It is September which means one more month until October. To get into the Halloween spirit early, one can watch the slasher trilogy, “Fear Street.” All three films take place right after the other, so for the films to make sense they must be watched in order, starting with the film, “Fear Street Part One: 1994.” This movie is amazing at getting viewers invested in the story. Not only is the trilogy good in the horror genre but the elements of mystery the writers add made for some great plot twists.
All three movies are loosely based on the R.L. Stine book series with the same title. The films are a more mature take on the books. Most likely the intention was to appeal to the viewers who grew up with the series, unlike the other R.L Stine book to movie adaptation series, “Goosebumps,” which aims for a younger audience.
All three films follow characters called Shadysiders. Shadyside is a town where numerous murders occur. In contrast, lies the town Sunnyvale. Not only are they Shadyside’s rivals, but not a single bad thing has ever occurred there. To the people of Sunnyvale, Shadysiders are people who are aware that they are so hopeless that they just give into their rage and begin killing. However, the truth is that everyone in Shadyside that became a killer were normal and just good people, until one day they randomly snapped.
The main character for this film is Deena, portrayed by Kiana Madeira, who wants to return her ex Sam’s stuff back. Sam, played by Olivia Scott Welch, lives in Sunnyvale, so Denna decides to confront Sam at her school. At the time, a memorial for a Shadysider that was murdered was being held. As the memorial progresses, a fight breaks out between the town’s schools. When the Shadysiders are on their bus, Sam, her new boyfriend Peter, portrayed by Jeremy Ford, and a group of other Sunnyvalers chase them in a car which leads Denna to throw a cooler at the car, causing a car accident. Sam immediately gets out of the car and she finds herself in the witch Sarah Fier’s, portrayed by Elizabeth Scope, grave. Before Sarah was hanged, she vowed to curse Shadyside. When Sam found her grave, she disrupted her rest and revived the deceased Shadyside killers after her. The rest of the film is the main characters trying to take down the killers.
While this is not the best installment, the biggest issue with the first movie is that it has a tendency to cling onto the nostalgia factor. This film really likes reminding viewers that it is 1994 by stuffing in as much 90’s music as possible. The film was almost never silent because of this and it really rushed the film in some parts, especially the beginning. There were times where the movie kind of failed at feeling like the viewer was watching something from the 90’s, but instead felt like a movie from 2021 that had 90’s memorabilia in the background.
While this film had some weak parts, there were some highlights. In most slashers, they only try to give the main character depth and all the characters that died were just tools for the main character’s development. In “Fear Street,” this is not the case, especially in this installment.
It is still overall a strong start for the trilogy. The biggest asset this film has is their characters, they are all very likable so it is easy to get invested in their stories. This movie gets an eight out of 10. Other than the constant decade reminders, this trilogy would not have gained the success it did if it was not for how great this film was.
