Author R.L. Stine is perhaps best known for his Goosebumps series of lighthearted, monster-centered horror novels for kids, which began in 1992 and have sold hundreds of millions of copies. But he also launched another bestselling horror-novel series for teens three years before: Fear Street, which has moved tens of millions of copies in its own right. Its tales are all set in the fictional town of Shadyside, and although their plots sometimes involve witches or ghosts, they also include plenty of ordinary human killers. Now Netflix is rolling out a series of three movies, loosely based on the book series, beginning July 2 with Fear Street Part One: 1994.
As the title indicates, the first film takes place in the ’90s, and director/co-writer Leigh Janiak drives this point home by somewhat excessively loading up the soundtrack with classic songs from the era—the movie’s first 20 minutes, for instance, feature Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer,” Bush’s “Machinehead,” Portishead’s “Sour Times,” Cypress Hill’s “Insane in the Brain,” and Sophie B. Hawkins’ “Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover,” among other tunes. But this film isn’t a nostalgia trip, like Netflix’s ’80s-worshipping SF/horror series Stranger Things; its references are, for the most part, subtler and more entertaining.
It opens at a B. Dalton (!) bookstore at Shadyside Mall, where a cashier—played by Stranger Things’ Maya Hawke—is ringing up her last customer of the night: a middle aged woman buying a copy of The Wrong Number, a teen horror novel by Robert Lawrence. “Fantastic choice,” says the cashier. “I love this one.” “It’s trash,” responds the customer. “Lowbrow horror. It’s for my stepdaughter.” (The Wrong Number is, of course, an actual Fear Street book by Robert Lawrence Stine; other series entries, including The Sleepwalker, The Surprise Party, and The First Evil, appear on B. Dalton’s shelves, as well.) The cashier closes up the store, and it isn’t long before a butcher knife–wielding killer in a skull mask is chasing her through the darkened mall. It’s probably no accident that the killer bears a strong resemblance to the slasher in the 1996 horror classic Scream; Janiak previously directed two episodes of Scream: The Series. (Her first film, released in 2014, was the well-regarded cabin-in-the-woods horror feature Honeymoon.)
It turns out that there have been many terrible murders in Shadyside over the years—including a series of killings at local Camp Nightwing in 1978—and some people believe that they’re connected to a witch’s curse from the 17th century. The camp killings appear to draw on the storyline of Stine’s 1991 Fear Street novel Lights Out, and the witch plot has its roots in the series’ Fear Street Saga trilogy, which tells a tale of Salem-like persecution; they’ll be covered in the upcoming Fear Street films, with Part Two premiering on July 9 and Part Three on July 16.
In Part One, the cast is made up of the sorts of characters who populate the background of other horror movies. Its protagonist, Deena (wonderfully played by Trinkets’ Kiana Madeira), a member of the high school band, doesn’t believe in the witch legend; she has other things on her mind: specifically, her recent breakup with her cheerleader girlfriend, Sam (Panic’s Olivia Scott Welch), who moved to the neighboring, Stepford-like town of Sunnyvale and started dating a jerk football player. But Deena’s awkward younger brother, Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr.), not only believes in the curse, he’s researched it at the local library—and on America Online. After more people die, Deena, Sam, Josh, and their friends—drug-dealing cheerleader Kate (Julia Rehwald) and quirky rebel Simon (News of the World’s Fred Hechinger)—become determined to solve the twisted mystery before more Shadysiders are slaughtered.
Janiak follows Elmore Leonard’s famous dictum about leaving out the parts that people skip: The final two-thirds of this movie is basically a long, breakneck chase, and the horror is as gory as can be—the film comes by its R rating honestly. (This is in keeping with the book series, by the way, which has also gotten more violent in recent years.) Viewers looking for hushed, creepy suspense should look elsewhere, but hardcore horror fans will love its Grand Guignol intensity—especially the ultimate showdown in an empty supermarket. A final scene ups the ante for the next film, which promises Friday the 13th references galore as the tale delves further into Shadyside’s grim past.
The cast is all top-notch. Madeira, who was a highlight of the underseen but excellent 2019 horror flick She Never Died, has a star turn here as the tough-minded Deena; Rehwald, in her first feature, is a snarky delight; Flores and Hechinger not only bring welcome comic relief but also poignantly portray their characters’ courage when the chips are down. Fans of Stine’s work will find this film a fine tribute to the author’s impressive horror-genre legacy—as well as a hell of a good time.
David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.
