Fear Street Part 1: 1994 (2021)

 

Ruby Lane

Simon grapples with Ruby Lane

Josh explains to Simon and Kate the legend of Sarah Fier

Kate wants to understand why Sarah's minions pursue them

Sarah's blood landed on the bones of Sarah

The gang try to rebury Sarah's bones, hoping this will appease her spirit

Tommy Slater appears as one of Sarah's emerging minions

The gang hopes their efforts in blowing up the minions are successful

Sarah Fier, the witch never allowing Shadyside to be rid of her, sends Tommy Slater's potato sack killer, Ruby Lane (with mark on her face), and Ryan Torres (responsible for killing Heather, the employee of the book store in the mall during closing hours) in a Skullface mask after Samantha, a cheerleader from Sunnyvale, who once attended the school of her ex-girlfriend, Deena. Deena has been reeling from the breakup, the one who initiated it out of anger for Samantha's parents leaving for the "better town", a privileged, prosperous, seemingly idyllic community thriving while Shadyside has shuttered stores, lots of crime and poverty, and misery.

I did enjoy Fear Street: Part One - 1994, but even I have to admit that this was a bit overlong. The thing about Netflix films and series is they do seem to have quite a substantial financial windfall (how much before the debt catches up to them could be even scarier than witch Sarah Fier), so these RL Stine series don't have to get everything in three films. You can craft 90 minute movies and go wherever you want, so why not be less mammoth and more lean? I have always felt horror films, for the most part, are better when they are shorter. I just could feel the length of FS: Part 1, even as I found plenty of entertainment. I think those involved in the series were ambitious in that they wanted to get as much story in as humanly possible. There is one monologue from Josh (Benjamin Flores, Jr.) where he covers A LOT of ground, with plenty of news clips (with director Janiak making sure to feature actual snippets from these timelines) pulled from his wall pin-up board) to show his sister, Deena (Kiana Maidera), Julia (Josh's crush, played by the snappy Julia Rehwald), recovering-from-injury Sam (Olivia Scott Welch, Deena's on-again/off-again girlfriend, who ends up going to a different rival school and becoming involved with a football player), and Julia's pill-popping buddy, Simon (Fred Hechinger), proving that the witch, Sarah Fier, has been causing plenty of non-violent people to just go berserk, killing innocent victims savagely and horribly. Ruby Lane is mentioned by Josh, the daughter of the nurse, Mary Lane (Jordana Spiro), who attempted to eliminate Tommy Slater in the 1978 Fear Street. Watching the 1978 timeline first was an intriguing choice on my part, but I'm actually glad I did go that route. It makes for a different kind of experience, I think, than if I had started with 1994 first and then watched 1978.

Seeing Ruby Lane and Tommy Slater emerge in 1994 after watching 1978 first altered the perspective I would have had if I did the reverse. I'm that horror fan who might frustrate those who just have to watch certain films and series immediately upon release. I still haven't watched "St. Maud" or "The Empty Man" yet. I'm more of a "mood horror fan". I watch films depending on what I'm in the mood for. And I was in the mood for a retro camp slasher, so the second Fear Street was the preferred starting place for this Netflix RL Stine series of films.

Sam and Deena try to explain to the sheriff

Ryan Torres in Skull mask awaits

Shadyside gets a nickname

Sarah Fier has a rhyme. 

The opening stalk and stab in the mall

This film really cares about the emotional roller coaster of the relationship between Deena and Samantha. When Deena sees the new boyfriend, the jock with the letterman jacket, squeezing Samantha's ass, you can just imagine the smoke blowing out of her ears figuratively. That longing you see ALL THROUGHOUT the film is palpable. It's clear Samantha is with that guy only because she is trying to fit in. She has that mom who clearly wants Deena (even Sam calls her "chaos") completely out of Samantha's life. But Deena and Samantha, after such a tumultuous, terror-packed night, go through too much to deny how they feel about each other.

There is mythology that confuses me. Blood from Sam on the bones of Sarah ignites past possessed killers to pursue her or anyone with Sam's blood on them. But why Sarah selects certain people to just kill folks with no blood from her on them remains rather bewildering. Granted, I haven't seen the 1666 film yet, so that could change. There seems to be random picks by Sarah just killing for the sake of killing due to what happened to her back when she was alive. But in this particular 1994 film, the mythos brought to us by Josh gives us broad strokes without the finer details. Again, I'll probably feel differently once 1666 clears the muddy waters.

That opening mall sequence -- and the score doesn't even try to hide it -- is all about "Scream". It has been said plenty of times, but seeing it myself, "Scream" just screams out (pardon the pun) loud. Still, I enjoyed the nod. "Scream" has its fans and haters. I'm on the fan side. The entirety of the music score feels like such a homage to "Scream". All those panic beats and "wait on it, just waaaaaaaiiiiit on it" build-up of suspense has such a late 90s/early 2000s slasher vibe.

Josh, I want to say, is an autist. I have two teenage kids who are autistic, and he has some of the traits. And Simon calls him Rain Man, so I'm guessing that is a hint to that. He's a good kid who obsesses about the witch, with lots of clippings and historical texts about Sarah Fier. I still look forward to 1666 to help clarify the finer details. The film uses Josh as the exposition professor, and Kate is established as a crush he sees in the high school, longingly gazing at her as she passes in slow motion. When she makes out with him in the high school bathroom and kisses him in the grocery store -- I wonder if this was a homage to "Intruder", a film I just watched Friday night -- the film at least allows Josh to get that moment before poor Kate's head is pressed into a bread slicer (OUCH!). Compared to Kate, Simon getting the ax to the head and off easier. He just goes down in a heap while she's begging and screaming as her head is pressed right into the bread slicer...that certainly had "Intruder" vibes to me. That was probably the big kill most fans of the film will reference in the future when this series is declared by a potential cult following as their "Friday the 13th" or "Scream". And I do believe these Fear Street films will have their fandom...I really do.

So you have the loss of friends, Sam dying (as Ziggy did in 1978) and being resurrected (drowned and epi-penned), the minions of Sarah disappearing, and Sarah still possessing Sam. All of this comes to pass and Ziggy calls up Deena to tell her that Sarah won't be stopped. The missing hand of Sarah is briefly brought up by Josh when the team was trying to determine how to stop the witch...so this will have greater significance in the two other films in the series.

Okay, so you have plenty of slasher tropes accounted for. Locations like the grocery store, high school, hospital, and woods all get some love. Three supernatural killers -- resurrected corpses Sarah uses to wield weapons against anyone with Samantha's blood on them -- jazzied for effect (Janiak knows how to shoot killers in stylistic compositions and her crew really understand the fundamentals on getting the most out of the pursuit and how they look from a distance (and up close)), with axes, butcher knives, and straight-razors. Big setpieces where our heroes get the best of the minions only for them to return for more...seeing a bathroom decimated by an explosion with the three killers in all the bits and pieces (just mush) "re-organized" is quite impressive and absurdly hilarious. It is that "The Thing" moment of "You gotta be fuckin' kidding me".

This definitely seemed to be the divisive entry in the series. I have noticed plenty of good response, and a lot of negative reaction. You can see both sides, too. I'm right in the middle. I could watch this again, quite frankly. I really like Madeira and Flores, Jr. The lesbian love story, with all its hills and valleys during the running time, has really committed young actresses giving it their very best. This is a driving emotional force throughout the entire film. It is the center. 3/5