Fear Street: Part One - 1994 (2021) User Reviews

Missed Opportunity

[mrbrooks123 · 5/10 · 2 July 2021]

Felt like this movie was a missed opportunity, the storyline was alright but the execution of the 90s vibe was rather lackluster. Didn't have that nostalgia when you're watching Stranger Things or even AHS 1984. One thing that I noticed that didn't make sense was, where is everybody in the film? Other than the main characters, it felt like they were in a ghost town, running around yelling and bleeding without other people noticing. Major plot hole.

The cast did okay as a whole, however the lead character, Deena (Kiana Madeira) was extremely unlikable. I don't know if it was maybe the script or what but it was hard rooting for the final girl to survive when you don't even like her. That's another issue this movie has.

Overall, it would've been a more enjoyable watch IF the leads were likable. Maybe a different director with better execution fleshing out the 90s vibe.

The definition of a mixed bag

[yoshinaruto · 6/10 · 3 July 2021]

I didn't read the Fear Street books growing up, although I did read Goosebumps. Considering this was an R rated adaptation, I was cautiously optimistic.

I loved the opening scene. It felt like a nice call back to Scream. It wasn't nearly as iconic, but it did enough right to set my expectations high. Then the plot starts developing, and it goes downhill fast.

The characters are mostly annoying. I could argue I mildly liked two of them, but that's it. The protagonist is incredibly self absorbed, and treats her ex horribly. We've got the nerdy kid who knows literally everything. The comic relief who has maybe two lines in the movie that aren't jokes. Etc.

Then there's the tone. The best way I could describe it is the kid friendly feel of the Goosebumps movie mixed with a slasher film. Anytime someone isn't being murdered, it's really light in tone and kinda jarring. The profanity and innuendos are present during these scenes, but they still feel very kiddish, for lack of a better word. The closest example I could think of for a movie like this is "Summer of '84", but that wasn't nearly as light, and it was far more consistent.

The 90's music, while good, is heavily overused. The early parts of the film feel like someone turned on a malfunctioning jukebox that switches songs every ten seconds. Sometimes less is more.

The horror scenes are actually really good. The opening scene and climax are my favorites, but I enjoyed the rest as well. If the entire film was as good as the horror, I'd honestly consider giving this a 9/10, but I kept getting taken out of the film when there was downtime. There was very little tension or decent drama, just an overly quick pace with humor and exposition to bridge the scares.

It's on Netflix, so if you're interested I guess it's worth a shot. I'm disappointed, as it could've been an absolute classic, but if it sounds like your kinda thing you might like it.

If "1994" is in the title of your movie...

[Shazam-O · 5/10 · 10 July 2021]

If "1994" is in the title of your movie, don't open with a song from 1995. (They also play Firestarter by Prodigy a spin which was released in '96.) But musical anachronisms aside, this is the laziest soundtrack in movie history. It's like they grabbed a "90s Hits" playlist off Spotify and cranked it up every five minutes just to let us know that it was the 90s. Because it sure didn't LOOK like the 90s, except for an AOL chat room and the 4,000 posters on the main character's bedroom walls.

Speaking of the main character... she should be LIKEABLE if she's fighting evil. Nobody wants to cheer for a jerk. Her brother is basically the only likeable character in the whole movie.

And speaking of characters... did they run out of budget before they could hire extras? The towns were nearly empty.

And speaking of empty... the plot holes (and the plot itself) make for a very bumpy ride. **SLIGHT SPOILER follows** That thing with the X's at the end didn't make sense to me. Why not just put them on a rag you can toss away in case you find yourself cornered?

All in all, it's not terrible if you want something you don't need to pay much attention to while eating some pizza on movie night.

Another Slasher?

[pawanpunjabithewriter · 7/10 · 2 July 2021]

You've gotta be kidding me.

This movie has fun, a little surprises, however, I would suggest not to exceed your expectations before watching this movie. I'd been waiting to watch it for some time since it was announced by Netflix. It is, yet another, dark horrifying slasher. Haven't we watched the same again and again? This movie does have good fun though, you could enjoy it to some extent. Above Average. That's What a very good slasher movie can ho upto.

A good bit of fun

[mlwcsc · 7/10 · 2 July 2021]

This movie was entertaining. Nothing exceptional, but a good bit of fun. Don't go into it expecting a masterpiece and you will probably have a good time.

Main character is very dislikable

[ginothep · 6/10 · 14 July 2021]

I didn't hate it. It's the kind of movie you watch on a Sunday in bed. However, the main character is insufferable, very annoying. I wish she had been the first one to be slayed. Full of clichés but still watchable, in my opinion.

We get it. You're playing 90s music a lot.

