Fear Street: 1994 - Review

Some of you may be familiar with Goosebumps, a chilling children's series that serves as a scary story goldmine for middle-schoolers, but the author of this beloved children's series also penned a slightly more adult horror trilogy known as Fear Street. This series was adapted into a trilogy by Netflix in 2021 with three installments each taking place in a different year of the cursed area of town. This series contains more gore, violence, harsh language, and even concepts of steamy scenes making it much more edgy than Goosebumps will ever be. But does Fear Street deserve more applause and hype? Is Goosebumps the true star to R.L. Stine's line of work? Keep reading below for the first iteration of the Fear Street films.

The first iteration of Fear Street takes us to 1994 with bright-colored rugs in mall stores and, well, a mall. We are introduced to a serial killer-esque murder right off the bat and that paves the way forward for a tense ride through 1hr and 47 minutes of teens screaming and getting limbs chopped off in a gore fest akin to Thanksgiving (2023) and Scream (1996).

I'll give you the heads up for the rest of the Fear Street reviews, this Fear Street installment is my least favorite of the three but it still works and stands strong! There is a spin-off installment on the way in 2025 called Fear Street: Prom Queen which I plan to cover once it comes out for sure but for now, the second installment is my favorite of the three main films produced by Netflix.

Spoilers ahead, watch the series before reading on, please. It's worth your time and energy I promise!

There's a reason why this installment of Fear Street is my least favorite and that's the characters. This film has pretty boring main characters in my opinion. The two side characters (the cheerleader and the other guy) are the best characters and that's unfortunate given that they could have made the two main characters so much better! They laid the groundwork to make them great but they didn't execute it and I think that's where this film suffered the most. Our two main focuses are Deena and Samantha who are two ex-girlfriends from feuding high schools and feuding towns that each have a hatred for each other and then one gets a curse placed on them that makes zombie killers come after them and try to actuate the curse. THERE'S SO MUCH TO WORK WITH and yet they don't do anything with any of that.

The special effects are astounding and so high quality along with the sets and the costumes and it's amazing! The characters are just so incredibly bland and one note that all those visuals and sound designs fly under the radar and it's terrible for the viewer's experience. I like how it ties into the two other films in the trilogy but really I can't stress it enough, it's all great minus the two main characters. The Curse is thought out and well-developed and the world and lore of Shady Side versus Sunnyside and it taps into that town and high school rivalry and that hits a note with me and probably many other people that it may strike a chord with so many people and there was potential for so much more development and relationship exploration that just went nowhere!

That is not to say that the acting was terrible because it was more certainly not, it was amazing but the writing was not it. Maya Hawke from Stranger Things was in this for a hot second and Sadie Sink will join in the second one but the other actors and actresses in this film are pretty new to the game and they do have a lot of talent but the writing tanked their performances. This film feels like Stranger Things and I applaud that atmospheric impact on the story and the visuals but it also feels newer and more 90's like the actual time this takes place in, 1994.

Overall I give the first installment of the Fear Street trilogy, Fear Street 1994: 7/10