Premise: A group of teens fight against the curse of a witch that they accidentally disturbed.
I don't know where to begin with this movie. It's the first of a three-part series*. The original plan was to release it in theaters in summer 2020. That was COVID delayed obviously, and in the process the production company changed their distribution agreement from 20th Century to Netflix. That's how it ended up there. I'm a little confused by that, because I thought changes in distribution like that tend to kick in for new projects, not right away: like how Dark Phoenix was still a Fox release even though it was owner by Disney at the time. Anyway, it's wild to think about this as a theatrical release. What was the plan for the trilogy? Release one in three consecutive weeks like Netflix is doing? Leave a month in between? Surely, they wouldn't make them annual. It also just feels very Netflix-y. Maya Hawke is briefly in this one. Sadie Sink is in later installments. It has a retro-period setting. It all has the feel of a project Netflix greenlit due to the success of Stranger Things.
*I've only seen the first movie as of writing this even though it'll be posted a little while after all three have been released.
Immediately, I appreciated that this doesn't play by the MPAA-mandated rules. I'm used to the idea that a movie based on an R.L. Stine book series and with this kind of simplistic mythology would be watered down to PG-13, since the target audience is largely teens. Instead, this movie is very violent with a lot of swearing. It's a pretty hard R, realizing that the young ones will find it anyway. Good for them. The MPAA is dumb. I do wonder if this would've remained R-rated had it gone to theaters, so this was a very welcome surprise.
It's a little hard to judge the movie on its own, since it is very clearly part of a series. The young cast is pretty good. They opted for a lot of newcomers and lesser-knowns. Maya Hawke is the only person I can identify by name until you get very far down the call sheet. They aren't all that believable as high schoolers, but they fit in the movie. I'm very curious to see how the series connects the installments despite them going back in time. I imagine 1978 will feature the surviving characters from 1994 in some way. Perhaps it'll be the survivor (Gillian Jacobs, I'm assuming) recounting her story.
The movie does a decent job capturing the mid-90s. The soundtrack is more pan-90s than 1994. The needle drops work for the feel of the movie, even if the songs all weren't actually out in 1994*. The movie references the 90s without being obnoxious about it.
*Correct me if I'm wrong about that. I really don't think all those songs were out yet, right?
Really fun start. I'm curious if this will encourage more experimentation in this Sherlock-style TV show/movie hybrid format.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
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