Fear Street. Part One. 1994 Quick Review.

Here we have Netflix’s big-ticket item for the summer. A horror trilogy based on novels from RL Stein set over 300 years and released over consecutive July weeks. It’s an ambitious undertaking. Whether it works is an entirely different endeavour. It’s worth saying that as of writing this reviewer has only seen the first entry. The sequels have no bearing on his opinions. How does this film fair as a stand-alone starter?
It would be very easy to be sniffy at a film like this. Plenty of people already have. This viewer would argue that for what the film sets out to do it’s mostly pretty effective. A solidly engaging teen slasher movie. Some good kills and broad mythology elements as the connective tissue between this film and its sequels. Initially, it would be safe to assume the film is going for the Stranger Things crowd with its neon-drenched colour palette and cast crossover in both series. It came as something of a surprise to start watching and discover the film was decidedly very hard R in terms of its rating. Various horror staples come to terrorise our central group of teenagers in several solid set pieces. All set to a Spotify playlist of classic 90s tracks The script doesn’t offer a great deal beyond genre cliches But this is not unexpected for a slasher film. There is just enough groundwork laid in terms of the connective tissue for this viewer to have an interest in checking out the sequels. The cliffhanger ending might seem irritating to some There is certainly enough merit in this first entry to warrant coverage for the sequels.
The first part of Netflix’s is Fear Street is an engaging and entertainingly gory slice of teen slasher horror. There is just enough initial mythology set up to make the sequels an intriguing prospect. The script may be somewhat generic but a certain amount of this can be put down to genre expectations. Ultimately there is an art to simply executing the basics. The first part of this trilogy it’s very much an advertisement for that fact. Look out for coverage and reviews of the sequels coming soon.
Part 1 Rating. 7/10.