Fear Street: Aiming at Stranger Things and Hitting R-Rated Goosebumps

I’m a horror fan. Whenever I can get my hands on a supernaturally inclined horror movie, I’m off making popcorn. Somehow, the gore, monsters, and guys with a chainsaw don’t really do it for me. In my mind, if a shotgun could potentially do the trick, it’s not that scary. While, on the other hand, there’s not a bloody thing (short of some rituals and frantic history investigations) you can do about creepy crawling girls with an affinity for wells or apparitions that blame you for all their troubles. I mean, if you don’t happen to be Dean Winchester, you’re pretty much screwed.

So in my search for the next blood-chilling, creepy story, I’ve scouted the majority of available streaming platforms. Unfortunately, short of absolutely brilliant The Haunting of Hill House and the subsequent The Haunting of Bly Manor (one day I’ll get to writing a dedicated rant on those), there are not that many movies or series that hit the spot. And given that I don’t consider artsy let’s-put-in-the-frame-for-the-sake-of-the-frame movies real horror—I was waiting for something, I mean something to happen for the whole 1.5 hours of I’m the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House—it narrows down the list even further.

Give me the suspense, give me a twist, give me relatable characters, and give me a good story. How hard can it be, right? That recipe is true for horror games too. Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures anthology are examples of games that ticked all the boxes. At least in my book. And that’s even without the whole excellent ‘your choice matters’ aspect of those games.

But I do give potentially interesting horror movies and series a chance. A benefit of the doubt, if you will. I did it with Lore (a great podcast that, unfortunately, didn’t pass the screen test), His House (a strong social premise that was crippled by the lack of budget and predictable story twists), Mercy Black (a decent setup that led to a ‘meh’ ending), and so many more.

So when I saw a preview of the Fear Street trilogy on Netflix, I thought, “Ok, it might be a standard possession flick, but maybe there are some good Stranger Things vibes there, let’s give it a go.”

The setup of the first part, Fear Street Part One: 1994, is pretty standard. A bunch of youngsters are hacked down by a maniac at the mall. But instead of blaming it on the vices of modern society or mental health issues, everybody is convinced he was possessed by the spirit of a 17th-century witch. Naturally. The whole thing takes place in a town non-conspicuously called Shadyside. The town, of course, has a dark history, filled with mass murders happening every couple of decades. However, a neighbouring town of Sunnyville has been prospering for all those years. Not suspicious at all, right?

Image: Netflix

Two rival groups of teens get into a squabble which results in a car crash that, in turn, leads to one of the Sunnyville girls touching the bones of the witch and getting cursed. The rest of the movie is a mix of dark Scooby-Doo and I Know What You Did Last Summer. The only thing that the director, Leigh Janiak, did differently was adding an LGBTQ twist on Romeo and Juliet. A girl from Shadyside, Deena, and a girl from Sunnyville who touched the bones, Samantha, are together against all odds. And are trying not to get slaughtered by a small army of ghosts of all the previously possessed murderers. Tale as old as time.

In the second part, Fear Street Part Two: 1978, we are thrown back to, well, 1978 and into another classic setting of a summer camp. That’s where the previous mass murder took place. The story is told by an unlikely survivor, Ziggi. In her child version, Ziggi is played by the Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink. And she pretty much plays the same boyish, rebellious character. Which is not a bad thing. Her grown-up version, however, is played by Gillian Jacobs, who, unfortunately, decided to also stick to the character she played in Community. How a feisty Max grew up to be a stoned Britta is beyond me.

Image: Screenrant.com

The story pretty much repeats itself. A boy gets possessed, a boy goes on a killing spree, a girl touches the bones, a girl is chased by a bunch of murderous ghosts. No LGBTQ vibes there, but a nice sprinkle of Carrie.

The third and final movie, Fear Street Part Three: 1666, takes us back to the fun, women-friendly times of the 17th century. It reveals the backstory of the witch, Sarah Fier (again, non-conspicuously pronounced as ‘fear’), and her curse. As it turns out, Sarah is gay and, of course, they’ve burned and hung pretty girls for less in those times. The villain is, unsurprisingly, a white straight man. There is a nice—though not completely unpredictable— twist, and a classic smart-girls-trick-the-bad-guy-and-prevail ending. All in all, not bad. In fact, I think that having the third part’s story and a short 1994 preview instead of three movies might have been enough. There’s a tale of a curse, rival towns, a murder, bad ghosts are chasing a girl, the teens discover a survivor of the previous massacre, she tells them how she did it, they touch the bones again and learn the truth from 1666, the teens defeat the bad guy. The end. Could have been a neat, intense movie. Just saying.

Image: Netflix

Overall, it isn’t a bad trilogy. There are several lovable characters (the geeky but brave younger brother did warm my heart), an LGBTQ angle, a decent cast, and an occasional good song.

With its small-town setting, retro feel, and a general 80s-90s teen horror style you can see how Janiak tried to bring Fear Street closer to Stranger Things. Having a shared cast helps to reinforce the feeling as well. Aside from the aforementioned Sadie Sink, Maya Hawke (‘Robin’ in Stranger Things) makes a brief appearance as well. Apparently, Janiak is married to the co-creator of Stranger Things, and they have somewhat communal approach to casting. Well, why not. That part aside, I felt that Fear Street lacked the intensity, suspense, and consistency of Stranger Things. It was reminiscent of it, yes, but simply not hitting the same level. To me, it was closer to Goosebumps. If Goosebumps got R-rated, with a decent amount of blood and sex in the mix.

Things that don't make sense (SPOILERS)

And then there are several inconsistencies that simply didn’t make any sense. (Some serious SPOILERS ahead).

---

1. If the men were supposed to control the ghosts, it seems like a pretty bad deal to just link their homicidal tendencies to blood. It leaves waaaaay too much room for error (as the ending showed). Say, what if somebody in the family got a blood transfusion from the supposed victim. I know, a bit far fetched. But still, it felt like for the price of your immortal soul you might as well get a better bargain.
   

2. Why, why would Nick Goode be in the camp himself if he knew that a very likely splash of blood could potentially kill him? And, ok, he might not have thought that somebody would touch those bones. But still, being in the middle of the orchestrated massacre, without any protection (as Goodes don’t seem to have any control in the matter), just seems reckless.
   

3. If Samantha gets “possessed” after tricking the “curse” by dying, why didn’t Britta Ziggi?
   

4. What happens if a generation of Goodes only has daughters? Or can’t produce any children at all? Just feels like they should have read the small print in the bargain or get a lawyer to look over it.

---

My very biased verdict

It’s not bad. The story is decent, with a good twist. The characters are relatable, even if not too deep. The nostalgia feeling is there, even if a bit constructed. The second part has a good soundtrack (you really can’t go wrong with The Man Who Saved the World). The movies certainly pay homage to the classic slasher flicks. The overall feeling after watching this trilogy is...it’s ok.

And yes, it might be tricky to adapt children’s horror book series for the adult audience. But hey, Scary Stories We Tell in the Dark managed to keep the balance and did a great job. Just saying.

If you’re in the mood for some light slasher, I’d say go for it. But for me, the hunt for good horror series and movies continues.