Fear Street: Part One, 1994

8/10

Nowadays, R.L. Stine's name is synonymous with the children's horror series Goosebumps, which has been a dominant force in the industry for some decades. Though this is Stine's biggest hit, this isn't his first success. Before Goosebumps, he wrote the teen-focused horror series Fear Street. Though it didn't have the literary longevity of Goosebumps, FS was big during the nineties. Given Stine's fame after Goosebumps, I'm actually surprised it's taken this long for television or film to capitalize on his other brand.

Fear Street Part One on Netflix, is an interesting venture. It's the first in a film trilogy whose installments are all released in the same month. The format kind of makes sense considering that Fear Street would occasionally have trilogy subseries. In the movie, Deena (played by Kiana Madeira) is a teen in the town of Shadyside who runs afoul of the deadly curse that plagues it.

This movie goes for sort of a classic 80's/90's horror feel and I rather like it. For fans of horror violence, there are a couple of truly violent kills, including one particularly creative one. 

I was rather satisfied with the killer or killers. (I'll keep things vague since the trailer doesn't say much.)

On the other hand, the movie suffers from too much teen drama. I just feel that movies are overdoing it on the youths having hard times. I'm here to watch people run away from murderers. That's what I want. Plus, the movie suffers from a rival school that is super mean for absolutely no reason. Shadyside is supposed to be the "loser/ill-fated" town, and the movie leans on people mentioning this way too hard. Luckily, the worst of this in only the setup. The self-loathing subsides once the real threat starts.

All the actors playing the teens are of legal age, but are mostly pretty young and could pass for actual high schoolers. Their appearance makes things uncomfortable. The movie does not shy away from sexuality and the stripping of clothing. It looks like the underage are doing these acts.

The score has an old-school and overtly-dramatic score. Feels a little dated, but the music is strong.

Can't say this is the most memorable slasher ever made, but it's nice to have one of these these days and makes for a fine time waster.