News & Movie Review

  Fear Street: 1978 (2021) It feels like we were just with the survivors of “Fear Street: 1994,” the first installment of a trilogy based on R.L. Stine’s literary series, a week ago (because we were). Beginning with a helpful “Previously on…” ahead of the Netflix ta-dum , “Fear Street: 1978” picks up immediately where the mystery of Shadyside left off before heading back 16 years before. If writer-director Leigh Janiak was indebted to the pinnacle of teen-centric late-‘90s slasher horror for “1994,” “1978” still plays in the shag-and-get-killed slasher pool, though dedicates itself more to “Friday the 13th,” “The Burning,” and “Sleepaway Camp” (even if, technically, those were in the ‘80s). While it’s hard to match the giddiness of Part One and supply enough connective tissue to justify a middle chapter, “Fear Street: 1978” still rips as a solidly fun, unapologetically stabby, and unexpectedly emotionally resonant camp slasher that bridges the trilogy’s introduction and climax. ...

Fear Street: 1994 (2021) It’s exciting when a film comes along and it feels singularly designed for you. Any ‘90s kid that frequented Waldenbooks will remember “Fear Street,” the YA horror series by R.L. Stine — it was pre-“Goosebumps” for the big kids. While those Jack Black-headlining “Goosebumps” movies were gateway-horror diversions for middle-schoolers, “Fear Street: 1994” is, as it should be, a stylish, bloody R-rated valentine to ‘90s horror. Leigh Janiak (who made her debut in horror with 2014’s creepy, haunting “Honeymoon” ) directs this first chapter (and the next two) in a back-to-back-to-back, released-weekly trilogy, inspired by Stine’s stories and broken into three different time periods. While it may be a placeholder for a sprawling, fuller story with an entire witchy lore, this is an auspicious start that more than delivers on its own terms. “Fear Street: 1994”—and the entire “Fear Street” saga itself—feels like an event destined to play like gangbusters at slumber pa...