Quickie Review - Fear Street: Part One 1994

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The latest Netflix Original, Fear Street Part One: 1994 is a mixed tapestry of mess, nostalgic horror, 90s teen angst, and some well done mythology and thematic.  And if there is one thing I love it's well done mythology.

Warning - This review of Fear Street 1994 contains some light spoilers.


    Most people know R.L Stine for his Goosebumps books, but for those a tad older remember his Fear Street Novels.  These were for the slightly more mature, more gory, more bloody knives tearing down. I know I read a handful back in the day, though my memory of the actual plot and details are more vague.   Fear Street was my gateway fiction to get me into Christopher Pike and Steven King.  So watching Fear Street 1994 felt like a weird nostalgic  experience, everything felt familiar -  especially the wearing a T-Shirt under a Baby Doll Dress with Doc Martins while listening to Radio Head 1994 of it all.  Though every thing else felt new - in terms of the mythology, the plot - the mechanics really.  But this is how Director Leigh Janiak gets you into the town of Shadyside.  The Mid Nineties are trappings -   and you are correct I also had the choker that went with the outfit - is the thing to hang the movie on, and the drapery is what I found really interesting.



        Shadyside is the Murder Capital of the United States.  Massacres are just a weekly beneath the fold event.  After one such common tragic occurrence, things in the town are a tad tense to say the least.  And all this anger, fear and resentment are represented in one character: Deena Johnson (Kiana Madeira).  It feels that Deena is fueled by pure anger.  Deena's girlfriend Sam (Olivia Welch) has broken up with her and moved to the less murderous but and far more Heterocentric town of Sunnyvale.  In fact, it is a typical Slasher style prank as well as Deena's anger that kicks off the whole thing.  It is never a great idea to disturb the grave of the Witch  that is cursing your town in the first place.  Because she is set up, already angry and ready to go.  And Fear Street 1994 is an angry movie.

        Behind all the horror and slasher trappings that we all love, the cool masks, the creepy singing girl with a razor blade, there is something really interesting happening underneath the surface Fear Street 1994. It mixes class, sexuality and murder.  Shadyside is a Lower Socioeconomic town, and is filled with, not exactly stereotypes, but kinda stereotypes.  People of colour, lower middle to working class, drug dealers, like Deena's friends  Kate (Kate Schmidt) and Simon (Fred Hechinger) - who know their uppers and downers like true entrepreneurs.  Shadyside is a town is a town left to it's own troubles and low resources.  The town as a whole feels like it's the Less Dead - as in their deaths are not as important as other more normative or socially acceptable communities.  The whole less dead fits in with Sarah Fier (The Witch of Shadyside) and her witchy curse, cause old killers coming back from the Dead to kill again.  It's history repeating and - well they are just less dead than other killers.

        Yes, Deena has a lot to be angry about.  But also, she is a terrible girlfriend.  Deena, while being bolshie, brave, passionate, is also possessive, bullying and controlling and can't and wont let Sam make her own mistakes and acceptance when it comes to her own sexuality.   With all this Deena feels like she is going to be the driving force of the whole Fear Street Trilogy going forward.  And roping Kate and Simon as well as her conspiracy AOL loving brother Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr.) all for one goal that is incredibly personal to herself rather than everyone else around her.  Deena is both annoying and inspiring at the same time, but it is her identity and how she says herself that is the life force of Fear Street.  I have no idea how intentional these themes were, or if the Fear Street creators were pulling what was just in the ether around them, or I was just reading to much into what was meant to be a fun dopey Slasher.  But what ever is happening in Fear Street 1994, it all adds an interesting texture that I responded to.  And now am a little more hyped for the Fear Street 1978 Sequel than I was for this original.









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