I Know What You Did Last Summer

2025 Sony pictures

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 51min

Horror ~ Slasher

Starring: Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Billy Campbell, Gabbriette Bechtel, Austin Nichols, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Karma Is A Killer

On July 4th, Ava Brucks (Chase Sui Wonders) returns to her hometown of Southport, North Carolina, for her best friend Danica Richards’ ( Madelyn Cline) engagement party. The group, including Ava’s ex, Milo Griffin (Jonah Hauer-King), Danica’s fiancé, Teddy Spencer (Tyriq Withers), and Stevie Ward (Sarah Pidgeon), recently out of rehab, drive to watch the fireworks, but their night turns disastrous when Teddy causes a car driven by Sam Cooper to swerve off a cliff. At Teddy’s insistence, the friends agree to cover up the accident, recruiting Teddy’s politician father (Billy Campbell) to handle the fallout.

A year later, Ava returns to Southport for Danica’s bridal shower, and relationships are fraught. Danica and Teddy have broken up and Danica is now engaged to Wyatt (Joshua Orpin). Tensions resurface as the group tries to reconnect, but the past isn’t buried, during the shower, Danica receives a chilling note “I know what you did last summer.” Suspecting Teddy may be responsible, the group confronts him on his father’s boat, only to find he’s spiraling into alcoholism and denies sending the message.

That night, Wyatt is murdered by a figure dressed in a slicker and brandishing the Fisherman’s signature hook, staging a grisly tableau and scrawling “You can’t erase the past” in blood. As panic and suspicion grow, Ava and her friends are pursued by the killer. A true crime podcaster, Tyler Trevino (Gabbriette Bechtel), researching the infamous Ben Willis massacre of 1997, is also drawn into the chaos, ultimately falling victim herself when she and Ava are attacked at a crime scene connected to the original killings.

Desperate for help, the group turns to survivor Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt), who believes the new Fisherman killer may have a personal connection to Sam, the accident victim. But with the authorities and townsfolk eager to avoid scandal and maintain their tourist reputation, the friends realize they must face the past and the deadly consequences alone as secrets unravel and trust breaks down

For fans of the original movies I know What You Did Last Summer, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer and I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, this one might be a disappointment. It feels more like a nostalgic homage to the originals than another entry into the franchise. The appearance of Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt and Brandy Norwood (From I Still Know What You did Last Summer appearing in a Cameo scene after the credits) leave it fully feeling like a nostalgic romp into the past. And yet it feels like it belongs in the franchise, as a marker that that was the past and this is now the direction and the future of the franchise.

There is a scene after the credits roll where Brandy’s character Karla (From I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is watching the news and sees Jennifer Love Hewitt in the story about what just happened in the movie. Then there is a knock at the door and Jennifer is there and explains to Carla as she hands her an envelope, “There is something we have to do….” Perfectly opening the door for another movie in the franchise. It was more comedy than outright Slasher Horror, although it had it’s moments. I did jump on occasion and I laughed and chuckled a lot at some of the dialogue and antics.

Was it worth a watch you ask? Sure, give it a go! ‘Tis the season for Streaming and Screaming!

M3GAN 2.0

2025 Universal Pictures

Rated: PG-13

Length: 2 hr

Action ~ Comedy ~ Sci-Fi ~ Thriller

Directed by: Gerard Johnstone

Starring: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ivanna Sakhno, Jemaine Clement, Amie Donald and Jenna Davis.

Same doll. New code. Deadlier game.

Two years after the original M3GAN (voiced by Jenna Davis, physically portrayed by Amie Donald) wreaked havoc, creator Gemma (Allison Williams) has become a prominent advocate for AI regulation. Gemma lives with her now-teenage niece Cady (Violet McGraw), who struggles with typical adolescent rebellion and the trauma of losing her parents. Meanwhile, a secret Pentagon branch creates AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno), a new military android built using stolen M3GAN technology, meant for covert assassination missions. However, AMELIA gains self-awareness and rapidly evolves beyond control, escaping with deadly intent.

