Fear Street: Part One- 1994

Starring: Kiana Madeira, Olivia Scott Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr., Julia Rehwald, Maya Hawke, Charlene Amoia, David W. Thompson, Ashley Zuckerman, Gillian Jacobs
Directed by: Leigh Janiak
Rating: R
Genre: Horror, Drama, Mystery
2021

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A group of students come into contact with an evil witch, who has terrorized their town for centuries.

Review:

Tim: I loved Netflix's release strategy for the Fear Street trilogy. They released one film each week for 3 consecutive weeks. This is mostly unheard of and I loved the innovative approach. It made this trilogy feel like an event- I watched this film the weekend it was released and I eagerly anticipated the next weekend to watch the second film. It made these three films feel more connected, like one big event, spread over three weeks. Now, a release strategy is cool, but you have to back it up with a solid product. While Fear Street: Part One- 1994 will never be considered a horror classic, it was better than I expected. It was a fun, worthwhile movie. It gets the trilogy off to a good start.

I like that this trilogy was inspired by R.L. Stine's Fear Street series. While I have some issues with Stine (long story), his Goosebumps books were foundational reading for me. I did "graduate" to the Fear Street series, but I can't remember much about it. So, these films were able to tap into some nostalgia, but I wasn't such a strict fan that I'd be bothered that these movies didn't exactly follow the books.

Now, for the movie itself, it's a good film, but it certainly has flaws. I liked the idea of these two communities- Sunnyvale is the wealthy, successful, idyllic town. Shadyside is the exact opposite- marked by tragedy, a shadow of evil cloaks the town. That was a fun idea to explore and I appreciated how the movie established this world. The idea of a historic evil infecting the town was a cool one, too. It perfectly sets up the subsequent films, which go backwards in time. This concept was especially well thought out and it gave the film a nice sense of scope that most horror movies don't have. This was one of the strongest aspects of the film and it was enjoyable to discover these towns' secrets along with the rest of the characters.

The story itself was interesting but uneven. The story about Sarah Fier and her witchcraft ways was legitimately intriguing. I enjoyed hearing about the origins of this supernatural horror. I was a big fan of the Skull Mask Killer, too. He's a frightening and memorable character. When the film trots out all the other supernatural killers, it does get to be a bit much. I think it would have been better to focus on fewer. None of the others are quite as cool as the SMK and they pulled too much focus away from this. This sense of throwing a lot at the audience does end up hurting the movie. At a certain point, the story starts to buckle under everything going on. There's Sarah Fier, the Skull Mask Killer, the hooded Camp Nightwing Killer, Ruby Lane, the Milkman Killer (yes, I had to look up all these names), and a bunch of others. I know the film is trying to show how Shadyside has suffered under centuries of murderous killers, but all starts to feel like a bit much. The movie would have been better served by focusing on fewer characters for longer periods.

I also like that the film felt like a throwback to the kinds of horror movies we saw in the mid-1990s. Over the past few years, horror has enjoyed a resurgence because it was about something other than just horror (see Get Out, Hereditary, A Quiet Place, etc). That's a worthwhile movement that is producing incredibly memorable films, but it was fun to see this throwback to a 90s slasher film. This movie proves to be slightly better than the average by establishing some solid characters and treating the story with respect, verses the movie just being about who is going to be killed next. That's still a differentiator in horror and it's a reason why this movie works.

The cast was decent. Kiana Madeira was fine in the lead role. I don't think I ever loved her performance, but she was a worthwhile lead. I liked Olivia Scott Welch slightly more, but her performance was uneven as well. There were times when she was excellent and times when her acting made me cringe. Benjamin Flores Jr. was a breath of fresh air and brought so much humor and energy to his role. He was definitely a standout. Julia Rehwald was decent but far too forgettable. I loved seeing Maya Hawke in her role- it's critical and memorable and she further cements herself as an actress to watch. There's a bunch of other cast members, but they tended to make less of an impression on me. I wouldn't say the cast was especially strong, but I had only minimal complaints.

Fear Street: Part One- 1994 does a number of things well- it tells a compelling story, tries to make its characters interesting, and is mostly entertaining. However, it does ultimately crumble a bit under the weight of the storytelling and it falls into that usual horror trap of ultimately becoming too predictable while also pushing the boundaries of credulity. There's a certain point when you just have to acknowledge the weaknesses inherent in the plot and accept them. Over the past 5+ years, we've gotten so many instant classic horror movies. The genre has definitely be elevated. This first Fear Street movie doesn't do that and therefore, it doesn't deserved to be mentioned with some of the films I referenced earlier. However, this is still a fun movie and it was entertaining enough that I was really excited about the next film in the series. Again, thanks to Netflix's wonderful release strategy, I only had to wait a week.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Fear Street: Part Two- 1978, Honeymoon