We are moments away from I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) stabbing into the box office. It is not the first legacy sequel to a popular 90s teen slasher, and it will not be the last. This is why many millennials are drowning in nostalgia and heading to the theater to see it, even if it’s not their favorite franchise. This trip down memory lane made me think of the gaggle of slashers that punctuated the 1990s and early 2000s. The ones that saw young people in GAP outfits maliciously murdered in the name of revenge and buried secrets. Movies like Lovers Lane, The Clown at Midnight, and Popcorn seemed to be on a never-ending assembly line. Those movies are the reason most of us are the way we are and why we are so fond of this subgenre.
This streaming guide is here to help you find some slashers from that era and help you scratch that slasher itch. We will never be as young as we were in the late 90s and early aughts. However, if we watch enough of these movies, we might momentarily forget just how old we are. Also, real talk, we all love seeing our tween crushes get stabbed in the name of cinema. So, I present to the Midnight Society five slashers to watch after I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025).
Cherry Falls (dir. Geoffrey Wright)
Where You Can Watch: Philo
A serial murderer targets virgins in the small town of Cherry Falls. This underrated gem is one of the best slashers of its era. It stars the late Brittany Murphy in one of my favorite roles of her heartbreakingly short career. The film is a campy, violent, and very dated quest for revenge, much like some of the best one-off slashers. Cherry Falls is also unique in that it puts virgins in danger rather than going the traditional morality route that punishes women characters for having sex.
Because the movie rarely streams on popular platforms, it’s never truly had its moment in the sun. However, it is nearly impossible to find anyone who stumbled upon this title and didn’t fall in love with it. For extra doses of ’90s nostalgia, the cast includes DJ Qualls, Jesse Bradford, Jay Mohr, and Michael Biehn.
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (dir. Steve Miner)
Where You Can Watch: Pluto TV
The boogeyman finds Laurie Strode and her son living a new life at a private school in Northern California. H20 is one of the Halloween sequels that actually understands the assignment. It finds our siblings picking up their decades-old grudge match, but also respects the turn-of-the-millennium horror trends. This explains how we got Jamie Lee Curtis on screen with Josh Hartnett, Michelle Williams, and LL Cool J.
This installment of the checkered franchise was too cool for school and reminded us we loved Michael Myers to begin with. The film is eerie, slick, and brutal. It also nods to slashers that came before it while snatching a spot alongside other iconic late 90s teen horror movies. Halloween H20 would have been the perfect send-off for our beloved boogeyman if the genre would just let him stay dead.
Scream (dir. Wes Craven)
Where You Can Watch: HBO Max
A young woman is stalked by a masked killer as the anniversary of her mother’s death looms over her. Scream remains the most important slasher of the 1990s. It practically raised a new generation of young horror fans and rebooted the slasher subgenre. It also made household names out of its cast as it proved that the top-billed actors should be on the chopping block like everyone else. RIP, Casey Becker. You would have loved this franchise.
This movie is the reason so many of us ran to see I Know What You Did Last Summer, the other ’90s slasher penned by Kevin Williamson. While I love many of the sequels to pieces, Scream is a strong reminder to not fuck with the original. Very few horror movies in my lifetime will become cultural landmarks like this one. Sadly, even fewer films can boast they had five solid sequels in a row.
Urban Legend (dir. Jamie Blanks)
Where You Can Watch: VOD
College students start dying in ways reminiscent of certain urban legends. This slasher is definitely of its era with a distinctly late 90s cast. Where else will you see Alicia Witt, Joshua Jackson, Rebecca Gayheart, and Tara Reid together? However, it is the supporting cast, which includes Loretta Devine, Robert Englund, and Brad Dourif, that made Urban Legends memorable for me. Watching Devine’s character survive this ordeal and become the true final woman of this franchise warms my dead little heart.
This movie also stands out because it added another lady slasher to the canon, even if it did make us suffer through Jared Leto to do it. While it’s not my favorite movie on the list, it absolutely deserves its place among iconic ’90s slashers. The cluster of pre-Scream teen horror movies would have been less chaotic without its presence.
Valentine (dir. Jamie Blanks)
Where You Can Watch: VOD
A killer stalks a group of friends as Valentine’s Day draws closer. I watched this as a kid because I had a crush on David Boreanaz and Johnny Whitworth. I also appreciated that Denise Richards, Marley Shelton, and Jessica Capshaw were familiar faces in the group of women fighting for their lives. I had a lot of complaints about this movie as a tween, but the maggot moment still haunts me. So, whatever people say about it, Valentine did leave us gagging. It is also one of the slashers that dared to take a stab at this particular Hallmark Holiday.
If you are looking for some predictable and no-strings-attached fun, this might be the movie for you. Worst case scenario, you see another case of long-awaited sweet revenge on some unsuspecting mean girls.
I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) will slash its way into theaters on July 18.
Are you also using this time to revisit slashers from our youth? Then find me on Bluesky and let us swap our favorite titles!
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