Fear Street Part One: 1994

Netflix’s deliriously entertaining Fear Street series blends the narrative structure of a slasher movie with the release plan of a television miniseries for an unconventional trilogy. The movies resist categorization as young adult material by leaning into the horror genre, delivering a gory, hard-R presentation that only alleviates its tension with self-aware humor. Steeped in 1990s nostalgia, the first installment, Fear Street Part One: 1994, stands as a fast-paced and effortless start. It’s a nimble yarn directed and co-written by Leigh Janiak, who draws inspiration not only from R.L. Stine’s exhaustive series of Fear Street books but also popular horror cinema. Janiak embraces her clear love of Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream franchises, complete with conspicuously absent parents, a deep-seated local mythology, and a rising body count of dead teenagers. The series, released in July 2021, with each installment dropping one Friday after another over three weeks, weaves together original stories that become more involved in an overarching narrative with each subsequent entry, making them difficult to consider as stand-alone features. Still, 1994 accomplishes much, establishing the key themes that will appear in the two sequels, 1978 and 1666, while also delivering a thoroughly absorbing trilogy greater than the sum of its parts. 

The full review is currently posted on Patreon. You can purchase access to this review separately or join Deep Focus Review’s Patron community for access. Join and you’ll receive exclusive access to this review and many other writings published on Patreon first.

Patrons also get access to:

• Exclusive weekly blog posts
• Streaming recommendations every Friday
• Polls to pick the movies reviewed on Deep Focus Review and Patreon
• Pick your own “Reader’s Choice” review (at the Screenwriter tier or higher)
• Polls that decide the next entry in The Definitives