Fear Street: Part One - 1994

I wanted to like the film. The girls are beautiful, it's an R. Stine R rated adaptation, it's a trilogy. I really wanted to be entertained for five hours. However the film just felt... dumb. I couldn't take another "stupid kids in the 90s" story, I couldn't care less about the rivalry between the two neighboring towns, but at least I expected something terrifying or fantastic or interesting or intelligent. Instead I watch half a movie as people dressed in a death costume stalk people, stab them out of nowhere, while said people believe it's a joke or someone they have some beef with fooling around. Because, get this, the town is called Murder Capital USA by the media, but NO ONE expects to be murdered and there is only one sheriff for the entire town. No, it was too stupid and the prospect of watching not only the other half of the movie, but two more that do the same thing, was too painful to contemplate.

Bottom line: perhaps other people might enjoy it. I found it boring and anachronistic, mixing 1990 dumbassery with modern LGBTQ ideas, because why not, but otherwise being nor scary nor funny.

I looked up the books and they are almost uniformly 4/5 stars, although they seem to have twists and a clear history of why the people in that area behave the way they do and so on. Perhaps reading the books it's a better idea.

Starts pretty well the first 35-minutes or so, then goes off the rails of teeny booper horror generic romantic non sense and boredom. The movie really drags the 2nd half and offers nothing more than a queer love story and teens running from killers thinking they can get away or outsmart whoever...with the typical incompetent Sheriff doing nothing useful.

If you thought you were going to enjoy this film (part I)... Like me, you'd be right...!

Scream, Urban Legend and the like, all play their roles in this film... and you gotta love that. You must know that it's hard to live up to these types of films that shaped the genre, especially in the 89s and 90s... Just enjoy it for what it is...

The set design and colour grading will remind you of Stranger Things, no problem there, and the writing is taken from a Goosebumps story, adapted to suit the intended outcome. Even though it's only part I, I'm really looking forward to it being ready as a full trilogy from the outset. It's rated R due to the gore, but definitely has a more PG-13 type of feel to it, and not as intense as the 90's features previously mentioned. The reason being, it's just not really funny enough or scary enough... It needed to be both or focus on one or the other, that's why we will find it's rating no higher than 6/10...

The actors are well cast and you will recognise some of them from other teen-comedy-dramas on Netflix. It's good to see them in these roles paying homage to the slasher flick's of yesteryear... The Shadyside and Sunnyville town names were great, and reminded me of the Shellbyville / Springfield rivalry from the Simpson's. The 90's music, products, and early internet usage were fun to watch. The story moves at a good pace and will keep you entertained, of course the main and ultimate goal...!

Watch and enjoy...

This movie was entertaining. Nothing exceptional, but a good bit of fun. Don't go into it expecting a masterpiece and you will probably have a good time.

I didn't read the Fear Street books growing up, although I did read Goosebumps. Considering this was an R rated adaptation, I was cautiously optimistic.

I loved the opening scene. It felt like a nice call back to Scream. It wasn't nearly as iconic, but it did enough right to set my expectations high. Then the plot starts developing, and it goes downhill fast.

The characters are mostly annoying. I could argue I mildly liked two of them, but that's it. The protagonist is incredibly self absorbed, and treats her ex horribly. We've got the nerdy kid who knows literally everything. The comic relief who has maybe two lines in the movie that aren't jokes. Etc.

Then there's the tone. The best way I could describe it is the kid friendly feel of the Goosebumps movie mixed with a slasher film. Anytime someone isn't being murdered, it's really light in tone and kinda jarring. The profanity and innuendos are present during these scenes, but they still feel very kiddish, for lack of a better word. The closest example I could think of for a movie like this is "Summer of '84", but that wasn't nearly as light, and it was far more consistent.

The 90's music, while good, is heavily overused. The early parts of the film feel like someone turned on a malfunctioning jukebox that switches songs every ten seconds. Sometimes less is more.

The horror scenes are actually really good. The opening scene and climax are my favorites, but I enjoyed the rest as well. If the entire film was as good as the horror, I'd honestly consider giving this a 9/10, but I kept getting taken out of the film when there was downtime. There was very little tension or decent drama, just an overly quick pace with humor and exposition to bridge the scares.

It's on Netflix, so if you're interested I guess it's worth a shot. I'm disappointed, as it could've been an absolute classic, but if it sounds like your kinda thing you might like it.