By Patrick Bartlett (Twitter: @alleywaykrew)
Genre films in general had a hell of a time existing in the indie-riffic 90s. Horror especially was in a weird place. In the early 90s, you largely had the last chapters of the slasher titans, the stuff you’d get from the video store that usually varied from “fun bad” to “legitimately unwatchable” bad, and the odd curio here and there. Horror went from possibly the most popular and lucrative genre to essentially banishment. It felt like forever but it was actually only a few years before “Scream” came along. It’s rare to witness a legit seismic shift in genre filmmaking but mixing its good old-fashioned horror show tropes with teen movie character stuff and a bit of whodunnit sprinkled on top… for a hot minute, due to “Scream” and its clones, horror was revitalized. It didn’t last but it made for a really interesting time if you were a fan (and possibly even more interesting when looking back). A lot of people are talking about Netflix’s “Fear Street: 1994” as a throwback to that time of ’90s horror… which I can’t say I completely agree with but I can easily say that it’s definitely an enjoyable piece of work all on its own.
To the uninitiated (which I assume to be many): “Fear Street” is R.L. Stine’s other reasonably big literary franchise. It’s not on the level of “Goosebumps” or anything in terms of success or pop-cultural saturation but it was basically his slightly grown-up version of “Goosebumps”. If your parents were like mine and tried like hell to keep you away from Stephen King novels, you started with “Goosebumps”, maybe worked your way up into “Fear Street” before finally graduating to the King. The feeling you get from Stine’s work is the primary factor that sets “Fear Street: 1994” apart from the ’90s horror it’s attempting to evoke. There’s definitely everything from “I Know What You Did Last Summer” to “Cherry Falls” baked into this film adaptation. There’s also a tongue-in-cheek, almost silly vibe generally exclusive to horror comics that you often get from Stine’s work brought to life here. I’m in no way saying that’s a bad thing. That’s what makes this film (and presumably the subsequent weeks’ chapters) not feel like a throwback to an audience that probably wouldn’t appreciate a movie like that very much anyway. There’s a reason that the “Scream” TV series is generally seen as more successful than “Scream 4”, despite the proximity in the times of their existence. The former was taking the past and building something for youth of now and the latter was nostalgia-baiting those who grew up with the franchise. I’m not saying either approach is wrong necessarily or better but no matter how many visual references to earlier films are dropped right there in front of you or ’90s needle drops are peppered throughout, “Fear Street: 1994” is unquestionably made for a younger audience and it is all the better for it.
The plot is going to be almost impossible to describe without spoilers, so suffice it to say that the film is as much a supernatural horror film as it is a slasher film and mostly revolves around a young girl named Deena, still reeling from a breakup, having to take on an evil that’s been a plague on their town for decades, if not centuries. The slasher aspect comes from the forms the evil takes throughout the story, none of which I will ruin but will say filled me with glee (especially Skull Mask). The cast is at least as good as many of the best casts of any of the horror movies I grew up on. Everyone from Maya Hawke’s opening scene scream queen to the most minor asshole football player is memorable. As a result, “Fear Street: 1994” manages to feel both plot and character driven throughout and that’s in no small part due to this wonderful cast’s performances. I do have to single out Kiana Madeira as Deena and Olivia Scott Welch as Samantha Fraser especially though. The relationship between those characters feels as vital and beautiful and heartbreaking as any I’ve seen in the vast majority of genre cinema and so much of it is just as simple as the looks in their eyes. It’s already stuck with me longer than I might have thought and will likely continue to.
Having talked about the cast, I have to note that I knew basically nothing about the director and co-writer Leigh Janiak before watching this but this film definitely put her on my radar in a big way. The director of a movie called “Fear Street: 1994” could have done substantially less and still probably landed close enough to the target but the fact that Janiak’s approach is almost as much of a teen drama as it is a horror film is what really makes “Fear Street: 1994” worthwhile. When you have characters that you care about, horror inherently works better. It just does. I don’t know any fan of the genre that will tell you anything different. There’s something to be said for the glee of watching Jason Voorhees tear through stupid teens but a lot of the best stuff in the genre (see Carpenter’s “Halloween”) works as well as it does years or even decades later is because of its character work. The sensitivity Janiak brings to her direction of this film gives completely different, not necessarily traditional stakes. I can’t help but care as much about what happens with these people’s relationships as I do about what’s going to happen when they’re being attacked with a sharp object. The fact that she’s able to do something like her own almost pitch-perfect take on a Scream opening scene is just the (admittedly super-rich) gravy.
I’m not going to lie. I was a bit skeptical checking this film out… or I guess at the very least, you could say I was cautiously optimistic. Having said that, I can’t say that I was not impressed. Taking YA horror into an R-rated place really could have gone either way. Doing it on Netflix, home of the more than occasional throwing everything AND the kitchen sink into stuff on their platform maybe should have gone another way. Anecdotal evidence might even suggest that was likely. Having said that, I guess we’ll have to see how the rest of this weekly trilogy plays out but I’m undeniably excited. Hopefully, everything works as well as this opening chapter. If the other 2 incoming chapters are anywhere near as good of a time as this was, I’d be more than happy to hope that I see a resurgence of films like this. Every type of horror has its place and can be fun in its own right but there’s nothing quite like the kind of fun inherent in a film like this. It’s not for everyone but I can’t imagine anyone into genre cinema not being completely satisfied by “Fear Street: 1994”.
To find out where this film is available to stream, click here: Just Watch