SPOILER WARNING: The following article accommodates large spoilers for I Know What You Did Last Summer. Critically, in case you haven’t seen the movie, you actually shouldn’t be studying this… however proceed at your individual threat!
We’ve got seen a large number of legacyquels within the final 15 years, however none of them efficiently pull off a twist like what audiences expertise in author/director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s I Know What You Did Last Summer. Whereas it’s normally the case that legacy characters principally exist to tie the story of the brand new technology to the previous, the brand new horror film opts to go a lot bolder: whereas Jennifer Love Hewitt’s Julie James retains her Closing Woman standing, the movie reveals that Freddie Prinze Jr.’s Ray Bronson has misplaced his thoughts and options him as one in all two killers (the opposite being Sarah Pidgeon’s Stevie Ward).
It’s an sudden and well-invited shock when it’s revealed within the third act, and one in all my favourite components of the film (as I tease in my spoiler-free CinemaBlend evaluate of I Know What You Did Last Summer). Not solely does the event really feel natural, however Freddie Prinze Jr. actually sells it – which I discovered throughout an interview with the actor was the results of him going deep emotionally to know Ray’s journey from hero to villain.
How Ray Bronson Turns into A Killer In I Know What You Did Last Summer
For many of Ray Bronson’s display time in 2025’s I Know What You Did Last Summer, he looks like a reasonably put collectively dude – albeit one with a few chips on his shoulder. He runs his personal bar, and he looks like a optimistic mentor to Stevie, his worker, nevertheless it’s additionally made very clear that issues didn’t finish effectively in his marriage to Julie James, and he has lengthy been upset that the city of Southport, North Carolina went above and past to brush all the murders that occurred in 1997 below the rug.
Because it seems, these chips on his shoulder ought to have been acknowledged as pink flags. Ray’s relationship with Julie didn’t work out due to his seething anger, and the anger he has lengthy harbored towards the city finally ends up not simply being idle and self-harming. His rage finally ends up being infectious virus that he spreads to Stevie, and so they work collectively to take revenge on Southport and Stevie’s former buddies.
Freddie Prinze Jr. Examined His Buddies’ Damaged Relationships And Trauma To Get At The Coronary heart Of What Occurred To Ray
When an individual experiences an especially traumatic occasion, it has been confirmed that it’s best for them to not simply bottle up all of their emotions. If these feelings aren’t correctly tackle, they will find yourself changing into poisonous and do severe injury. Ray Bronson proves to be a dictionary-worthy case of his psychological phenomenon within the I Know What You Did Last Summer legacyquel, and it’s one thing through which Freddie Prinze Jr. discovered plenty of honesty as he was getting ready for his efficiency.
Late final month, I had the pleasure of interviewing the actor alongside Jennifer Kaytin Robinson in the course of the Los Angeles press day for his new movie, and whereas digging into spoiler territory, I requested him about his view on what’s been happening with Ray since audiences final acquired to see him in I Nonetheless Know What You Did Last Summer. Prinze Jr. has been married for the final 23 years to his I Know What You Did Last Summer co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar, however he famous that he is aware of individuals who had troubled relationships a la Ray and Julie, and his character’s issues began together with his incapability to correctly course of being hunted by a serial killer as a youngster. Mentioned the actor,
I have plenty of buddies whose relationships did not work out for a plethora of causes. And typically it is trauma and never coping with that trauma, and that that kind of shortens your fuse over years and little issues begin setting you off, and it is probably not linked to what simply occurred. It is linked to one thing that occurred years in the past.
It’s a cliché, however the phrase “Damage folks damage folks” is a cliché for a cause: if a person doesn’t correctly course of their very own ache, they’re extra liable to inflict ache on others. Within the instances of some folks, that’s restricted to emotional ache, however within the case of Ray Bronson, he’s skulking round Southport carrying a slicker and killing people with a hook and a harpoon gun.
Freddie Prinze Jr. added that the fabric was heavy, however he has a substantial amount of enjoyable getting the chance to discover the character after which apply what he had found in his efficiency:
There’s plenty of bringing that to work with you, which is not enjoyable. However in between the phrases motion and minimize, it is a blast since you get to form of show it and execute it and present folks what you have ready, after which, hopefully, you are capable of form of let all that go and see what occurs within the second. You know what I imply? All of it relies on how the times circulate. And it dictates on how far you go in a scene.
Concluding, the actor defined that Ray was a comparatively put collectively man after we acquired to see him by the occasions of the unique I Know What You Did Last Summer and I Nonetheless Know What You Did Last Summer… however there was some extent within the two-and-a-half many years that adopted the place he simply snapped. When Freddie Prinze Jr. understood that and the right way to play it, all of it clicked:
However as soon as I knew the rationale why and I knew how I may play a damaged man – ‘trigger that is what Ray is at this level. He is not this blue collar hero anymore. He has been damaged by this. He did not take care of it. And trauma both makes you or breaks you. I know those that it is made stronger, and I know those that it is damaged in two, and that is so spoiler-y. However yeah. Hopefully this comes out after the film. He is a damaged man, and that is the consequence.
When you’re curious how figuring out in regards to the darkish journey of Ray Bronson impacts the viewing expertise of I Know What You Did Last Summer, the brand new horror film is now taking part in in theaters in all places – having positioned third on the field workplace in its opening weekend.
