Fear Street: Part One - 1994

If "1994" is in the title of your movie, don't open with a song from 1995. (They also play Firestarter by Prodigy a spin which was released in '96.) But musical anachronisms aside, this is the laziest soundtrack in movie history. It's like they grabbed a "90s Hits" playlist off Spotify and cranked it up every five minutes just to let us know that it was the 90s. Because it sure didn't LOOK like the 90s, except for an AOL chat room and the 4,000 posters on the main character's bedroom walls.

Speaking of the main character... she should be LIKEABLE if she's fighting evil. Nobody wants to cheer for a jerk. Her brother is basically the only likeable character in the whole movie.

And speaking of characters... did they run out of budget before they could hire extras? The towns were nearly empty.

And speaking of empty... the plot holes (and the plot itself) make for a very bumpy ride. **SLIGHT SPOILER follows** That thing with the X's at the end didn't make sense to me. Why not just put them on a rag you can toss away in case you find yourself cornered?

All in all, it's not terrible if you want something you don't need to pay much attention to while eating some pizza on movie night.

This movie was entertaining. Nothing exceptional, but a good bit of fun. Don't go into it expecting a masterpiece and you will probably have a good time.

Starts pretty well the first 35-minutes or so, then goes off the rails of teeny booper horror generic romantic non sense and boredom. The movie really drags the 2nd half and offers nothing more than a queer love story and teens running from killers thinking they can get away or outsmart whoever...with the typical incompetent Sheriff doing nothing useful.

This film was ok in parts but with a few jump scenes overall it was boring and predictable. It wasn't scary at all even though there is some slasher scenes during the film. It didn't didn't seem like the 90s to me apart from when you see the old internet chat rooms! I know horror films do have a young cast but the kids in this look really young and we're not the best actors. It's not the worst horror I have watched but have seen a lot better. A lot of horrors especially new ones all seem the same. Unless your really bored I wouldn't bother with this one. There's not many good horror films on Netflix at the moment.

I didn't read the Fear Street books growing up, although I did read Goosebumps. Considering this was an R rated adaptation, I was cautiously optimistic.

I loved the opening scene. It felt like a nice call back to Scream. It wasn't nearly as iconic, but it did enough right to set my expectations high. Then the plot starts developing, and it goes downhill fast.

The characters are mostly annoying. I could argue I mildly liked two of them, but that's it. The protagonist is incredibly self absorbed, and treats her ex horribly. We've got the nerdy kid who knows literally everything. The comic relief who has maybe two lines in the movie that aren't jokes. Etc.

Then there's the tone. The best way I could describe it is the kid friendly feel of the Goosebumps movie mixed with a slasher film. Anytime someone isn't being murdered, it's really light in tone and kinda jarring. The profanity and innuendos are present during these scenes, but they still feel very kiddish, for lack of a better word. The closest example I could think of for a movie like this is "Summer of '84", but that wasn't nearly as light, and it was far more consistent.

The 90's music, while good, is heavily overused. The early parts of the film feel like someone turned on a malfunctioning jukebox that switches songs every ten seconds. Sometimes less is more.

The horror scenes are actually really good. The opening scene and climax are my favorites, but I enjoyed the rest as well. If the entire film was as good as the horror, I'd honestly consider giving this a 9/10, but I kept getting taken out of the film when there was downtime. There was very little tension or decent drama, just an overly quick pace with humor and exposition to bridge the scares.

It's on Netflix, so if you're interested I guess it's worth a shot. I'm disappointed, as it could've been an absolute classic, but if it sounds like your kinda thing you might like it.