Each week, I will look at a movie that is currently in theaters or available to stream and give some reasons why people should watch it. This isn’t necessarily a film critique, rather, an overview of what I think is enjoyable about the film, and why it’s worth seeing. This week, we’re doing something a little different and looking at the entire Fear Street trilogy that was released by Netflix last year.
The Fear Street trilogy is an adaptation from the RL Stine books of which, again, I have not read (a common theme for me.) The premise of these movies centers around an evil that is in the town of Shadyside, and how the town has dealt with a seemingly endless list of serial killers throughout the town’s 300 year history. I’m writing about this trilogy as a whole instead of one particular movie because I think the strength is how the movies build off one another. It’s incredibly rare to get the go ahead for three movies before you even release the first movie. This typically is the reason why sequels aren’t as good as the original. You put all of your best ideas and effort into one movie, which usually has a pretty closed off storyline and then boom, you make a lot more money than expected and now everyone needs to see a sequel, which you totally didn’t plan for. But, in this instance, the green light is given for three movies to be released together no matter what, and now a story can be built coherently. I think these movies do a really good job of having their own identities yet feeding into the story at large. Fear Street 1994 (Part One) has a sort of Stranger Things vibe that takes place in the present amongst confusion of what the real problem is. Fear Street 1978 (Part Two) comes up with a potential solution to the problem but mainly takes place in a camp that makes it feel like a Friday the 13th movie at Camp Crystal Lake. Finally, Fear Street 1666 (Part Three) takes you to the very beginning, and acts as a movie about a witch before the ultimate problem is revealed and dealt with. It’s because of this, I think this trilogy can reach a lot of people, in that, these movies are pulling towards the same thing, but have different identities that belong to different horror subgenres. And, because of the aforementioned ability to do 3 movies at once, I actually liked the second and third movies a little more than the first. If you’re looking for a new horror trilogy that does things a little differently, don’t be afraid of Fear Street.
The Fear Street trilogy is currently available to stream on Netflix.
