Starring - Kiana Madeira (The Flash, Dark Matter), Olivia Scott Welch (Agent Carter, Shithouse), and Benjamin Flores Jr. (Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, Transformers: The Last Knight)
Release Date - 2021
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "Three movies. Three weeks. One killer story"
Format - Streaming (Netflix)
Rating (out of 5):
A lot of people my age grew up on Goosebumps and can trace their love of horror back to when they discovered these when they were children. I'm the same. Once I found Goosebumps I was soon reading Stephen King before moving on to other horror tales. When I was in middle school my late brother bought me a collection of R.L. Stine's Fear Street. My elementary and middle school libraries never carried this series because it "was intended for young adults" as the librarian would say. I was so excited to dig into these book and I quickly read through them before buying more. When I heard that Netflix was working on a Fear Street film I was all for it. When news of it being an anthology series was announced I was too excited to speak. I wasn't able to check out the first installment, 1994, when it was released on the 2nd but as soon as I could I hit up Netflix to spin it.
The film follows a group of high school students at Shadyside who find themselves being stalked by slashers from different time periods when an evil witch's grave is disturbed by the blood of one of them during a car crash.
I wasn't expecting to love this one as much as I did but here I am. I figured it would be a decent watch that would be easily forgettable but it wasn't. It was a fantastic slasher with that Fear Street charm. I highly recommend checking it out before the second installment hits. The acting in this one is great. The cast is relatively young with just a few credits to their names on imdb. The fact that they were able to deliver such great performances with so little experience is amazing. I look for this young cast to appear in more genre efforts and make a name for themselves. The supporting cast was great as well but these young stars. The story for this one is a slasher fan's wet dream that is centered in witchcraft. I love slashers and I've complained for years about the lack of witch movies so seeing both sub-genres collide here had me smiling from ear to ear. The film has an impressive mythology that pulled me in but the masked slashers are a little silly at times. I know I often praise the masked slashers of the 80s but here it's a little silly. Regardless, I had a lot of fun with it. Finally, the film has a lot of blood with the types of kills you would expect from a standard slasher with one or two standing out above the rest. A lot of them hit quick and are very brutal with a mix of practical and visual effects. There was times when the visuals were horrible but for the most part they complimented the practical effects. Overall, 1994 was fantastic. I know it will be a polarizing release for some but if you are a fan of the book series and like slashers then this one is for you. I highly recommend it.
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