FEAR STREET TRILOGY [2021]

 I WAS TOO OLD TO HAVE READ THE "FEAR STREET" BOOKS BACK IN THE DAY. 

After all, I was a little over 400 at the time.  However, I know enough about them that back in the summer I was looking forward to watching them on Nutflux.  Not knowing what to expect, I was heartened by the kickass trailers and was ready for a good time when the first film debuted.  And I'll tell you what:  all three were great!  Leigh Janiak's direction was really excellent with no lag in the storyline.  The trio of writers made a screenplay with strong characterizations for all the "teens" and the viewer knew and was invested in them throughout.  This leads me to the cast which was, without any exceptions that I can think of, uniformly good. 

PART ONE:  1994  did a really good job of evoking the era with only one or two "mistakes" that I spotted.  This installment probably had the strongest YA Fiction vibe with our teens investigating a la Nancy Drew the reasons why Fear Street/Shadyside has such a history of nutso psycho killers.  And those killers!  I loved them!  Would've loved to see even MORE of them.  I understand that these films are more "adult" than the books but, from what I hear, they still manage to evoke a good part of the vibe of the novels.  However, the occasional nudity, sex and drug use is new to these films.  But to me, they didn't smash the atmosphere and felt mostly appropriate.  The blood, guts and mayhem was terrific and really sold the threat of the psycho killers.  Pretty top notch gore gags.  I also really have to mention the terrific lighting/colour scheme which REALLY evoked 1994 to me; all that neon looks awesome.   And the soundtrack full of 90's songs?  Superb.  Although, as much as I loved hearing Garbage's "ONLY HAPPY WHEN IT RAINS", it actually didn't come out till 1995.  But so what.  This was a terrific part one and left me eager for more.

PART TWO:  1978, I found to be just as fun as the first one.  Unlike most movies which get the look and feel of the seventies completely wrong (usually wrongly attributing 1980s stuff/styles/hair to the 1970s), this film got it pert-near perfect.  Once again, the writing of characters was top notch and the cast was without exception good.  The colour scheme here was appropriately earth-toned being as it's set at a summer camp AND those browns and oranges and greens were big in the 70's.  The "Color Wars" at Camp Nightwing evoked something like a horror version of MEATBALLS -- which I was totally in sync with.  Add to this a hatchet-wielding maniac and what's not to love.  Since, the three films occur in reverse-chronological order, I was interested to see how that would work and it was deftly done.  Part Two occurring in 1978 clears up some mysteries from the 1994 era while also introducing more mysteries.  Nicely done.  Of course, anything with a seventies vibe is OK by me!

PART THREE:  1666 did a slightly-less convincing job evoking the era as far as the acting goes; while a respectable attempt was made to have them talk like 1666 teens, they still came across as pretty modern-acting.  Of course, this is probably to be expected and in no way diminishes the fun I had with part 3 as well.  Of course, the final third of part 3 switched back to 1994 in order to tie up the trilogy which was very much called for.  The sets, costumes and cinematography all looked very authentic to give a 17th century vibe to everything.  And like the previous installment, Part 3 cleared up some mysteries and introduced others which would be deftly resolved in the final third of the movie.  Not having read (yet) the 3 novels by R.L. Stine that tell the backstory of Fear Street, I found the explanations about the witch Sarah Fier very satisfying as far as the narrative goes.  It all ties up to make a very satisfying conclusion.

The FEAR STREET trilogy was a hoot and a holler from start to finish and everyone involved did a fine job bringing this to the screen.  I did find the sexy/nudie bits unnecessary and they were the only things which felt forced into the film awkwardly.  Other than that, the only slight problem I have is why Fear Street is hardly ever mentioned at all during all three films.  Shadyside is constantly talked about but the actual Fear Street is almost never shown or mentioned.  I wish they had shown a light a little more on the actual street the films are named after.  However, I wholeheartedly recommend this terrific trilogy even to those who have never heard of the FEAR STREET books.