Fear Street Part One: 1994 (2021) Review

Tagline: Three movies. Three weeks. One killer story.

Fear Street Part One: 1994 (2021) Review

 

Kids who grew up in the 1990’s and early 2000’s probably know the name R.L. Stine. His Goosebumps series were essential books for anyone just getting into reading and wanting stories that were creepy and fun but not too scary, but he also wrote many other horror series and standalone novels for higher reading levels. One that was more advanced than Goosebumps but still meant for younger readers was Fear Street, and I could not have guessed when I heard Netflix was releasing a trilogy of films based on the series that they would turn out to be some of the most fun horror movies of the year.

A brutal murder in a mall gets things underway, and it’s a pretty fun way to start, paying tribute to the best the slasher genre has to offer but still feeling like its own thing without being a blatant copy or rip-off. Murder and mayhem is pretty much the norm for the town of Shadyside, which is in stark contrast to the peaceful neighboring town Sunnyvale, with which Shadyside residents have an ongoing feud. Shadyside is said to be cursed by a witch who was executed in 1666, so there’s a supernatural angle to this slasher story, and the characters begin to discover the curse might be real after all.

This first Fear Street film showcases R-rated violence and coarse language but is fun like a PG-13 movie, which might sound like a criticism but is actually a positive observation. There isn’t a constant barrage of gore or swears, so when they hit, they have much more impact. I didn’t note the rating beforehand, so it also came as more of a surprise to me. There are quite a few characters set up in the beginning, and most of them are pretty unlikable. The main character Deena just broke up with her secret girlfriend Sam, she’s not very nice to her younger brother Josh (who is the most likable) and there are a few cliché teenage jerks who seem to be there just to be killed, but the characters actually get more likable as the story progresses. The story builds up well and there are some intense kills throughout.

As the title makes obvious, the setting is that of the early 90’s, and they did a good job of making it feel very 90’s without being too entrenched in the nostalgia. Sure, there are many direct references to movies and pop culture staples of the time, but it’s in service of the story, not just there for the sake of being there. I’m not going to go too much more in-depth with the story details, since these movies are still quite new at the time of this review coming out, and we still have two more to cover.

For having had little to any expectations for Fear Street in the first place, I thought Part One: 1994 kicked things off in a great way. I don’t want to say it stands well on its own, because it really does leave you hanging, but in a good sense. This first movie still has a beginning, middle, and end, but also leads forward into the bigger narrative in a pretty engaging way, hopefully leaving you feeling like you want to watch the next one instead of needing to watch it. Check out the review for Part Two tomorrow!