Wow! Fear Street pulled off the reverse Conjuring! The first Conjuring was one of the best horror films of the decade, but each successive film of the trilogy have seen the series lose what makes it special. Fear Street, on the other hand, starts with a shaky opening film but builds wonderfully upon itself until its totally exciting, satisfying conclusion. Leigh Janiak should be immensely proud of the feat she pulled off here in 3 consecutive Netflix weeks, renewing my faith in the streaming service and its algorithm’s ability to make something special at least once a subscription payment cycle.
Also, there’s gonna be [SPOILERS] for Fear Street Parts One and Two below, so tread lightly…
Fear Street Part One introduced us to the town of Shadyside Ohio, the murder capital of the world in 1994, plagued by the curse of Sarah Fier, a murdered witch in 1666. Part Two took us back in time to 1978, to the Camp Nightwing massacre to learn more about Sarah Fier’s curse on Shadyside. Part Three, you guessed it, takes us back to 1666, where it all began, with Sarah (Kiana Madeira) going about her simple but happy life in Union (the town wasn’t split back then) with all the characters from the first two Fear Streets playing other parts in the town: the preacher’s daughter (Olivia Scott Welch), a grieving adviser/mentor (Ashley Zukerman), a pair of sisters (Sadie Sink and Emily Rudd), town criers (McCabe Slye and Jeremy Ford) and Sarah’s friends (Fred Hechinger and Julia Rehwald) and family (Benjamin Flores Jr.).
1666’s first hour does a lot of the heavy lifting of making Fear Street’s finale excellent. Now familiar with the town layout and history, we dive headfirst into the central mystery: what the hell happened to drive Sarah Fier to curse her town? Did you catch my use of the word hell? Director Leigh Janiak is clear a fan of The Witch, and puts little homages toward horror movie witch hunts: rotted crops, torch covered nighttime rituals, Puritanical church services, creepy animals, you get the idea. The costuming goes a long way to help with the mystery elements, as each of our actors at times is totally unrecognizable but still there. I was reminded of Cloud Atlas when I was watching, as each character’s reemergence reminds you that even as Shadyside goes forward in time, each resident’s history is trapped in this never ending cycle of desolation, while neighboring Sunnyvale laughs and prospers on the sideline. 1666’s first half snaps all those pieces of the puzzle firmly into place, planting clues where others discover them in previous movies, and culminating in a truly terrifying serial killing and a reveal that legit made me scream out “Holy sh*t!”
And just like that, Bam! We’re in hour 2, with the puzzle fully completed. Now Janiak has to stick the landing with its remaining characters left alive. That final act is a delightfully constructed plan of action for our heroes, as they concoct a pretty well conceived and gloriously poetic finale for the endless villains coming their way. Like all heists/plans, yes, something goes awry, but the conclusion to that part of the tale is filled with wonderful character beats and moments of heroism for character’s we’ve spent 3 movies investing in. That conclusion too, as you start to think about it, is wonderfully subversive and inspiring: an intricately constructed allegory of our times and how to break cycles of behavior.
I tried to be as spoiler free as I could for Fear Street in this review. Though I was vague, I hope you can feel my glee, as I went from lying on the couch to fully sitting up in my seat cheering what was going on as you can feel a trilogy wrapping up on a high note. Bravo Netflix! And I hope this means after the Fear Street success, maybe you’ll dig into RL Stine and remix the Goosebumps universe? I know you can do better than Nickelodeon.