Fear Street (Review)

(mild spoilers)

People often claim that the film industry is dead, and that it has been ruined by the invisible hand of PC culture or commercialised and easy to watch Disney films. While there is merit to these arguments in some examples, the risk-taking creatives of Hollywood will never be held back. The Fear St trilogy for its risk-taking choices and originality alone should be recognised as a truly great piece of modern horror, and modern film. For those who don’t know, the films took two major risk/ variations from the norm, first being the choice to release a trilogy in the space of three weeks, and the second being the fantastic story telling idea to release films that are based (kind of) in reverse order. These bold choices should be rewarded alone, and even better, they are executed rather well.

Fear St — Part 1–1994

Although it is difficult to separate the films as they are direct and immediate sequels to one another, for the sake of reviewing, it is easier to organise these films in terms of their separate entities. Fear St — Part 1 is a concise and well put together film with lots of fun horror aspects thrown in, while it isn’t a perfect film, it does (in my opinion) do a good job of setting up a story to be teased over the three movies. The film wastes no time starting with a gory and gripping set piece, introducing the slasher horror aspects in a gorgeous 90s mall set piece, and from then on introduces a lot of interesting elements of the story. Leading from a well shot/ directed horror set piece into the introduction of the protagonists, the movie doesn’t suffer from pacing issues as there is a strong balance between needed context and exposition and various unique slasher villains. While I did find myself being a little fatigued by the words ‘Sunnyvale, Shadyside and Sarah Fier,’ and believe a little more trust could have been afforded to the audience to remember where the characters lived, it wasn’t enough to pull me from the story. I also think that all the characters had enough development to feel real, and were utilized to fit tightly into the story. No character moments were wasted for pointless laughs or nostalgic call backs, but were actually utilized at later points in the film. Additionally, all of the social issues that were tackled (same sex relationships and socioeconomics) fit nicely in the story and added to the trilogy as a whole, instead of detracting from it in the way that other Netflix properties have in the past. The characters were not perfect, nor where they meant to be, they are broken, and feel as though they have been dealt a bad hand (rightfully) in where they had been born. Although it did suffer from one horror trope, the all-too-common death of a character that is all but forgotten, even moments after it happens. Overall, I think this was a fantastic introduction to the overall arc of the trilogy, setting the characters, story and tone up while not feeling like an exposition dumb to keep the watcher coming back for more.

Fear St — Part 2–1978

While telling the whole story of 1978 is most likely not necessary from a story telling perspective, the absolutely awesome set, costume and sound design of part two (and the whole trilogy) makes it an incredibly fun watch. Discovering the backstory of yet another one of the notorious Shadyside slashers, 1978 takes us back to …1978 to see an incredibly fun, gory and well-acted homage to the one and only Friday the 13th. And while I did put emphasis on the fact that these movies are ‘gory,’ at no point did I ever find it to be senseless or over the top, it is a horror still so like, it is ‘horrific,’ but in a similar vain to other works like ‘Ready or Not,’ it is more fun than terrifying. But perhaps with Fear St being a little more dark and serious. Part 2 puts us with a completely different cast than the first, but once again, I found myself really enjoying all the actors on screen, and felt like the characters where real people and a lot of fun. You truly feel bad for a lot of the minor characters who fall victim, and even worse for other characters who you get to know better. Part 2’s tight script once again does a fantastic job at balancing story and action, and once again, at no point did I find myself being bored by poor pacing. Furthermore, this film continues its world building, even giving backstory to some of the slashers that we only hear about or see briefly, drawing attention to the effect that knowing one of these killers (or mothering) can have on the rest of one’s life. The music is fun, the stakes are high, and these movies hold back no punches, mutilating anyone and everyone who is in it, creating some incredibly tense and emotional moments, and once again furthering the unravelling story.

Fear St — Part 3–1666

One of the things I really appreciate about this film is the way it answers some questions from the first two films, meaning it respects the audience enough to let them sit on certain elements and try to figure them out or theorise about them. Once again, the set and costume are fantastic, and the choice to bring back every cast member to fill out the cast is a unique (if likely a money saving) idea that works well in the realm of why we are brought back to 1666. Where the first two are your more traditional teen slasher sort of set up, 1666 is more plot driven with the horror elements taking a different direction. The nature of the horror shifts from a slasher to horrific elements that come with the time, the weapon of religion, the fear of the unknown and some disgusting cringe elements through pestilence. The film truly steers into haunting and witchcraft elements, and to my surprise, explores just how horrible it was to live in these times, especially as a woman. Furthermore, the film does a fantastic job at once again bringing to life some characters we have heard about, and fitting it concisely into the story.

The end is always a difficult task, as you carry to reputation of all three films on its conclusion, and I believe it was done to fantastic effect. Questions are answered, arcs completed, the story makes sense and is rather compelling. The film never loses track of its characters or the plot and keeps the tone consistent the whole way through. Are there small issues, yes, are they easily overlooked, very much so. If you like horror or don’t, I can see these movies being a good watch, they are fun, well written, acted, directed and have lots of beautiful stylistic choices, so much so, I see myself re-watching them sometime soon!