Fear Street, Part One: 1994 (2021)

Boy, it's been a over a year since I did a review!  But my wife and I just watched the Fear Street trilogy on Netflix and it was so good, I felt I needed to talk about it.  I will post a review for each film, one a day, so come back tomorrow for the sequel! But today, we're checking out Fear Street, Part One: 1994 (2021).

SYNOPSIS:
The town of Shadyside, Ohio is known for brutal serial killings every few decades.  A random citizen of town will randomly go nuts and murder a handful of people before they're killed themselves (or commit suicide).  Local lore blames it on possession by a witch named Sarah Fier, who swore revenge on the town before she was hanged for witchcraft in 1666.

But for local high schooler Deena Johnson, the only drama in her life is her girlfriend, Sam Fraser, moving to Sunnyvale, the perfect town next door.  That is, until Sam experiences a vision of a witch.  Suddenly, a former serial killer in a skeleton mask - who's supposed to be dead - shows up, tracking Sam everywhere she goes and trying desperately to murder her.  It's up to Sam, Deena, and their friends to discover the secret behind this supernatural stalker before he succeeds in taking Sam's life.

REVIEW:
Notice: This review is spoiler-free, but I can't guarantee the next two films will be without spoilers, as I will eventually need to talk about plot points from this film and the next.

I used to read R.L. Stine's Fear Street books when I was a teenager.  They're young adult horror stories, a bit more mature, gory, and violent than his famous Goosebumps series.  So you can imagine my excitement to discover that there was a trilogy of Fear Street films releasing a couple weeks apart from one another!

At first glance though, the story appeared to be moving in reverse.  The first film was titled "1994," the second "1978," and the final film "1666."  So I assumed we'd get three unique stories set in different eras piecing together a full story arc.  Nope - it's all the same story with plot details creatively revealed through the past.  So if you watch one film, be prepared to sit through all three if you don't want cliffhangers.

This film takes place in the era that Fear Street was mostly written, the 1990s.  In the opening scene, we're in a mall bookstore (remember those?) in 1994.  There's a whole display of horror books by Robert Lawrence on sale.  A lady is buying one of the books, but comments how it's trash; low brow horror that she's only buying for her stepdaughter.

I immediately recognized the book covers.  They're Fear Street books!  And Robert Lawrence, as you can guess, is R.L. Stine's first and middle name.  Sadly, this is the only reference to R.L. Stine in the trilogy.  He doesn't even make a cameo!  He made a cameo in the Goosebumps movie, where he plays a teacher named Mr. Black and greets Jack Black, who plays R.L. Stine in the film.  That kind of meta humor is what I love from my horror genre.

Also missing from this trilogy is Fear Street itself (except for a brief establishing shot of "Fier Street" in the third film).  In the books, Fear Street was where most of the supernatural horrors that plagued Shadyside came from.  But these films instead chose to focus on the witch Sarah Fier, the source of all the horrors in the town.  She was also the origin of supernatural happenings in Shadyside in the books, although she wasn't the sole cause of them all.  There were various other types of horrors that cropped up throughout the books (some of them not even supernatural!).  Sarah Fier was just the original horror in the town.

I'll admit, it took me a while into this film before I came to the conclusion it was a supernatural story.  I know the Fear Street books (usually) dealt with the supernatural, but the way this film played out, you couldn't tell if it really was paranormal happenings or if it was just a psyche out with a guy in a mask or something.  It didn't help that the serial killer was literally a guy in a mask.  It wasn't until a good ways in that we saw some legit paranormal activity that couldn't be mistaken for "smoke and mirrors."

Honestly, that was one of the things I loved about supernatural horror stories when I was younger.  The fear of the unknowable made it that much more frightening for me.  Yeah, zombie viruses made the zombie plague realistic and that was frightening... at first.  But now it's just another obstacle to overcome in those kind of films.  Find a cure and you're good!  Build a fortress to keep the zombies out and you can live a happy (fenced-in) life again.  But supernatural horrors are so much more scary for me because there's no way to know if you're safe or not.  Ghosts can walk through walls.  They can suddenly appear in the room with you.  Bullets can't stop them.  You have to always be on your toes.

RECOMMENDATION:
This film was an excellent throwback to '90s horror films.  You have a masked serial killer stalking our heroines, you have a supernatural mystery to solve, and you have plenty of blood and gore to supplement the genre.  Even the opening scene was a nice homage to Scream's opening scene.  Yes, this is very much an adult film; put the kiddies to bed before you start this one.

If you enjoy supernatural horror, this is a superb tale to fill that hole in your life.  Go check it out!  It's a Netflix exclusive.