Horror is one of the most enduring genres of storytelling. It isn’t for everyone, but it has its bloodthirsty crowd who like feeling on edge. There’s something about that suspense that makes a film so much more fun to watch. Or, maybe we just like bearing witness to the brutal death scenes that become embedded in horror pop culture.
Scream, Friday the 13th, Halloween, JAWS, these are but a few franchises that have become horror icons. Another icon is the writer R.L Stine who authored the Goosebumps books and who wrote the Fear Street series.
Stine is a beloved horror icon. His books have featured in many childhoods (mine included.) So, when Netflix announced that they were doing a movie trilogy based off of one of his works, I got excited. But before I get into bloody part one, I should probably give the rundown on what this trilogy actually is and why Netflix made such an event out of it.
Viewers Be Warned…
The Fear Street trilogy came out back-to-back for three weeks in July. Exactly like the TV Series back in the day that used to release an episode weekly. I’m conflicted if Fear Street is a movie trilogy or if it can be labelled as a three-part mini-series.
The films were clearly filmed as one big movie and just broken up into parts because of how they flowed into one another. This formula stood out to me because it fixed my main gripe with films, which is that they often feel too rushed and pressed for time and cram as much as they can into their runtime and leave things feeling shallow.
Not with Fear Street, though. I really hope Netflix uses this three-part movie idea more often because it really worked out in the story’s favour.
The Slashers Are Here…
It’s no secret that Fear Street took influence from cult horror classics. It is all over their marketing and I really liked how these films were a sort of celebration of the horror genre. The first film in the trilogy, 1994, felt a lot like a certain 90s horror classic: Scream.
Even the killer reminded me of Ghostface. The movie had a phenomenal soundtrack of 90s hits from the likes of Nine Inch Nails, White Zombie and Radiohead to name a few.
The film was a lot of fun though it was very dark at times. I’m not sure if it was my TV (despite adjusting my brightness to be quite bright after the first act) but there were times I found it hard to actually see what was going on in the darker scenes despite my brightness being on full. (Though, there is no mention of this online, so it could have been my TV.)
The movie also had some clever easter eggs and nods to other horror movies like JAWS, The Shining, as well as some R.L Stine books feature in the movie.
So, if you like the horror movies of the 90s, I really recommend this one. The film hooked me from start to finish and I enjoyed every second of it.
And, if you’ve watched part one and still have a hunger for more carnage, then fear not; Part Two: 1978 is a real riot!