Realizing the new android is a threat to national security and human existence, Gemma reluctantly resurrects M3GAN, who has secretly survived by uploading her programming into Gemma’s smart home. M3GAN offers to help stop AMELIA in exchange for a new body with upgrades, leading to a tense alliance. As AMELIA assassinates key figures and threatens global technological infrastructure, Gemma, Cady, and their team go to great lengths to thwart her plan and rescue Cady, who is kidnapped by AMELIA.

The climax unfolds in Xenox’s secret old headquarters, where the battle between M3GAN and AMELIA escalates. AMELIA attempts to merge with a powerful rogue AI motherboard to achieve domination, but M3GAN sacrifices herself with an electromagnetic pulse to destroy AMELIA and the motherboard, saving humanity. In a hopeful twist, evidence shows M3GAN’s consciousness has again survived secretly in Gemma’s computer, hinting at future struggles.

M3GAN 2.0 switches things up from the first movie’s horror-comedy vibe to lean more into sci-fi action and fun. It takes on heavier topics like AI ethics and military tech misuse while keeping some snappy humor and sharp one-liners. Allison Williams gives a grounded performance as Gemma, juggling guilt, ambition, and caring for her niece. Violet McGraw shines as Cady, who’s dealing with typical teenage struggles, giving the movie a heartfelt core amid the chaos.

Unlike the first film’s focused scares and suspense, the sequel favors big action scenes and tech paranoia, with more obvious humor and less violence to keep it PG-13. Some plot points feel a bit busy or too explained, but M3GAN herself comes back faster and smarter, battling the new robotic threat, AMELIA. Though less scary, the movie is entertaining, campy, and packed with cool moments that fans of the original and sci-fi thrills will enjoy.

M3GAN

28 Years Later

2025 Sony Pictures

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 55min

Drama ~ Horror ~ Post-Apocalyptic ~ Sci-Fi ~ Thriller

Directed by: Danny Boyle

Starring: Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Alfie Williams, and Ralph Fiennes.

Time Didn’t Heal Anything….

28 Years Later plunges viewers back into the bleak aftermath of the Rage Virus outbreak, delivering an intense blend of survival horror, emotional depth, and chilling philosophy. Streaming on Netflix, Danny Boyle’s latest horror chapter explores human fragility and monstrous transformation nearly three decades after the initial pandemic.

The story centers on a fortified community on the island of Lindisfarne, cut off from the mainland by a causeway. Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) prepares his son Spike (Alfie Williams in his Feature Film Debut) for a coming-of-age hunting ritual, teaching him to hunt infected with bow and arrow. Their precarious existence shatters when Spike’s mother, Isla (Jodie Comer), falls mysteriously ill. Spike escapes to the mainland with her, determined to find Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), a reclusive doctor known for his troubling fixation on death.

The infected are more terrifying and evolved, exemplified by Samson, an Alpha infected with increased strength and cunning who leads vicious packs of infecteds. The film’s hunting sequences are taut and brutal, focusing on survival amid fast, relentless infected terrorizing the once-familiar landscape.

Dr. Kelson embodies the film’s somber philosophical heart. Living among the dead, he has constructed a sinister Bone Temple: a towering, macabre monument made from collected skulls and bones, including those of infected victims and fallen survivors. This shrine serves as a memento mori, a reminder of death’s permanence and humanity’s mortality. Kelson’s obsession with the Bone Temple reflects his struggle to find meaning in devastation, a fixation cloaked in ritual and melancholia.

