Warning: spoilers abound!
I freaking loved this movie! There is just so much awesomeness in it, I cannot express how much I loved it! Says the person who’s writing a review blog post of said movie.
Ok, anyway, I loved the Fear Street books as a kid. R.L. Stine was my favorite author for a really long time. And this movie perfectly captures those feelings. There’s a ton to get into here.
So, the movie opens in Shadyside Mall (oh, nostalgia) with an opening line that I’m pretty sure is a reference to one of the books. And the movie wastes no time in showing an outright murder spree. Just like the books!
And, omg, the opening credits are amazing! Really getting into the lore of Shadyside with old news reports which I swear are all references to Fear Street books. It’s been a long time since I’ve read the books - and I definitely didn’t read them all because R.L. Stine cranked them out at ridiculous speed, but there were so many stories and names that sounded familiar enough that it satisfied that nostalgia. Seriously, throughout the whole movie, I was sitting there like, “I think I read that book.” So good!
Oh, oh, I haven’t even gotten to the characters yet. Our main characters here are Deena and her little brother Josh plus their friends Simon and Kate (but those last two die by the end, so I’m not going to talk about them much - wouldn’t be Fear Street if at least half the main cast didn’t die). And we’ve also got Deena’s ex-girlfriend Sam as part of our cast (yay, queer rep!).
Alright, brief synopsis. In the wake of the Shadyside Mall murder spree tragedy, we follow the Shadyside teens (mentioned above minus Sam) to really build the lore of this place. Local lore says the witch Sarah Fier has cursed the town so that random people will go off on murder sprees as part of her forever lasting revenge on the town for hanging her. Cool! Then there’s some teen rivalry with those in the next town over (Sunnyvale) and amidst those shenanigans a car accident occurs. Classic Fear Street, to be honest. So Sam was in the car accident, gets a nosebleed, and accidentally bleeds on the witch’s bones. This leads to Shadyside killers rising from the dead to hunt her down. Sam escapes by dying, then being revived (which was a plan decided on after reading a story of someone else who survived - do I hear a setup for part two?). She and Deena get back together. Meanwhile, they and Josh blame the deceased Simon and Kate for the murders that occurred while Sam was being hunted even though they don’t want to, but who would believe the real story, right? You’d think that’s a happily ever after. And you would be wrong! Because the witch has now targeted Sam as her new killer. Deena barely escapes with her life and recruits Josh to help get her girlfriend back.
First of all, Josh is my favorite. He’s the one in the know about the town’s lore, so I hope he survives the next two parts. And the story! I mean, look at what I just described! That is one hundred percent a classic Fear Street plot. There’s even a point where Deena and the others go to the Sheriff for help, he doesn’t believe them supposedly, but he leaves a note for Deena’s dad that “It’s happening again.” Which, like, yeah. Adults, parents even, having gone through similar things the kid main characters did and hiding it is such a Fear Street move.
I also really appreciated that they made the teens messier compared to what I remember - like Deena’s friends being drug dealers and the teens swearing a whole bunch. Those things may not have been allowed in books marketed toward kids, so it makes everything more realistic without being over the top “dark” (looking at you “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”).
You know, it is a rare thing for a visual medium to capture how it feels to read a book. But “Fear Street 1994” does it perfectly. Watching this gives the exact same feels that reading a Fear Street book does. The nostalgia is on point. And I’m sure having a ton of resources for lore helped.
I cannot wait for “Fear Street 1978” where we get to witness the Camp Nightwing massacre first hand. …I swear I read that book.
10/10
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