[emckaskill · 4/10 · 4 July 2021]

Besides the music they shoved down our throats there was nothing 90s about it. The clothes, the hair, the language. You could have told me it was set in 2021. The characters were almost entirely unlikeable apart from one or two and why was the main character so unnecessarily aggressive to EVERYONE? The characters lacked motivation, didn't react at all to situations going on around them (your boyfriend was just stabbed to death in front of you, but sure - never mention this again and get back with your ex.) the plot was riddled with holes and the settings were unrealistic. (Only two people working in a hospital? Unattended ambulance with keys in the ignition? Find skeletal remains in the woods and don't bat an eyelid while you handle rotting flesh and bones? OK sure.) It will leave you gasping like a trout at the credits listing all the plot holes and all the "but what about the?... but why did she?... but didn't they say?..." Pass.

Loved it!

[dannymitt · 8/10 · 3 July 2021]

I was honestly not expecting much, and at times it felt a little rushed on some scenes, but overall I thought it was fantastic and fun. Genuinely can't wait for Part 2!

Good, Not Great

[laurenjfree · 6/10 · 2 July 2021]

A fast paced and an entertaining watch, but Fear Street lacks the edge of your seat moments that horror movies require. There were some awkward tonal shifts and strange editing choices. That being said, it never tried to be something it wasn't. Some pretty cool needle drops and fairly gruesome horror elements really bring it to life. I doubt it will hold up upon rewatch, but definitely worth tuning in for. Can't wait for 1978 and 1666!

Huge Let down

[nicole_raymond · 4/10 · 2 July 2021]

I was really looking forward to this movie. I grew up in the 90's and loved Fear Street books. I had and read the whole series. The movie started out great, in a mall which was totally 90s teen culture. Once the opening credits rolled and they introduced the main characters it was all downhill. The only thing they captured from the 90s was the music, which they ruined by cramming in a different song every 5 seconds in the most random places. That's where the 90s end. The characters are all just a bunch of whiny Gen Zers, trying to dress like they are from the 90s, like typical Gen Zers. Whoever made this should have watched some horror movies from the actual 90s for inspiration, because in Scream, I Know What you Did Last Summer, The Craft, etc... nobody sat around whining about their feelings every five seconds, especially when they were being chased by crazed killers. This movie was also extremely uneven and tried to be too many things at once. Slasher flick, superatural, and cultural warfare between towns, which made no sense and could have just been left out completely. Like the main character breaking up with her girlfriend because she moved one town over. There were cars back then to travel to the next town over, but they make such a big deal out of it you would think it was in the days of the covered wagon. All the constant emotional conversations just made the movie drag when it could have been exciting and fun. It got to the point where I just couldn't wait for it to end. Very disappointing.

Really not that bad

[UniqueParticle · 8/10 · 23 August 2021]

For a horror buff I should've watched sooner but don't use Netflix as much as other services. I'm not sure why people bashed part one so much even if some of the characters are unlikeable it's well filmed, Stylish, and very entertaining! For some reason I love high school stories so I appreciate this despite anything negative. The music is so good and some of scenes are exciting; I'm glad I decided to watch Netflix!

Entertaining. Good, but not great.

[thegriffenator · 7/10 · 2 July 2021]

Predictable, perfectly ok acting, not enough gore, but still entertaining. Netflix strikes again with another slightly above average production. Maybe the second and third films will be better. Although the soundtrack contains a lot of great music, they tried way to hard to fit as many 90s songs in as possible and it gets a bit ridiculous by the end.

What...was this?

[Asshole-68383 · 1/10 · 12 July 2021]

I created an account because of how irritated I was with this movie.

I'm a huge horror fan, but I don't think of myself as super serious about the genre. Give me a bad B movie and I'm totally happy but this was just...beyond.

Let's just start with the fact that the movie doesn't even follow it's own rules. I won't spoilt it, but they clearly state why the killers are killing and then the killers go against that statement.

And I really agree with another review. This movie felt like how a Gen-Z kid THINKS 90s kids acted and dressed. Never did it feel like it was actually set in the 90s not even when they shoved 20 90s songs (a lot of which were released after 1994) down our throats in the first 20 minutes. If these kids were almost 18 in 1994 that means they were born at the end of the 70s and grew up in the 80s. That's a totally different vibe than kids that were born later in the 80s.

It also had so many real-life plot goofs. How did Deena answer the phone when her brother was on AOL? That was impossible at the time. Someone in the writer's room had to know that. Also why did they choose that method to kill someone? It would literally take close to an hour. Shooting up someone with 8 epipens would also probably kill them before it would save them.

