Fear Street Part One: 1994 (2021)
“There was a time when things were good in Shadyside. But now, that’s all gone.” – Deena.
Fear Street Part One: 1994 (2021)
Directed by: Leigh Janiak
Written by: R.L. Stine (based upon the Fear Street books by), Kyle Killen, Phil Graziadei
Starring: Kiana Madeira, Olivia Scott Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr, Maya Hawke, Julia Rehwald
As the name suggests, this is the first film in a trilogy based on R.L. Stine’s young adult book series, Fear Street. Expecting something a bit light-hearted like Stranger Things, my weak appetite for horror got rick-rolled here, with the film being more of a supernatural-horror-slasher. While there was a bit of tongue-in-cheek self-referential horror movie hijinks (like in Scream), the majority of the film ended up more like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets The Blair Witch Project.
The film focuses on the fate of five teens who live in Shadyside – a town renowned for it’s horrific massacres since the 1600s. When the killings start once again, the group become the last line of defence against an evil force plaguing the town.
The first word that comes to mind here is ‘messy.’ With over fifty books of source material to draw from, it almost feels as if the writers were a bit overwhelmed and didn’t know how to strike a balance between the ‘horror’ and ‘young-adult’ aspects of the film. Whilst the movie ticks all of the boxes of an impressive ‘horror’ – with graphic deaths, jump-scares and a spine-tingling score – it seriously under delivers on the promise of ‘young-adult’ content. Yes, the main characters are teens, but the ‘romantic relationships’ within the movie are afterthoughts, and any attempted teen jokes miss the mark. Unfortunately this results in a bunch of bland main characters without any semblance of relatable or likable personalities, meaning you don’t really care when they get picked off – dulling the emotional attachment required in a great horror film.
Having said this, the film is a good homage to B-grade slasher horror films, with a number of fun horror tropes and winks to horror classics. The most obvious parallel is with Scream, with a brutal cold open in which a famous actress is butchered before the credits, and a bunch of self-referential characters using phrases like “I’m gunna kill you” and “I’ll murder you” in casual conversation, foreshadowing the coming deaths. The plethora of villains tap into both supernatural and slasher lore, with witches, axe-wielding psychos and sadistic knife enthusiasts leaving a bloody trail in their wake. Due to extensive gore, if you’re not a fan of blood, you need to skip this film.
Another horror classic that rears its ugly head is the characters making excruciatingly dumb decisions throughout that put them in even greater peril. This culminates in a ridiculous final sequence that will have you screaming at the screen in frustration, as the main characters make a slew of choices SO STUPID that they make the Mayor from Jaws look like a genius.
In summary, the production value is good and the acting is fine, but the whole package just came out a bit ‘blergh’ for me. If you’re into slasher films you’ll love it, but it lacked characters worth fighting for. The coming sequels are released in the following two weeks, and explore different time frames within the town (1978 and 1666), but I don’t know if this has done enough to convince me to watch them.
Rating: 6/10
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