Fear Street trilogy

This July, Netflix is releasing a film based on the Fear Street books every week(three movies, three weeks") from July 12nd to the 19th.

Quoth Jovial Bob:

Trailer:

Same title treatment. Nice touch.

Which one is it based on?

Cheerleaders ?

It sounds like it's based on Lights Out, Fear Street Sagas, The Cataluna Chronicles... or has elements of them, at least. It doesn't necessarily sound like it's any one book or subseries in particular(although if a killer car sneaks in there briefly, I'll appreciate it).

It looks like each movie is set in a different time period, 1994, 1978 and then 1996, with possible crossover potential as well.

I watched the first and thought it was very good. I'd say it feels more like "Goosebumps for adults" than it does most of the Fear Street novels, but the title is earned.

I wish it had been a theatrical release just to hear audiences react to the scene with the bread-slicer.

Been excited for this.

Girl I went to high school and did drama with is in this. Or, she was when it was at FOX. I think she still is.

No idea which part of the series though. But still, good for her.

Did anyone else find the "twist" of Sam being a girl to be pretty trite by today's standards? Also the Deaths at the end seemed rushed.

I think putting the last two kills that close to the end, and making them that gory, helped them be more shocking.

As for that reveal, I didn't even register that it was meant to surprising until I saw a straight get mad at being "baited" and somebody queer who was delighted at the same.

Reminds me... I haven't decided whether this is a complaint or an observation, but this movie has an extremely rosy depiction of being gay in 1994, a year which I recall it was not just accepted but frequently hilarious to be a raging homophobic bigot. I don't think it really bothers me given that this isn't (and doesn't seem to be trying to be) a realistic depiction of the era, but it was a little distracting anyway.

Here's a trailer for Part Two that has a Late-Arrival Spoiler or two, so... SPOILER WARNING.

Edited by Prowler on Jul 5th 2021 at 9:26:54 AM

The Shadysiders are pretty much the only ones who seem ok with Deena being queer, and even that is really just her close circle of friends and family, none of whom are shown to be the norm.

Them being ok with it and the affluent Sunnyvalers not being ok with it is just the movie's not at all subtle way of letting us know who is cool and who sucks.

Which, given queer couples in horror are frequently played for laughs, or worse (I just saw a movie that came out this year do that-which would have been jarring, but everyone in the movie was skewered so it evened out), I think was deliberate. In a movie made in 1994, Deena and Sam would have a scene where they make-out together and would then be killed off about 20 minutes in, especially given that Deena is a person of color.

>(I just saw a movie that came out this year do that-which would have been jarring, but everyone in the movie was skewered so it evened out)

which film?

It sounds like Werewolves Within.

I didn't like Part 2 of this trilogy very much. Horror prequels are a dubious proposition to begin with and none of the problems they have were solved by this one.

Edited by Prowler on Jul 13th 2021 at 6:48:02 AM

Found out the girl I was in High School drama with is in all three parts as "Kate". I'll check it out when I get a chance.

I am a bit confused on the rules of the magic.

Why couldn't Goode just possess Deena instead of sending the killers after her?

Maybe a new person can't be possessed until the current possessed killer is killed?

I didn't get a rosy picture at all given that Sam is terrified of being outed and Deana subjects her to all manner of abuse because she is stuck being the subject of what is presumably nasty homophobia.

I did note I was confused at whether No Bisexuals was in play or not, though. But it seems Sam was generally just using Peter as The Beard.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Jul 17th 2021 at 10:40:34 AM

Gotta say, the scariest part of the trilogy was hearing Carry On Wayward Son.

Real talk: I liked it.

Edited by djoki996 on Jul 20th 2021 at 8:52:12 AM

My wife assumed Sam and Dean would show up then.

I’m going through these now.

First one was awful. So bad. Dialogue cheesy, very much meant to be a scream tribute but just felt like it leaned too much into Scream.

Part 2 was better. Stronger more fun cast. Sadie Sink always a bonus.

The preview for Part 3 has me really interested though with duplicate roles/characters.

Fear Street suffers from the fact it's homage not parody but very much feels like parody.

That’s a good point, at least for the first part at least, and not intentional either.

Watched Part 3 last night and it was fun. But average fun. I liked the idea of getting the cast back to play different roles. Made the 1666 stuff quite fun. The second half was good but a bit dull near the end.

Take note I don't mean parody as if it was bad. I love parody. My favorite mystery movie is Clue.

I mean that the similarities to Scream and Friday are so blatant that you assume it's a send up.

And it fits with the RL Stein vibes.

You sure you don't mean "pastiche"?

There's a reason Marco Beltrami was hired to imitate himself from the Scream era, after all.

Don’t think parody is bad either but at least make it clear it’s a parody rather than blur the lines. It’s what made Part 1 the lame duck of the three.

Sometimes it's homage, sometimes parody, and sometimes its directly meant to be taken seriously.

I could recognise that the Scary movie films were direct parody, but then you get films that are too vague or aren’t really that funny that they kind of suck at the genre they’re attempting to lampoon. The trilogy isn’t really that scary but two and three have fun concepts and ideas that they are more enjoyable than one.