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Fear Street: Part Three - 1666
Fear Street: 1666
USA / Canada 2021
produced by Kori Adelson, Peter Chernin, David Ready, Jenno Topping, Timothy M. Bourne (executive), Leigh Janiak (executive) for Chernin Entertainment/Netflix
directed by Leigh Janiak
starring Kiana Madeira, Olivia Scott Welch, Ashley Zukerman, Benjamin Flores jr, McCabe Slye, Elizabeth Scopel, Gillian Jacobs, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Randy Havens, Julia Rehwald, Matthew Zuk, Fred Hechinger, Michael Chandler, Sadie Sink, Emily Rudd, Lacy Camp, Jordana Spiro, Jeremy Ford, Patrick Roper, Robert Bryan Davis, Lynne Ashe, Charlene Amoia, Mark Ashworth, Todd Allen Durkin, Ryan Simpkins, Noah Garrett, Keil Oakley Zepernick, Emily Brobst, Kevin Waterman, Jordyn DiNatale, Ted Sutherland, Lloyd Pitts, Daniel Thomas May, Meghan Packer, Nilah Blasingame, Rachel Doman
screenplay by Phil Graziadei, Leigh Janiak, Kate Trefry, based on the book series by R.L. Stine, music by Marco Beltrami, Anna Drubich, Marcus Trumpp, visual effects by Vitality Visual Effects
Fear Street
review by Mike Haberfelner
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When she dripped some blood and then touched Sarah Fier's bones
(Elizabeth Scopel) in the last
movie, Deena (Kiana Madeira) had a flashback to 1666, and now
she's reliving Sarah's last few days, when she and a few friends went to
"the Widow" (Jordana Spiro), an alleged witch, for a few magic
berries to spice up a party, and where Sarah spots a book on black magic.
At the party, Sarah gets intimate with another girl, Hannah (Olivia Scott
Welch, who also plays Deena's girlfriend Sam in the 1994 portions of the
story). The next day, all food turns foul in town, and then the pastor
(Michael Chandler), incidently Hannah's father, kills twelve children -
and it's not long before religious hothead Thomas (McCabe Slye) blames it
on witches, and since somebody has witnessed Sarah and Hannah making out,
the blame is conveniently put on them. Hannah's soon captured, but Sarah
manages to escape. She turns to the Widow for help, only to find her
murdered and her black magic book gone. In her desperation, she turns to
her as-good-as-fiancé Solomon (Ashley Zukerman, who also plays Sheriff
Goode in the 1994 portions of the story), and against all odds, he
believes her whole story, promises to help her, and shields her against
her pursuers - but then she finds out it's actually Solomon who has cursed
the city ... which is of course when Solomon turns on her and delivers her
to the witchhunters. And to save Hannah, she confesses to being a witch
who has put a spell on her - and Sarah is subsequently hanged. Back in
1994, Deena, her brother Henry (Benjamin Flores jr) and Ziggy Berman
(Gillian Jacobs) figure out to end the curse on Shadyside and make Sam
un-possessed again they actually have to kill Sheriff Goode, as he's a
descendant of Solomon, and it seems all the firstborn Goodes since
Solomon's times have nurtured the curse, making the small town
serialkiller capital of the USA. But of course, killing Goode is easier
said than done as he has his army of undead killers who are now primed to
Deena's blood. So they, with the help of wacky security man Martin
(Darrell Britt-Gibson) break into the local mall that night, spray the
place with Deena's blood which she has readily donated, lure all the
undead killers into separate shops where they lock them in, and then put
up a trap for Goode. But Goode's family has put the city under a curse, so
will he walk into a trap that blindly? Now I haven't read the Fear
Street books, and I must say the concept of a supernatural slasher
spanning generations is intriguing, and might actually come to quite some
heights in writing - but on screen the whole thing just suffers from a way
too routine execution. And I don't even say this film (as the two before
it) is badly made, as it is an effective shocker - it just looks like
pretty much every other horror movie and never follows through when the
story attempts to play with genre elements. And in the end, you're really
just left with a routine, a bit featureless horror flick wasting a really
interesting premise.
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