Fear Street: Part One-1994

Fear Street: Part One-1994 (2021)

Runtime: 107 minutes

Directed by: Leigh Janiak

Starring: Kiana Madeira, Olivia Scott Welch, Benjamin Flores, Jr., Julia Rehwald, Charlene Amoia

From: Netflix

Boy did this not work for me. I realize many people will vehemently disagree with my harsh opinion of this film but I have to be real here. By now I heard various things about these trio of films-including that the other two were better than this-yet I was curious enough, I was either a kid or a teenager all through the 90's and I actually read some Fear Street books during the time so the motivation was present. If only this wouldn't have been a waste of time...

Early on I knew there would be trouble and this would make me groan out loud. The opening was cool, 90's mall and all. Yet I need more than “member berries” to entertain me. The story itself was just not appealing at all; it's not the “cursed town” aspect—rather it's how there are two communities named Shadyside & Sunnyvale, the names gigantic hints for which one has had misery for a few hundred years while the other is preposterously successful. If that didn't make me , there was no character I really liked at all, let alone enjoyed following for almost two hours. It's stupid moopy teenagers who were unappealing asstagonists; the LGBTQ+ factor was different from the norm yet did not do much to improve a film full of modern tropes that are thoroughly unappealing. Some memorable kills did not help too much when there are a few long boring stretches.

Then there's lingo which was modern (“that's what she said?” “mi'lady?”), obnoxious moments, a tone that at times seemed like Scream only that did it far better and actually was authentic to the decade... hell, this has plenty of 90's songs-another bad modern trope is way too many needle drops-and some were clearly released after 1994. I realize popular movies set in the past sometime play songs that are after its setting but it wasn't on multiple occasions like in Fear Street. The 90's version of Stranger Things, this ain't; the only think it has in common w/ ST is that like how that isn't really how the 80's were, Fear Street wasn't what the 1990's were like. Not even the aesthetic moments nor some of the kills will push me to watch the other two in the series.

As I said, the general conceit is one I didn't really enjoy at all so more of it-just in a different time period-isn't a selling point. I'm glad that this was a “jam” for many on Letterboxd last summer-personally I'd watch actual 90's horror as that has a better chance of being palatable for my palette.