Brief Story Line
Lennon and Alison (both played by Madison Iseman - Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, Annabelle Comes Home etc) were twin sisters who went to the graduation party held by Lennon's best friend Margot (Brianne Tju - 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, Scream TV series etc). While Alison was a shy and depressed girl, Lennon was a real party girl. In the party, there were also Margot's best friend Johnny (Sebastian Amoruso), Alison's crush Dylan (Ezekiel Goodman) and his best friend Riley (Ashley Moore).
To avoid having the party out of hand, Lennon & Alison's father Bruce (Bill Heck) also came and hang out with some of the parents, as well as the police chief Lyla (Fiona Rene). Some of the teenagers left the party earlier, but unfortunately they were involved in a hit & run accident where the victim died and they decided to hide the death. A year after the incident, one of them received a message that said "I Know What You Did Last Summer", and it proved to be the start of something horrifying for them and terrified the towns people.
So how would the story conclude? Find them all in this teen horror TV series.
End of Brief Story Line
If you are familiar with the title of this series, then you are like me who either have seen or at least knew about the quite successful 1997 slasher movie of the same title, starring some rising stars of the time and was made into a trilogy. But this series was not really based on the movie. Instead it was actually based on the 1973 novel of the same title written by Lois Duncan. Even though the main premise was almost the same, but there were some significant differences with the film. I'll let you find out the differences yourself.
Since I enjoyed the movie, I actually had high expectation when watching this one. I was hoping for a nonstop thrill and suspense throughout the series. However it turned out that the suspense was not entirely felt. From my experience watching the whole 8 episodes, somehow I felt the series was more like drama with a bit of mystery, although it did have some gruesome killings which justified to be put under teen horror genre. I guess it probably was more honoring the novel which was categorized as suspense young adult book and not slasher like the movie was. Now I am not saying that I do not like such genre, but perhaps the 1997 movie was embedded in my head too much that I wish the series could be more like it. Btw, I had a weird feeling that the series have a strong soap opera sense.
The duration of the episodes were between 44-58 minutes with the last episode being the longest. I am not sure if there is going to be a second season. though the ending seemed to give a closure, albeit probably not what people expected. Should they opt to renew it, there are few things they could still explore. The first episode was the standard introduction of the characters and ended with some supposedly shocking twist, but unfortunately I could have guessed it (probably due to watching too many similar type of movies/series). Anyway the second episode was actually the breakthrough for me as it gave a major surprise that I did not see coming. Subsequently there were more mysteries shown to us where I had to play a bit of guessing games.
To be honest, what really amazed me was actually the finale. I am very sure a lot of people did not like such ending (as could be seen by the very low rating on that episode). For me personally though, the anti mainstream end was what made it amazing. The pace was a bit slow in most episodes, which sadly reducing the intensity. I thought the main cast who played the teens were generally OK, but some of the adults did not seem natural enough. I thought Madison Iseman did a decent enough job to portray 2 completely different persons. In addition to the names I said above, there were also Cassie Beck as Riley's mother Courtney and Brooke Bloom as the Clara who formed part of the main cast.
Overall this one was actually not bad. It might not be really suspenseful or intense like the movie was, but it did have some interesting and shocking moments plus unusual ending. There were some disturbing & violent scenes, moments that involved self-harm (as warned by Prime Videos) and some nudity, which made this more suitable for adults. So if you are looking for a teen horror series with attributes I mentioned earlier, then you are welcome to give it a try.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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