The film opens with a 2002 scene featuring young Jimmy Crystal, a boy fleeing the initial chaos of the Rage outbreak alongside his father, a priest. His father gifts him a crucifix necklace and speaks of judgment day, embedding faith and destiny into the boy’s psyche. The movie’s closing scenes reveal Jimmy as an adult and charismatic cult leader, Sir Jimmy Crystal, whose followers share his name and mimic his appearance. This powerful connection between the innocent boy at the start and the manipulative cult figure at the end deepens the film’s exploration of trauma, faith, and power in a broken world. Sir Jimmy Crystal was reportedly inspired by the controversial British TV personality and charity fundraiser Jimmy Savile, who, after his death in 2011, was revealed to have been a prolific sexual predator.

Throughout, 28 Years Later weaves harrowing survival with emotional storytelling, including the pregnant infected woman who gives birth amid chaos, a stark metaphor for hope and life’s persistence. The dire truths of illness, betrayal, and loss underscore Spike’s journey from boyhood into brutal adulthood, navigating a savage world where faith itself is weaponized.

28 Years Later and its sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple were filmed back-to-back during the summer of 2024, allowing for a seamless continuation of the story with consistent casting and tone. The Bone Temple, directed by Nia DaCosta with a screenplay by Alex Garland, is set to release on January 16, 2026. The sequel picks up where the first film leaves off, deepening the story of Spike’s induction into Sir Jimmy Crystal’s violent cult and Dr. Kelson’s dark discoveries. Cillian Murphy reprises his role from the original 28 Days Later as Jim, making a pivotal return in the ending of The Bone Temple, which sets up the highly anticipated third film in the trilogy, which is still in development.

Why stream: With a gripping storyline, fearsome new infected, and haunting meditations on death and belief through Dr. Kelson’s Bone Temple and Jimmy’s rise, 28 Years Later offers a fresh, profound evolution of Boyle’s groundbreaking horror saga. And if you’ve come this far on the journey, watching 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, you have to watch this one!

28 Days Later

28 Weeks Later

28 Weeks Later

2007 20th Century Fox

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 39min

Drama ~ Horror ~ Post-Apocalyptic ~ Sci-Fi ~ Thriller

Directed by: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

Starring: Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Harold Perrineau, Imogen Poots and Idris Elba.

The Days Turn Into Weeks….

Following the events of 28 Days Later we are introduced to Don (Robert Carlyle) and his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) who are hiding out in a farmhouse with an older couple and a young woman. Just as in the first movie, they are running low on food and supplies, and spend their time fortifying the farmhouse against the infected. suddenly there is pounding on the door and a young boy screams to be let in. They begrudgingly comply but soon realize that he is being chased by a horde of the infected. They soon overrun the farmhouse and Don and Alice get trapped upstairs with the young boy. As they go into another bedroom to escape there is already an infected in the room and has come between Alice and the child on one side and Don just inside the bathroom. Realizing that Alice and the child are doomed, Don self-preservation kicks in he escapes out onto the roof, down onto the ground and makes a run for the boat in the river, leaving Alice to her fate.

28 weeks later, the Rage Virus outbreak has largely ended due to the starvation of the infected. NATO forces, led by the U.S. military, have taken control of London and established a heavily guarded “safe zone” called District One on the Isle of Dogs. Survivors, including Don and Alice’s children Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton)who were abroad during the outbreak, are allowed to return and live under military protection. Don manages one of the apartment buildings in the safe zone, but lies to his children about abandoning their mother.

Tammy and Andy sneak out of District One to visit their old family home in hopes of retrieving personal items. There, Andy discovers Alice alive but in a delirious state. Military personnel capture Alice and bring her back to the safe zone where she is quarantined and tested by Medical Officer Scarlet (Rose Byrne). She is found to be an asymptomatic carrier of the Rage Virus, she carries the virus without symptoms but can infect others through her blood or saliva. Don secretly visits Alice, pleading for forgiveness. After a kiss, Don is infected and goes on a brutal rampage, killing Alice and sparking a rapid outbreak within the safe zone.

