Fear Street – Osa 2: 1978

It says 1978 in the title, but in the 70s people knew how to make things spicier. It looks like a big gorefest at times, but at its core it's just another horror movie for kids, the kind Netflix is full of. Their derivative family friendly stuff to please everyone is like the plague. (19.04.2022)

The Fear Street trilogy made me expect a trio of diverse films that would approach the slasher subgenre in different ways determined by their time period. 1994 was supposed to be in the vein of Scream with fun 90s fanboy winks, 1978 could have been a camp slasher renaissance along the lines of The Burning or Friday the 13th, and I imagined 1666 as gritty period horror with an atmosphere reminiscent of The VVitch. Yeah, I know, it was naive. All in all, they are your typical unpretentious Netflix genre films adapted to modern times and a young audience, where the style of each episode does not differ much from each other; it's the same thing over and over again, the characters behave the same way, it has the same easygoing style. In the end, a missed opportunity to bring something really special, but probably still worth sacrificing three evenings for. 1978 > 1666 > 1994. In my opinion the strongest episode, but it has its flaws (really unnecessarily long intro, the delayed "masking-up" of the killer). (24.07.2021)

I was expecting more and I have a few complaints, but it's still a strong genre average and in slasher series, there hasn't been anything this substantial in a good few years. People unfamiliar with the genre see it as a rip-off, “The Better Ones" see it as fanboy enthusiasm for the horror genre and an homage to older pieces. Nightwing is definitely the new Crystal Lake, and the redhead from Stranger Things has the makings of a new scream queen. I'm not going to compare the episodes, each has different strengths, I was a little bummed that they avoided nudity, I understand that the book is PG-13 and made for teens, but I missed it here. The film is probably most reminiscent of Sleepaway Camp, Friday the 13th and The Burning, and anyone who loved those films since the 80s should enjoy this one as well, at least on the nostalgia side. There are plenty of references (Carrie!), retro music, likeable characters, and you can tell that it's cleverly conceived and it all fits together nicely within the genre. The first half is slower, the wait for the first murder is longer than I would have liked, and the gore could definitely have been more substantial – it takes place either in the dark, many times out of frame and as a result I only remembered two severed heads. Even though emotionally I'm leaning towards three stars, I had an above average time and I'm going to take all three episodes as a whole, where I hope the witches will pull it off a full score. I'm happy with the whole series so far and I'm glad Netflix picked it up. Story 3/5, Action 3/5, Humor 2/5, Violence 3/5, Fun 4/5 Music 4/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 4/5, Suspense 4/5. 7/10. (11.07.2021)

The year 1978 is riding on the Friday the 13th wave, much like American Horror Story: 1984. It fits together nicely, the pace is fast, and the interest intensifies. It also has my favorite cliché of squabbling teenagers who were friends in childhood and new events force them to work together again. (05.12.2021)

Although it’s a bit a exaggerated, which actually does the same thing several times as the first film, but it presents it to the viewer as a novelty. It’s still great, bloody and exciting entertainment, though. Instead of Scream, it (more than) nods to Friday the 13th, the characters are fine, the director is good.... I'm really looking forward to the end of this trilogy. (10.07.2021)