‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’: Freddie Prinze Jr. on Red Herrings & Easter Eggs (Exclusive)

Freddie Prinze Jr. and “I Know What You Did Last Summer” writer-director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson sit down with “Extra’s” Jake Hamilton to dish on the new sequel. 

Freddie reflected on the ‘90s slasher movie era that included “Scream” and the first “IKWYDLS.”

“Every 10 years, horror films kind of evolve, right? And it happens much more quickly than comedies or dramas or action movies or anything like that. And we had just come from a time when horror movies weren't really being respected. And it took Wes [Craven] to come in and kind of remind people… ‘Look what you can do with a low budget but a great script that's character-driven with wonderful set pieces.’”

Freddie recalled how after “Scream,” things changed. “They started taking swings on other scripts. And they started giving opportunities to other scripts and ideas.”

But the genre continued to evolve, as he noted, “All of a sudden ‘Saw’ came out, which makes our movies not scary anymore… and kids are like, ‘Well, now I've seen this, so now your movie’s funny.’”

Jake then had to ask about their thoughts on the “Scary Movie” franchise spoofing “IKWYDLS” and other horror movies.

While Freddie said he had never watched the “Scary Movie” films, Jennifer shared, “My dream — because they're rebooting ‘Scary Movie’ — is for them to rip this movie in the new ‘Scary Movie’… That would be such an ultimate for me.”

Jake also talked about how the original hinted Freddie’s character Ray Bronson could possibly be the killer.

Freddie agreed there were “red herring vibes” as he recalled a scene between Ray and Jennifer Love Hewitt’s character Julie James on his Billy Blue boat.

Prinze Jr. shared, “He's like, ‘Get back on the boat. Come aboard. Come inside.’ I think is the moment you're talking about. She's not having any of it because she thinks he's the bad guy, but it wasn't something that was told to be played on the nose, or anything like that.”

Turning to the sequel, Jennifer revealed one thing she did as a director on set to keep the actors’ reactions authentic, revealing, “There are a couple moments where characters are discovering other characters’ dead bodies, and I didn't let the actors see the bodies until they saw it on camera. So, I kept them completely away from the set and I wanted that reaction to be genuine. So, there is a moment towards the end of the film where Madelyn Cline discovers bodies. That is the first time that she was seeing them."

Jennifer also shared one cool Easter egg involving the boat from the original! 

Referring to Freddie's character, she said, "The boat is your Billy Blue boat, and we recreated that sign and put it in his bar in this movie.”