phancy.com - horror reviews - MOH 2021
Fear Street: Part One - 1994
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IMDb Info
Release Year: 2021
Runtime: 1h 47min
Country: USA, Canada
Language: English
Genre Tags: Drama, Horror, Mystery
Plot Summary: A circle of teenage friends accidentally encounter the ancient evil responsible for a series of brutal murders that have plagued their town for over 300 years. Welcome to Shadyside.
Poster - Title Card
phancy.com rating:
phancy.com notes: 1990s-style horror homage that subverts some standard tropes. (Features a central queer reationship, people of color, and they live!) More substance than its mid-90s references, and more fun as well.
Outside Reviews:
Nick Allen
3 out of 4 stars -
rogerebert.com
None of this comes together without a confident storyteller, and that's where Janiak's skills kick in. It's almost like her style becomes even sharper as the story goes along - at first the '90s needle drops are aggressively crammed in ("Insane in the Membrane" is jammed next to "Creep"), and the hyperactive editing is busy more than it is clever as it takes us from one frantic conversation to the next. But 1994 strikes a great balance between building backstory and tying it into the chaotic present-day: the mythology settles in, and the movie focuses on lean and extra mean thrills that include a couple of excellent slasher set-pieces in the high school and a grocery store, all with an expressive, playful lighting palette. The most fun parts of 1994 display a strong balance of the brutal and the playful, and yet while its energy is a developing charm of the series, it's the overall tone created by Janiak that's the most impressive.
Toussaint Egan
Netflix's Fear Street: 1994 brings MCU-nification to slasher horror
The first installment, set in the early 1990s, follows a group of Shadyside teenagers who are attacked by a malevolent masked killer responsible for a massacre at their local mall. While attempting to escape their would-be murderer, the teens unearth the town's history of inexplicable horror and violence. It appears to be inextricably linked to the very beginning of Shadyside's acrimonious relationship with its neighbor, the idyllic, prosperous town of Sunnyvale. By all appearances, Fear Street Part One: 1994 is a conventional contemporary riff on '90s horror classics like I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Faculty, and Scream, period-accurate needle drops and all. But the film's characters, and in particular their relationship and rapport, elevates it beyond a simple send-up to its forebears.