Everything from the acting to the story was cringe. The only thing I enjoyed was the opening scene but that's only because it was lifted right from Scream.

Looking Forward to More

[Neon_Gold · 6/10 · 24 November 2021]

First of all I think this is such a smart idea. Doing a trilogy of movies that are all so close together but not all released at once. It gives you so much more time to be invested in the story and characters.

I think this movie is fine, I liked it, I hope I like the other two a little more but I thought this was good. I didn't feel the 90s nostalgia for some reason. I felt like this could have taken place like last week apart from the old computer. It didn't have that nice balance where it's not over the top 90s but still referencing it. I am alone in this because other people seem to think it did.

The dialogue is a little cheesy and I think the jokes are a little sort of distracting. I understand comic relief but it takes you out of it when characters are behaving so strange. It doesn't help that I found one character and the actor so annoying.

I will say that this movie did surprise me with its bold moves. I thought it would be more scared to do certain things than it actually was. I appreciated it.

Not as good as I'd hoped for

[bangel3322 · 6/10 · 3 July 2021]

So....when I first heard about this movie series to say I was excited was an understatement. A wave of nostalgia hit me. I spent a majority of my childhood reading Fear Street and Point Horror books. I thought and still think R. L. Stine is a genius. These films took quite a while to come out with Covid setting them back, but I waited patiently and finally yesterday I sat down to watch the first film. I didn't watch any of the trailers and didn't even read the synopsis because I wanted to go in fresh without knowing the storyline. Ok, so firstly I like the idea behind this. Linking the films together throughout different times via this witch Sarah Fier. She possesses people to become killers. It's interesting. It's different. However, I personally would've liked to have seen them actually adapt stories from the books themselves. Fear Street books from my recollection usually all take place on a street called Fear Street. A weird house on Fear Street or someone goes missing on Fear Street, etc. The way the film plays out doesn't actually tie in with that. So it kind of negates the whole purpose of Fear Street. Secondly while the film has some good ideas running through it and some great scenes...it's lacking in intrigue and excitement. No exciting twists or surprises. So while it appears different on the surface, it felt like just another horror film. And even though it's 1hr 47mins, it felt like it was over quite quickly without having given me enough. I wanted more. But I guess that's where the other movies come in. So I'll wait until next week for the next instalment. At the end of this film we were given a preview of 1978 and it does look good. So see you next week!

Mid-90's Slasher Flick Nostalgia

[Idle_Hands08 · 6/10 · 2 July 2021]

If you thought you were going to enjoy this film (part I)... Like me, you'd be right...!

Scream, Urban Legend and the like, all play their roles in this film... and you gotta love that. You must know that it's hard to live up to these types of films that shaped the genre, especially in the 89s and 90s... Just enjoy it for what it is...

The set design and colour grading will remind you of Stranger Things, no problem there, and the writing is taken from a Goosebumps story, adapted to suit the intended outcome. Even though it's only part I, I'm really looking forward to it being ready as a full trilogy from the outset. It's rated R due to the gore, but definitely has a more PG-13 type of feel to it, and not as intense as the 90's features previously mentioned. The reason being, it's just not really funny enough or scary enough... It needed to be both or focus on one or the other, that's why we will find it's rating no higher than 6/10...

The actors are well cast and you will recognise some of them from other teen-comedy-dramas on Netflix. It's good to see them in these roles paying homage to the slasher flick's of yesteryear... The Shadyside and Sunnyville town names were great, and reminded me of the Shellbyville / Springfield rivalry from the Simpson's. The 90's music, products, and early internet usage were fun to watch. The story moves at a good pace and will keep you entertained, of course the main and ultimate goal...!

Watch and enjoy...

Insufferably cynical

[kobrakai-1 · 3/10 · 3 July 2021]

It takes less than twenty minutes for this movie to rattle off every millennial's basic childhood pop rock playlist. I'm not kidding-in twenty minutes I counted eight 90s songs used. Eight songs in twenty minutes, meaning the film will transition from playing Cypress Hill to Radiohead with as little rhyme or reason as someone just flicking through radio stations. This isn't nostalgia; it's cheap, it's cynical, and it's irritating, especially when it's the only thing the film gets even remotely right about the time period it's meant to take place in. Top it off with some seriously unlikable characters and it all makes for a film that felt like a rough 100 something minutes to sit through.

