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Fear Street Part 1 – 1994 is the first part of a new Netflix Horror Trilogy over three consecutive weeks.
In the town of Shadyside, this initial entry begins with Heather (Maya Hawke) being accosted in the bookstore where she works, after closing (strangely, in a shopping mall where everyone has left without her), with the fear of being stabbed to death by someone in a skull mask and a cape, a bit like Scream.
There’s some neat touches early on, such as people imagining songs playing in their head which describe how they feel, like Sophie B Hawkins’ “Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover” in the head of Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr) when he sees hottie cheerleader Kate (Julia Rehwald), but after the opening, brief murder, it feels like forever passes before anthing else happens, nearly 40 minutes in, and even then, this is ridiculously slow.
This first film in a trilogy – to be followed by Fear Street Part 2 – 1978, on Friday July 9th, and Fear Street Part 3 – 1666, on Friday July 16th – but as this one is 107 minutes in length, and goes on way too long, they should shorten the others, surely? No, they’re even slightly longer.
Publicity shot used because every still actually taken from the film is in the dark, so you’ll barely be able to see it.
There’s some supernatural stuff in there, such as the suggestion that people being murderered because the killers are possessed by a certain Sarah Fier…
Also, there’s a preposterous scene involving a meat slicer, and let’s just say bone is involved, but as confirmed when I looked it up afterwards, the machine would not behave like that, because meat slicers can’t cut bone. As the helpful website told me, you’d need a bone saw for that, and they didn’t have one of those in this film.
Obviously, no spoilers as to who the killer is, but it’s safe to say that as we have a trilogy of movies, the history of Shadyside’s slashers spreads as far back as 1666, hence the second and third films being set in 1978 and 1666, respectively.
So far after one part of this trilogy, Scream or Nightmare on Elm Street, this is not.
Fear Street Part 1 – 1994 is on Netflix now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 107 minutes
Release date: July 2nd 2021
Studio: Netflix
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 (Anamorphic Panavision)
Rating: 4/10
Director: Leigh Janiak
Producers: Peter Chernin, David Ready, Jenno Topping
Story/screenplay: Kyle Killen, Phil Graziadei, Leigh Janiak
Books: RL Stine
Music: Marco Beltrami, Anna Drubich, Marcus Trumpp
Cast:
Kate: Julia Rehwald
Deena: Kiana Madeira
Josh: Benjamin Flores Jr
Samantha Fraser: Olivia Scott Welch
Heather: Maya Hawke
Rachel Thompson: Charlene Amoia
Ryan Torres: David W Thompson
Skull Mask: Noah Garrett
Martin: Darrell Britt-Gibson
Nick Goode: Ashley Zukerman
Sunnyvale Skullmask: Danyon Huntington
Sarah Fier: Elizabeth Scopel
Babysitting Twins: Tayla Rogers, Maya Rogers, Jordana Spiro
Nurse Beddy: Eric Mendenhall
Officer Kapinsky: Todd Allen Durkin
Ruby Lane: Jordyn DiNatale
Nightwing Killer: Lloyd Pitts
The Milkman: Kevin Waterman
Billy Barker: Emily Brobst
The Pastor / Cyrus Miller: Michael Chandler
C. Berman: Gillian Jacobs
Cindy Berman: Emily Rudd
Alice: Ryan Simpkins
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.