Premise: A throwback slasher movie tied to a larger tale about a town cursed by a witch.
I said this with the first movie, but I think this series is such a cool idea. It's not an original idea. For decades, networks had TV movie series with recurring characters. That's what Fear Street is. It's just at a bigger scale. I feel cheated of the original plan of releasing these to theaters in June 2020 (I imagine still in the weekly format). That just isn't something you see in theaters ever. It's a clever idea though. Make the movies for cheap, with familiar yet inexpensive younger actors. Horror is notoriously frontloaded, so a decent opening week could cover the production cost. I'm a fan of any idea that incentivizes major studios to invest in anything other than $100 million blockbusters*.
*I love me an expensive blockbuster, but I also love variety.
Still, releasing in successive weeks on Netflix does make more sense at the end of the day. It's a way to circumvent the "Netflix churn" problem. Netflix made full season drops their staple with Arrested Development and House of Cards years ago. Lately though, with the amount of content they produce, shows are disappearing from the zeitgeist after a weekend. Meanwhile, HBOMax and Disney+ are dominating the conversation by sticking to weekly releases for their biggest shows. With Fear Street, Netflix can release one movie a week to spread out the attention without it looking like a retreat from the strategy they built their brand on.
None of this would be any fun to discuss if I didn't so thoroughly enjoy the movies too. These movies are really fun experiments with different horror styles. 1994 was an I Know What You Did Last Summer-style slasher. 1978 is more in the Friday the 13th mold*. And it's a lot of fun. Sadie Sink is a great final girl. I only even recognized 2 other people in the 1978 portion: an unrecognizable Ryan Simpkins and barely even a cameo for Jordana Spiro. The rest of the cast was unknown to me, which is always fun for a slasher. If everyone is anonymous then no one is safe.
*It's fun to note that the years of these movies both predate the type of movies they are pulling from. I wonder if that's intentional. Like, "we need to set Part 2 before there was a Friday the 13th so the characters don't know to reference it"?
What remains my favorite thing about these movies is that everything about the setup and tone of these makes me think this is for younger audiences but that doesn't mean it plays nice. Preteens are straight-up murdered in this movie. There's swearing and sex. The kills are brutal in that cartoonishly excessive way. I don't fully understand who these movies are supposed to be for and that's weirdly thrilling.
I worry a little bit about this third installment. What kind of vibe is 1666 going for? I'd love if it's the A24 horror style of The Witch, but I don't know if this series can handle that kind of tone. I'm not used to seeing slashers in this much of a period setting. There's thrilling potential here.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
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