Delayed Reaction: Fear Street Part 3: 1666

Premise: The gang takes a trip back to the curse that started it all.

 

That was an entertaining conclusion. As a whole, this trilogy was everything I hoped it would be. Not perfect, but very entertaining. Part 3 is a bit of a mixed bag. The 1666 stuff is OK. The movie obviously doesn't have a huge budget, so those scenes look a lot like they just rented out a Colonial Williamsburg for a week to film it. All the costumes seem starched, like they've never been worn before. The actors can't decide what a 1666 Ohio accent should sound like. It's somewhere between Mennonite and Irish, apparently. You kind of have to go with it though. I didn't sign up for perfect production design. The story of the curse is reasonably satisfying and gives context to the first two installment. That's enough.

 

I enjoyed the latter half when they go back to 1994 with fewer reservations. I'm a sucker for a good mall showdown (even if it invites even more Stranger Things comparisons). The stuff with trapping the killers in the stores and using blood-filled Super Soakers to lure them is clever.

 

Side Rant: I have serious questions about this town's building philosophies. Both the camp and the mall build on a known cave structure and even use that for their outhouse and ventilation respectively. It's a dumb detail to get fixated on, but did no one during the construction decide to check that cave out? And, I know nothing about buildings, but that cave system seems pretty shallow. Is it safe to build a giant structure like a mall on that? Is the foundation strong enough? And what's with leaving a tree alive as the mall centerpiece. I've seen that before with malls, and it's always seemed like an awful idea.

 

I do feel a little cheated about the Nick reveal. Part 2 doesn't hint at all that he's really the bad guy, so this felt like an abrupt heel turn. I wish there was a little more in Part 2 to make me suspicious of him. Because, even when they go to flashbacks after the reveal, those scenes don't show much to make me suspect.

 

The credits tag hints at them wanting to do more of these movies. I would love for this to be an ongoing thing. It fills a really underserved niche. It's an R movie that's geared toward teens and nostalgic. It has shades of anthology but distinctly not in the Ryan Murphy American Horror Story tone. I'd love a few of these movies every couple years with a new or repertory cast.

 

Verdict: Strongly Recommend