Movie Review: Fear Street 1994

Title: Fear Street Part 1: 1994

Series: Fear Street #1

Based on Fear Street by R.L. Stine

Rating: R (strong bloody violence, drug content, language and some sexual content)

Release date: July 2nd 2021

Run time: 1 hr 47 min

Genre: Horror, suspense, mystery

Production company: Chernin Entertainment

Director: Leigh Janiak

Stars: Kiana Madeira, Olivia Scott Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr.

Watch it on Netflix

Synopsis: After a series of brutal slayings, a teen and her friends take on an evil force that's plagued their notorious town for centuries. Welcome to Shadyside.

My rating: ★★★★☆

I don’t normally do movie reviews around here, but guys, there are Fear Street movies coming out! I have been waiting for these movies since they were announced YEARS ago. You know I love my Fear Street even to this day... I’ve read about 85 Fear Street books so far, and that’s not including the ones I may have read back in middle school! I still have quite a few to go, but I’m just ridiculously excited that this series finally has an adaptation. And you know what? I really enjoyed it! So I HAD to talk about it!

This movie made me really happy right off the bat. In the opening sequence, we have this girl who is working in a bookstore at the mall. In said bookstore, we pan across a bunch of books by one Robert Lawrence...

R.L. Stine’s REAL name! And these are ACTUAL Fear Street books! Omg I love this so much. Lol. It made my heart so happy to see these books. And I’ve actually read them all! They were all good! Definitely recommend those! Anyway, the movie...

Basically, we are following Deena and her friends as they try to survive killers that are after them. In Shadyside, there have always been a bunch of crazed killers, seemingly possessed, just killing people left and right. There’s a legend of Sarah Fier and her curse, and some people in Shadyside think that this is why people suddenly go crazy and start killing. Sarah Fier was tried and killed in 1666 for witchcraft, but not before said curse was unleashed. I am very interested to see where the other two movies take this legend because it’s very intriguing!

So this movie doesn’t follow any one Fear Street book, but it did remind me of two separate Fear Street series, and I’m wondering whether the movie series is going to go in that direction. (Here’s a little history lesson on the Fier/Fear family, the Goode family, and the Ancient Evil. Beware of spoilers for some of the Fear Street books, though!)

To me, it was almost like a cross between Fear Street Cheerleaders and the Fear Street Saga. (Spoilers ahead for those two series, by the way!) In Cheerleaders, the characters are up against something called the Ancient Evil. This Ancient Evil was first inside of Sarah Fear back in the late 1800s/early 1900s, up until one cheerleader accidentally disturbed her grave in the present (like Sam did in the movie!) and unleashed the Ancient Evil once again. Sarah Fier... Sarah Fear... similar, but I don’t think they are the same person. Sarah Fear (from the books) married into the Fear family. Her grandfather-in-law, Simon Fear, actually changed his name from Simon FIER to Simon FEAR, so that’s where the name comes from. I don’t really know why the movie decided to keep the Fier name, but I really appreciate them acknowledging it at all.

Speaking of Simon Fear, we get his story (name change and all) in the Fear Street Saga I previously mentioned! I love this series, by the way! These are some of my favorite Fear Street books, EVER! They are SO good! But anyway... while it is said that Sarah Fier (from the movie) was a witch, Sarah Fear (from the books) was NOT a witch. Instead, we get the “witch” in the Fear Street Saga. In the very beginning, back in the 1600s (way before Simon Fear was even born), we have Benjamin Fier who tried and burned Susannah Goode at the stake for witchcraft. NOT a Fier/Fear, but a Goode. The Goode family was EVERYWHERE in the movie and I loved it! I actually was not expecting it because they pretty much never show up in the main Fear Street series, but they are definitely quite involved in the Saga. We have a Sheriff Goode in the movie, and I am really interested to see what role the Goodes in general will play in the next two movies. If the movie lore is anything like the book lore, it’s gonna be a pretty big role! I’m excited!

Anyway (so many tangents, I’m sorry! 🙈) a Fier burned a Goode at the stake. However, Susannah was totally innocent! In a plot twist, her DAD was actually the one who DID practice the dark arts! After Susannah was unfairly tried as a witch and killed, the Goode dad placed a curse on the Fier family that has followed them all the way to the present day Fears! And there are some Fier/Fear family members down the line who also practice witchcraft. Just no other Sarah Fiers.

But yeah, the Fear Street Cheerleaders goes into Sarah Fear (not Fier) and the Ancient Evil, who possessed people and made them kill and do terrible things, very similarly to what the killers in the movie went through. And then the Fear Street Saga goes into the family feud between the Fiers/Fears and Goodes, and just curses and all that witchy goodness. To me, it’s very interesting that in the movie the witch that was killed was a Fier instead of a Goode. It makes me wonder if they flip-flopped the roles and a Goode is the one who killed the Fier... 🤔

So that’s where I think the movie grabbed most of its inspiration from. And to be honest, I kind of love the mash of these two series! I mean, I don’t know for sure that this is what happened, but I’m liking what I’m seeing so far. Lol.

