Based on the books by R.L. Stine
Directed by Leigh Janiak
USA
Fear Street Part One: 1994
Written by Phil Graziadei and Leigh Janiak
Starring Kiana Madeira, Oliva Scott Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr., Julia Rehwald, Fred Hechinger, Ashley Zukerman, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Maya Hawke, Jordana Spiro and Jordyn DiNatale
Fear Street Part Two: 1978
Written by Zak Olkewicz and Leigh Janiak
Starring Sadie Sink, Emily Rudd, Ryan Simpkins, McCabe Slye, Ted Sutherland, Jordana Spiro, Gillian Jacobs, Kiana Madeira, Benjamin Flores Jr., Ashley Zukerman, Oliver Scott Welch, Chiara Aurelia and Jordyn DiNatale
Fear Street Part Three: 1666
Written by Phil Graziadei, Leigh Janiak and Kate Trefry
Starring Kiana Madeira, Ashley Zukerman, Gillian Jacobs, Olivia Scott Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr. and Darrell Britt-Gibson
THE FEAR STREET TRILOGY is an impressively ambitious series of direct-to-Netflix movies based on the works of young adult horror writer R.L. Stine. I remember the series of books from when I was a kid, though I didn’t read many of them. They always looked cool, though. Here we’ve got a horror tale that spans many decades, even centuries, in small town Shadyside, where it seems like bad stuff never stops happening, usually in the form of spree killers who pop up every decade or so. Annoyingly for the denizens of Shadyside, their town is right next door to the prosperous Sunnyvale, where everyone’s rich and no one’s a spree killer.
We start in 1994, where our heroine is a high schooler dealing with the confusion of her relationship – she has a girlfriend who is less open about her sexuality. Her nerdy brother is obsessed with studying the history of crazy crimes in their town, and it isn’t long before bodies start piling up and there seems to be a supernatural element, revolving around a witch who was burned there hundreds of years ago.
You might call it pandering, but the 90s installment had me VERY early on with the endless series of great needle drops, ranging from tunes you’d expect to others I thought were slightly more obscure, but was pleased to hear anyway, because I’m an old man who is trapped in the past.
Speaking of the past, part two takes us to the 1970s where a bunch of Shadyside kids and Sunnyvale kids are at the same summer camp. This middle installment is the most straight forward of the three, because it follows the template pretty accurately for a late 70s/early 80s teen slasher flick. There is some other more complex stuff delving into the witch mystery and history of the town a little more, but ultimately this middle section is the least interesting of the series.
Finally we go back to 1666 for the final installment, where we finally meet the witch in question who turns out to be the victim of foul play. Even though you know there’s got to be a mystery, I was still surprised with the outcome. The finale switches back to the 90s again where the teen heroes (and some allies they pick up along the way) put an end to the curse of Shadyside forever.
When the whole thing came to a close I had to applaud the filmmakers for the insane amount of imagination that went into this thing – sure, it relies a lot on the famous clichés and themes of many different kinds of horror stories/movies, but it is not content to just re-tell those stories. There’s always a twist, an added element or an interesting character to make things fresh and interesting.
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