Rating of
3/4
This Modern Teen Slasher Is a Real Scream
Chris Kavan - wrote on 07/06/21
Fear Street doesn't reinvent the wheel when it comes to the teen slasher genre, but it does give it a nice, modern polish and keeps plenty of gore but also leaves a good impression.
It turns out, if your town is named Shadyside, perhaps there is something dark lurking under the surface. The opening scene (which is a direct homage to Scream, natch), set in a mall and quickly turning up the 90s-era soundtrack (NIN FTW!) leaves no doubt there are going to be a lot of bodies piling up here. Then we get introduced to our main cast - Deena (Kiana Madeira) the, loner who doesn't fit in and happens to be a lesbian who has broken up with Samantha Fraser (Olivia Scott Welch) who has recently moved to Sunnyvale - the affluent and complete opposite of Shadyside. Not only has she moved, but even has a new boyfriend and a football player wouldn't you know. Meanwhile, Deena's brother, Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr.) spends his time on AOL (remember that - if you do you'll feel old just like me!) chat rooms discussing the curse of the one-armed with, Sarah Frier, whose curse seems to be the cause of several gruesome murders over the years and the mall massacre is just the latest in a long line. Finally we have Kate (Julia Rehwald), local pill mill drug dealer and who Josh has a major crush on and Simon (Fred Hechinger), Kate's partner in crime and the comic relief in the group.
After a tense meeting between the Shadyside and Sunnyvale football teams that, of course, winds up in a fight, Sam and her boyfriend decide to follow the bus, antagonizing the Shadysiders and Deena has her revenge which, unfortunately, winds up in a car accident and Sam, unknowingly, becomes the focus of the witch.
The film then brings out some of the greatest hits killers - not just our mall skull guy, but a twisted babysitter who killed her friends (Charlene Amoia) and a hooded killer responsible for a camp massacre back in 1978 (and the subject of the next Fear Street film). And, we soon learn, the killers are drawn to Sam - or anyone who happens to have her blood on them. Also, the killers seem to be pretty much unkillable themselves - like Jason - leading to some pretty clever set-ups and twists along the way.
The reason Fear Street works so well is that is has a great lore to it - that will be explored in the next two films in the trilogy - and actually gives some depth to our characters. Oh, and it really doesn't skimp out on the gore - wait for the death scenes at the end and tell me they aren't some of the best death scenes - well, in this genre anyway. The film is smart, fun and has a kick-ass soundtrack (despite a few anachronisms) and if you like the slasher genre, it's one of the best to come along in quite awhile. I, for one, can't wait to see what the next two bring to the table.
