ray and Julie argue about old times and getting involved in all this.

Ava and Danica go to see Pastor Judah. Ava talks to him while Danica searches his audience. The pastor and Sam Cooper, may have been closer than everyone was led to believe; they come to the conclusion that Judah is the killer. They take what they know to the sheriff, who promptly calls Grant, Teddy’s father and the town’s mayor.

Teddy goes to the steam room and sees “You’re Next” written on the steamy wall. He is, in fact, the next victim, but at least he puts up a fight. Grant finds him before he finally dies, but he’s killed as well. We guess that Grant isn’t the killer, but we suspected him.

Danica has a dream where dead-but-also-de-aged-Helen, from the first film, appears to warn her about what’s coming. After waking up, she and Ava follow all the police to Grant and Teddy’s corpses. Ray tells them all just to leave town. Then they find Milo, dead, in his car. Danica, Ava, and Stevie take Teddy’s yacht out into the harbor while the police raid Judah’s church. Judah’s already dead, so it’s not him either. We see that Stevie had a connection to Sam Cooper.

On the boat, the Fisherman menaces Ava and Danica; she pulls off her hat, and we see that it actually is Stevie. She was dating Sam at a dark time in her life, and Sam was following them to pick her up before she got re-addicted to drugs. This was all about revenge. Behind them, Ray is following in his own boat, and he boards them. Stevie kills Danica with the hook as both Ava and Ray point guns at her. Ray shoots her.

Ava calls Julie and says she doesn’t understand how Stevie did all this alone. Julie looks up Ray online and sees that he’s involved too. Meanwhile, Ray and Ava talk about never moving on from something like this; he never did. She starts to realize that he’s the killer too. He chases her around the bar with a knife. He suggests that maybe he didn’t really kill Stevie.

Julie arrives at the bar and finds Ava with a knife in her back. Ray and Julie confront each other. He was angry because the whole town covered up what happened in 1997, so he brought it all back to remind them. As they argue, Ava shoots him in the heart with a spear gun.

We cut to the beach, where Danica washes up and goes to the hospital, still not dead. She and Ava recuperate at the hospital. They go to the beach for lunch. Ava mentions that Stevie’s still alive and out there somewhere.

We get a post-credit scene where Karla, from the second film, hears about what happened. She hopes Julie’s in therapy. Then, there’s a knock at her door… It’s Julie. She’s got a note: “It isn’t over.”

Brian’s Commentary

The accident in the beginning seems to me to be a genuine accident; they all overreacted by trying to cover it up. At the very least, they could have omitted the part where Teddy was in the road, the rest of the story could have been unchanged. It’s not like they did anything to directly hurt the man, unlike in the original film.

It’s very much like the original film, with nearly the same opening act. We have various characters whom we suspect are the killer, but they mostly all die off one-by-one.

They clearly lay the groundwork for another sequel as well. It’s nothing new, but it’s well done and pretty entertaining.

Kevin’s Commentary

Yes, as Brian points out, there was a much weaker reason to cover things up this time around. And some points weren’t explained very well or were weak. We are unclear on why the pastor was killed. And good guy Ray from the first movie is a killer now because… reasons. Julie snidely remarks at the end that it’s because men don’t go to therapy. But faults aside, all in all I was more entertained with this than the original movie or previous sequels, and I’d put it as (barely) my favorite of the series.

1984 The Toxic Avenger

* Directed by: Michael Herz, Lloyd Kaufman

* Written by: Joe Ritter, Lloyd Kaufman, Gay Partington

* Stars: Andree Maranda, Mitch Cohen, Jennfier Babtist

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 22 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This is over-the-top, raunchy, gross, over-acted, silly, stupid, and hilarious all at once. It’s got a large cast and lots of special effects, with a hero you can root for. We thought it was very entertaining.

Spoilery Synopsis

We hear a voiceover about pollution and technological advances. Millions of gallons of radioactive waste is disposed of… in Tromaville. We hear about a man named Melvin, whose entire life was changed by toxic waste. We cut to the gym, where all the sexy people are, more or less. Melvin, the mop boy, is funny looking and h