Freddie Prinze Jr. says modern audiences would laugh at ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’

I Know What You Did Last Summer is one of the most iconic horror movies from the ’90s, but star Freddie Prinze Jr. admitted that the film might be quaint to modern fans of the genre.

Speaking to Fandango, Prinze Jr. said that the horror genre changes more rapidly because every generation finds a way to “outscare” the previous one.

“Horror evolves more quickly than any other type of movie,” he said.

Prinze Jr. then joked that today’s kids might watch the original I Know What You Did Last Summer from 1997 and “laugh.” The actor said he admired that horror filmmakers are always thinking about what’s next.

“When I saw Phantasm for the first time, it wasn’t scary. I thought it was like, ‘Okay, I’m laughing at it.’ And my buddy, who was five years older than me, was like, ‘It was the scariest stuff I ever saw,'” the She’s All That star recalled. “And for me, it was Freddy Krueger, and for the Scream generation, that’s funny.”

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

Prinze Jr. reprises his role as Ray Bronson in the upcoming reboot of I Know What You Did Last Summer. Ray is one of the few survivors from the original franchise, which features a serial killer stalking a group of friends after they accidentally murder someone. He recently told Entertainment Weekly how he approached the character nearly 30 years after he last played the character.

“He has gone through a lot, and I don’t know if he’s dealt with it the way the modern man deals with stuff, you know what I mean?” he said. “He’s a guy from the ’90s like myself, so I think he’s probably bottled up a lot more of those feelings we’ve talked about.”

I Know What You Did Last Summer hits theaters on July 18. Watch the interview with Prinze Jr., as well as other conversations with the new cast, below.