phancy.com - horror reviews - MOH 2021
Fear Street: Part Two - 1978
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IMDb Info
Release Year: 2021
Runtime: 1h 49min
Country: USA, Canada
Language: English
Genre Tags: Drama, Horror, Mystery
Plot Summary: Shadyside, 1978. School's out for summer and the activities at Camp Nightwing are about to begin. But when another Shadysider is possessed with the urge to kill, the fun in the sun becomes a gruesome fight for survival.
Poster - Title Card
phancy.com rating:
phancy.com notes: The old school slasher homage of the Fear Street trilogy. Starts a little slow, and then sags in the middle a little. Pacing aside, there are strong performances, and better writing than films being referenced. A decent middle chapter.
Outside Reviews:
Nick Allen
2 out of 4 stars -
rogerebert.com
Brutality and tragedy can make a point, especially in the second movie of a trilogy. "The night is darkest just before dawn," as we're told by The Dark Knight, echoing The Empire Strikes Back, or The Matrix Reloaded, etc. But there's something overwhelmingly miserable about this sequel that makes its psychological point over and over, without the air of newness from its predecessor. Meanwhile, its most exciting developments are pushed to the bookends, like watching Gillian Jacobs tell this story in 1994 as the one frazzled survivor of the Camp Nightwing massacre, and the enticing cliffhanger for our franchise lead Deena (Kiana Madeira), who is trying to put an end to all of this. The rest of 1978 is more of a frustrating bummer—a summer camp slasher that's afraid of campiness, and one that'd be a better fit for group therapy sessions than sleepovers.
Toussaint Egan
Fear Street: 1978 echoes Friday the 13th and Halloween, but the scares are scarce
What difference there is that Fear Street: 1978 feels more like a tragedy than a horror romp. Viewers already know who the killer is from passing mentions in Fear Street: 1994, and if they didn't watch that, they'll still know within the film's first 20 minutes. It's also clear which of the Berman sisters survives in the end, as the film isn't half as clever or effective as it assumes it is in obfuscating which of the two is telling the story. The gratifications of Fear Street: 1978 are not in its few surprises, but in its continued exploration of the history and dynamics of two social-stratified communities separated along the fault lines of unexplained affluence and inexplicable horror.