Rating: 3.5/5
Hooptober 8.0 | 26/34 | Person of color lead 2/3
The sequel starts where the previous movie ended, so
** SPOILERS FOR FEAR STREET 1994 AND 1978 ARE INEVITABLE. DO NOT READ AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED IT ** I WILL NOT SPOIL 1666 ***
You do not summon the devil by chance. You must make a choice.
After uniting the hand with the body, Deena sees Sarah Fier’s story from Sarah’s point of view. The movie shifts characters from the 1994 story to the 1666 story.
Sarah helps a hog give birth. Her father is proud and expects good things for her — like marrying Solomon Goode.
Sarah relays a message to her friends for a gathering that evening.
Sarah and a couple of others meet an exiled woman, Widow Mary. She has berries with euphoric qualities. Unverified stories of witchcraft surround her.
They go to Widow Mary’s hut, but she isn’t there. A crow stands near a box. Inside, a book with the witch’s mark. Inside, spells and incantations that call on Satan and his demons.
Mary stops her and warns her that the devil lives in the book — that he is calling out to Sarah and that she best be careful.
They bring the berries to the gathering and eat them. Sarah and Hannah sneak off to have sex. A rustling in the woods — Mad Thomas spotted them.
The following morning. Hannah’s father is behaving strangely. As though possessed. Sarah goes to Hannah’s to help, but Hannah’s mother catches them together. She forces Sarah out of the house.
God knows what you are.
The entire village hears. Now, Sarah’s father is distant. All the food in the community is rotten and full of bugs. The mother pig has eaten all of her children.
The pastor Cyrus locks the children in the church with him. He ripped out both his eyes and the children’s. Solomon kills Cyrus, but the town does not believe it is him alone.
The town suspects witchcraft.
This movie brings everything to a satisfying conclusion. They did the groundwork, and the payoff was satisfying.
Putting the actors we know in the 1666 roles, the culmination of everything has more impact — it feels like it acknowledges the through-line of the town’s history.
At times, the vamping felt a little Stranger Things-ish, but not that bad.
Alas, no 17th-century needle drops. But some Pixies, which I dig.
** SPOILER TALK **
- The movie looks at scapegoats — how people in power blame minorities and the dispossessed for societal problems while they maintain the hegemony that keeps them in power.
- The Super Soaker that makes the authentic gun cock sound is funny.
- Wouldn’t they also need to kill Goode’s brother?
- They left the fucking witchcraft book! Someone snags it in the credits sequence.