LOS ANGELES – For fans of 1990s Hollywood horror – when the slasher genre was revitalised by charismatic young stars – the new I Know What You Did Last Summer film is both a good old-fashioned scare and nostalgic throwback.

Now showing in Singapore cinemas, it is the fourth instalment in the iconic franchise that began with 1997’s I Know What You Did Last Summer.

It is also a full-circle moment for American actors Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. They reprise their roles from the original film and the 1998 sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, which launched their careers at a time when the box office was ruled by films such as these, along with early chapters of the Scream franchise (1996 to present), The Faculty (1998) and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998).

The latest movie revolves around five friends who cover up their part in a deadly car accident.

A year later, one of them receives an ominous note saying, “I know what you did last summer”, and a vengeful killer with an ice hook begins picking the gang off one by one.

The quintet is played by American actors Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers and Sarah Pidgeon. But at the film’s Los Angeles premiere earlier in July, all eyes are on original stars Hewitt, 46, and Prinze Jr, 49.

They play Julie James and Ray Bronson, who in the first film found themselves in a similar predicament after accidentally killing a boy in a hit-and-run.

I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), starring Jennifer Love Hewitt (left) and Freddie Prinze Jr.

PHOTO: COLUMBIA PICTURES

Hewitt expresses gratitude that the film-makers decided to bring back the two characters – and that fans of the first two movies had lobbied for it.

“They didn’t have to have me back, but they did. My heart was very touched by that,” says the actress. She and Prinze Jr did not appear in the second sequel, 2006’s I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, which went straight to video and was panned.

“It meant a lot to me that the fans were loud about that for Freddie and I, and I took that to work with me every day.

“So, I’m just deeply grateful to be here,” says Hewitt, who also starred in the supernatural series Ghost Whisperer (2005 to 2010) and procedural drama 9-1-1 (2018 to present).

Jennifer Love Hewitt in I Know What You Did Last Summer.

PHOTO: SONY PICTURES

She is also thrilled that a new generation of fans will get to discover the franchise with this new film.

“It’s so fun and it’s very scary, and I’m really excited for them to see it,” says the star, who is married to American actor Brian Hallisay, 46, and has three children aged three to 11.

Prinze Jr enjoyed working with the new cast.

“I love working with young people,” says the actor, who met his future wife, American actress Sarah Michelle Gellar – now 48 and the mother of their two children aged 12 and 15 – on the set of the 1997 film, where she played one of the other teens being stalked.

“They’re still hungry, there’s no cynicism built into their ego structure yet. And so, for me, it was very inspiring. It makes me excited to go to work.”

Freddie Prinze Jr in I Know What You Did Last Summer.

PHOTO: SONY PICTURES

And he had nothing to teach them when it came to acting, he says.

“They’re all so much better than I was at their age, they’re such pros. I was very impressed by all their performances,” says Prinze Jr, who also co-starred with Gellar in the Scooby-Doo action comedies (2002 to 2004) and headlined the romantic comedy She’s All That (1999).

Hewitt saw her role on set as being there to support the younger ones, not steal their thunder.

“I wanted to give them space, and to know that this was not mine, it was theirs. And just be there to support and love and give guidance in any way that I could, or give no guidance at all – whatever they wanted,” she says.

“And I was blown away and very touched by all the respect and love that Freddie and I were given for being in the original.”

I Know What You Did Last Summer is showing in Singapore cinemas.

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