But back to the movie... I love horror movies in general, and I thought this one was a pretty good slasher. It was very violent and gory and there were some kills that were super gross and I loved them! 😆 This movie was definitely way more hardcore than any of the books! I also liked that there was a supernatural aspect to it. Fear Street books that have anything paranormal in them are some of my favorites, so I really appreciated that the movie included that. And another thing that was nice was that the characters in the movie were so much smarter than normal Fear Street characters 😂 Not gonna lie, at least 75% of them are really dumb. Lol. These characters made plans and they fought back and I loved that! I also love that the main character was POC and that there was also LGBTQ+ rep! Two things the book series tended to lack. Oh and then the plot twist ending? Classic Fear Street move. I expected nothing less. You think things are good, but NOPE! I am very excited to see how the characters are gonna deal with things in the next movie.

Overall, I really enjoyed it! It was fun, it had great kills, and I really enjoyed the mythos. Even though the movie takes place in the 90s (hi, 90s baby here 👋), to me it didn’t feel very 90s. In fact, it didn’t feel very Fear Street, either. But I think it’s kinda hard to capture the feel of a book, you know? And while we got the Fear Street books at the beginning of the movie (that was fun!), I wish we would’ve gotten more references from the books. A huge missed opportunity: Placing a Dalby’s at the freaking mall! Come on people! Reva Dalby is the main character of another of my favorite Fear Street series called Silent Night, and her father owns a chain of Dalby stores. Just saying 😉 But that being said, I really did enjoy it! It was a good slasher and I’m glad Fear Street finally got the adaptation it deserves 🥰

The Fear Street connection: If there was a street sign, I missed it! BUT Sarah Fier was mentioned all over the place! I always love it when members of the Fier/Fear family are involved!

Book recommendations:

These first four books are the ones that showed up in the movie, all of which I really enjoyed! In The Sleepwalker, Mayra starts working for an old woman who lives on Fear Street, but shortly after she starts sleepwalking to the cursed street! In The First Evil, sisters Corky and Bobbi just joined the Shadyside cheerleaders, but after an accident at the Fear Street cemetery, more deadly accidents, and even murders, start happening around the cheerleaders. In The Surprise Party, after the apparent suicide of their friend Evan, Meg’s friend (and Evan’s girlfriend) moves away. Now she’s back in Shadyside visiting and Meg decides to throw her a surprise party... except someone doesn’t want this party to happen. And in The Wrong Number, Deena's brother Chuck makes a prank phone call to someone who lives on Fear Street, but it’s more than they bargained for when they overhear a murder happen! Now they’re all caught up in this mess with the murderer threatening them. Thanks a lot, Chuck. Lol.

And then we've got the entire Cheerleaders series. We have the main trilogy and The New Evil that follows Corky and her friends as they battle the Ancient Evil and unravel the mystery of Sarah Fear.

The Evil Lives! is also part of the Cheerleaders series, but this one follows a different set of cheerleaders, after Corky and friends graduated from Shadyside High. Unfortunately for them, they also run into the Ancient Evil. This book goes into much more detail as to what exactly the Ancient Evil is and how it relates to Sarah Fear. However, if you want the story straight from the source, definitely go with The Awakening Evil instead. This one follows Sarah Fear herself so we see everything first hand when it comes to how the Ancient Evil came into being and how Sarah Fear tried to defeat it.

If you want to learn about the Fier/Fear family but don't want to read an entire series, definitely go with Party Summer. In this book, Cari and her friends leave Shadyside behind and go work at an inn on a small island. The owner of this hotel is none other than Simon Fear III! Simon actually explains some of his family’s history... Well, the things he knows about/heard of. So, if you’re wondering what the deal is with Fear Street and the Fear family, and about all the horrible stuff that’s happened and how it all started, Simon gives a great summary in this book! Bonus: it's the perfect summer-y, spooky read for right now!

However, Simon Fear III’s knowledge is very limited, not knowing exactly what happened on that fateful night. So, if you want the whole story instead, you're gonna want to read the Fear Street Saga trilogy instead! Here you get all the juicy details right from the start in the 1600s, all the way to the early 1900s. You find out why the Fear family have the reputation they do, you learn about the Goodes and what their deal is in regards to the Fears, and why the Fiers changed their name to Fear in the first place. This is probably my favorite Fear Street series! It is just so good! And so interesting! And this coming from someone who doesn't normally read historical fiction. Lol. But I highly recommend this one! Out of all the books I mention, if you were to only pick one set of books to read, make it this one! 

And if you want even MORE Fear family tragedies (and who doesn't? Lol) then we've got the Fear Street Sagas! Not to be confused with the Fear Street Saga. There are 16 books in the Sagas, but these are just the first four. I personally have not read very many of these, but I do know for a fact that each one focuses on a member of the Fear family from way back in the day, and tragedies probably happen. Lol. The Awakening Evil that I mentioned earlier, the Sarah Fear book, is actually technically part of this series. Although, be warned, some of the later books in the series are harder to find. The first 10 books you can get easily on Amazon Kindle.

And this last book is more in preparation of the next movie, Fear Street 1978, which comes out THIS Friday! In Lights Out, Holly is off to Camp Nightwing. But things are not all fun and games at this camp. It started off with vandalism, but then things escalated quickly to murder! Now, I don't think the movie is based on this book, BUT they both take place in the same camp, so there's that. Maybe there'll be more references than I think. But who know! I'm excited for the second movie though! It's giving me Friday the 13th vibes!

Have you seen Fear Street yet? Do you plan on watching it? Let me know your thoughts on the movie!