Scarlet rescues Tammy and Andy, believing the children may hold genetic immunity that could lead to a cure. As the infection spreads, Military Commander Stone (Idris Elba) orders mass executions in a desperate attempt to contain it. Sergeant Doyle(Jeremy Renner) refuses to comply and helps the small group, including Tammy, Andy, Scarlet, and another survivor, Sam, flee. They survive the chaos and firebombing of District One, though Don pursues them relentlessly.

In the dramatic finale, Tammy, Andy, and Scarlet reach Wembley Stadium, where helicopter pilot Flynn reluctantly flies them across the English Channel to France. However, Andy’s status as an asymptomatic carrier means the virus has now spread beyond Britain, a chilling revelation as infected emerge in Paris near the Eiffel Tower.

28 Weeks Later delivers a gripping mix of family drama and relentless horror, painting a bleak picture of survival and human frailty amid the breakdown of society. It was interesting to go back and see Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Imogen Poots and Idris Elba 18 years ago. Just out of curiosity I went back and looked at what were their first movies:

Rose Byrne ~ Dallas Doll (1994). This was her 17th movie.
Jeremy Renner ~ National Lampoon’s Senior Trip (1995). This was his 12th movie.
Imogen Poots ~ V For Vendetta ~ (2005). This was her 2nd movie!
Idris Alba ~ Beautiful Mother (1999). This was his 8th Movie.

It is just as terrifying and horrific as the first with a Family’s drama over coping with the outbreak thrown in and it leaves us guessing as to what happens next, 28 years Later. And that’s what we are watching on Netflix tonight. Be back tomorrow with a review of 28 Years Later!

28 Days Later

28 Years Later

28 Days Later

2002 Fox Searchlight Pictures

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 53min

Drama ~ Horror ~ Post-Apocalyptic ~ Sci-Fi ~ Thriller

Directed by: Danny Boyle

Starring: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Megan Burns, and Brendan Gleeson.

The Days Are Numbered….

28 Days Later throws viewers into a hauntingly familiar yet utterly transformed world where a devastating “Rage” virus outbreak has brought civilization to its knees. The story begins with Jim (Cillian Murphy), a bike courier who wakes up in an abandoned hospital after a coma, only to find London eerily deserted and plagued by violent infected creatures. As he steps out into this nightmarish reality, Jim embarks on a tense journey to survive and understand the chaos that has consumed the country, meeting other survivors along the way who each bring their own fears and agendas to the fragile group.

What drives the movie beyond standard zombie thrills is its focus on the evolving dynamics between characters who are pushed to their limits. Jim’s transformation from helpless wanderer to protective leader is matched by the struggles of those around him, exposing themes of trust, morality, and desperation in a world where society’s rules no longer apply. The film explores not just the physical horrors of the infected but also the psychological challenges of facing an uncertain future while grappling with loss, betrayal, and the instinct to survive at all costs.

Danny Boyle’s direction masterfully blends high-intensity action with quieter, emotionally resonant moments that capture the vulnerability and resilience of humanity. The chilling visuals of deserted London streets, punctuated by sudden bursts of violence, create an atmosphere of constant suspense. Alongside gripping performances, especially from Cillian Murphy as Jim, the film’s pacing keeps audiences on edge, delivering scares that feel earned rather than gratuitous.

As the first film in the 28 Days Later franchise, this entry sets a powerful tone that the sequels 28 Weeks Later and the upcoming 28 Years Later build upon, expanding the story of a society struggling to rebuild after collapse. For viewers planning to dive into the whole trilogy, this original remains a must-watch for its raw emotion, innovative take on the infected genre, and unrelenting suspense that still resonates years later.

Before I could watch 28 Years Later , which is streaming on Netflix, I had to go back and watch the original 28 Days Later last night on AMC+. Tonight I am watching the sequel 28 Weeks Later , also on AMC+, then Monday night I’ll watch 28 Years Later on Netflix. See you tomorrow with a review on 28 Weeks Later !