Fear Street: 1994 (2021)

26 Jan 2024

Rating: 3.5/5

Hooptober 8.0 | 25/34 | Person of color lead 1/3

She reaches from beyond the grave To make good men her wicked slaves She’ll take your blood, she’ll take your head! She’ll follow you until you’re DEAD!

Heather Watkins (Maya Hawke) works at B. Dalton’s, a bookstore in Shadyside Mall. The store closes, and she meets Ryan, an acquaintance who works in another store in the mall.

Before they can leave, she has some last duties to attend to. Someone in a skull mask sneaks up on her and tries to stab her. She runs to find Ryan in his store, starting a call to 911 on the store phone. But the killer catches up with her and stabs her. As Heather gropes out, she pulls off the killer’s mask. It’s Ryan.

Nick Goode, the town sheriff, arrives and shoots Ryan in the head. It’s too late for Heather.

This is the story of two towns: Sunnyvale and Shadyside. While Sunnyvale has had no violent crimes in 30 years, Shadyside has a long history of brutal murders. Newspapers refer to Shadyside as Killer Capital USA.

Deena Johnson (Kiana Madeira) tries to write a note to Sam. Sam, Deena’s ex-girlfriend, moved to Sunnyvale and remains closeted, leaving Deena feeling abandoned and alone.

Her brother, Josh, spends time on AIM (which didn’t exist until 1997, but whatever), researching other Shadyside killers in the town’s history. He believes a witch named Sarah Fier regularly possesses a resident to take revenge.

Deena is not on board with the “witch” theory. Her friends Simon and Kate are glib about the whole thing, thinking it’s all fun.

Everything comes to a head when, after a nasty fight between football rivals, the Shadyside Witches and the Sunnyvale Devils, teens from Sunnyvale follow the Witches’ school bus in their convertible and throw trash at the bus. Deena, seeing Sam in the passenger’s seat, becomes enraged. She asks Kate to help her grab the Gatorade cooler as they open the back of the bus.

Just before they throw it, Kate points out Deena’s bleeding nose. The cooler still fumbles from the back, colliding with the convertible, causing it to careen off the road.

The bus pulls over to the side of the road. Sam climbs out of the car, her nose bleeding like Deena’s. She has a vision — a kaleidoscope of images surrounding the witch — before Deena and her friends run up to help.

The film explores performative grief amid recurring tragedy, where teenagers are killing other teenagers, and the only solution seems to be candlelight vigils and prayers.

It also explores how lower-income neighborhoods receive substantially less support and how they blame the residents for the resulting conditions instead of the underfunded systems. Several Shadyside teens have to work double shifts, and others resort to drug dealing to have money to get by.

There’s a scene where a bunch of white people are sitting around watching Unsolved Mysteries while a guy in a skull mask chases the teens. It’s not subtle, but it doesn’t need to be.

The movie touches a little on the “doomed” generation mentality, which was especially prevalent in the 90s for queer kids (see the monumental 90s film The Doomed Generation). These issues still exist today, as most of us feel we have no future.

Another Shadyside tragedy. An underprivileged overachiever with bright prospects.

The gore is not pervasive, but when it shows up, it’s fucking brutal.

The movie also has its fair share of tropes and cliches. Its mythos is fun, though, and the buildup is enough to make the other two movies compelling prospects.

** ASIDE **

This film cheats by playing some killer (no pun intended [or was it??]) 90s jams. Like AIM, several of these songs came out after 1994. BUT WHATEVER.

See Review on Letterboxd