Oh, goodness… everyone is setting their horror movies in the 80s and 90s now because cell phones ruined everything for killers.
Yes, my friends, it’s Fear Street 1994, a horror slasher movie set in the ancient year of when I graduated high school. I’m going to cry now.
Fear Street finds two ex girlfriends and their friends by proxy get caught up in an actual witch’s curse that sends not one, not two… but three different slashers after them. Now, they have to find out how to evade the spectral murderers before their own numbers get punched… or stabbed… or… you know.
Basically, this is It Follows but with less style and more phallic jokes.
Fear Street 1994 is the first of a trilogy of films set up to explore the mythos of the witch in question and, I must say, for being a slightly above average slasher movie, Fear Street 1994 does a very good job of setting up the mythology. The backstory behind this barely seen witch is something that I’m genuinely interested in learning about and will have me coming back for the sequels.
The fact that they’re streaming on Netflix, practically for free, doesn’t hurt either.
The movie itself isn’t exactly what I would call an adrenaline shot to the arm of the genre like Scream was, but it does its job and does it competently. The characters are all interesting and I kind of knew who they were from scene to scene. Simon was a pain and I was praying for an ax to the face, but other than that, they were fine.
And I guess that is my prevalent attitude towards this film: It’s fine. It’s fine and I want to know more. It’s a lean film, a true slasher movie that doesn’t do any less or any more than I was expecting and that’s… you know… fine.
Jason Gaston 