I Loved It

[gab-67599 · 10/10 · 3 July 2021]

Seems like from all the bad reviews though I am the only one lol. So they didn't get the 90's just spot on, who cares? They took me out of reality for a whole hour and 40 minutes and for this my hat goes off to you. So hard now a days to find good young actors. Anyone who says this movie was bad has not seen Queen of spades or Assassinaut, because those two are way worse then this one! Also I think the whole being attracted to girls is being played out, and as a bi women this upsets me. Although these two leads were beautiful together and I kept hoping it would all work out for them. My favorite line "But right now, you've got to die!". So I might be cheesy for loving this movie but I could not find anything I truly disliked about it. Cannot wait for the second instalment. Oh, and I have never read the books.

1994,really?

[ashbin-78242 · 6/10 · 5 July 2021]

The movie is decent,but I'm not satisfied at all. The makers should have done way better with this story. The events are happening in 1994,but nothing seemed like 1994 at all. They just played some 90's songs back to back and that's it. The direction and cinematography were too weak. In fact the directior should be banned from doing horror movies. The actors were also terrible.

With all this negatives,the movie is still engaging (one time watch). That's why I'm giving 6.

Fear Street: 2021

[richy_palmer · 3/10 · 15 July 2021]

-Some great 90s music but horribly used.

-felt like a kids movie but had random gore.

-Kids acted like we're living in 2021 and the film felt like it was set in 2021.

-Acting was so bad. No sense of panic from the characters or emotions after death. Felt like they just grabbed some kids out from the nearest high school drama class and used random teachers as the sheriffs.

-While the three older characters in the movie at least looked like teenagers the nerdy computer kid looked about 12 and felt really out of place. And you know there's no way he'd be listening to Maiden and scoring his sister's friend in real life.

-Story was all over the place and ended up just being boring.... The list goes on and on.

Umm?

[TheMelancholySpirit · 9 July 2021]

What even was that? Wow was that hot garbage. Won't continue with the others.

Good movie

[jaysavage-12432 · 10/10 · 4 July 2021]

I didn't want to write a review but IMDB wouldn't allow me to rate the movie like I normally would. There was no area to give a starred rating for some reason.... This movie was good, comedy, action, drama, a good story line.

A serviceable slasher tribute and a very solid RL Stine adaptation albeit cliche.

[tresm87 · 7/10 · 2 July 2021]

Anything related to the legendary RL Stine is intriguing in my book. He has always nailed the tween/teen horror genre and this might honestly be the best adaptation we've gotten so far. The witty comedy stays true to the old stories as well as the brutality that surely hasn't been shown in any goosebumps series or movie yet. Blending all this together is the director's ode to 90s style slashers in the visuals and atmosphere of this intro film in the trilogy. This really could've been released in 1996 and we wouldn't know the difference. The cast is very well put together and bring these characters from the books to life very well. While sometimes the overall delivery can get cliché it's still maintains a great deal of entertainment value, and I can't wait to see what the next two films have in store in the fear street trilogy.

This movie failed on almost every level...

[matthewbrenwick · 1/10 · 3 July 2021]

It isn't scary, it isn't funny, it isn't thrilling, it isn't interesting. The only thing I liked was the soundtrack, but even then it felt so hollow as if they just googled "music from 1994" and called it a day (case in point, Bush didn't release their debut album until the very end of 1994).

It tried so hard to be stranger things (but the 90s) but failed to include anything to actually make someone nostalgic. The movie seemed to forget that just adding nineties stuff doesn't make it good. None of the characters were particularly likeable...by the end I was actively rooting for them to just die so it would be over. And no one in this movie acts like a real person. "Wow the girl I had a crush on was just murdered right in front of me, no big deal imma just order some pizza, chat with my friend online and call it a night aha"...."dang my boyfriend and two of my friends were murdered tonight, better go make out with my ex and listen to this sick mixed tape". Also, their whole plan was to restart Samantha's heart, and instead of using a defibrillator (you know, like the one in the ambulance they had already stolen) they thought it was a better idea to make her OD and hope for the best?

I could go on and on. Basically, this movie is a hot mess. You know there's a problem when the trailer you shoe horn at the end of your movie is more interesting than the movie itself.

Fear Street trilogy

[gorytus-20672 · 7/10 · 16 November 2023]

Nov 2023

I have recently just watched the Fear Street trilogy, which i had never heard of but apparently are based on some famous books.

On Netflix this film was described as It Follows vs Scream, both films i like so well worth me checking out.

The first film is set in 1994 and its a decent slasher film, i quite liked it.

The second film was set in 1978, and it was ok but not as good, as the biggest problem for me was we had completely new characters and actors than we had in the first film.

The third film is set in 1666, this didnt work at all for me, i eventually started to fast forward until it reached the half way point when it switched back to 1994 to complete what was started in the first film.

The first film works as a stand alone film, you dont need to watch the sequels, the ending it has is fine.

1994 - 7.5 out of 10 1978 - 5.5 out of 10 1666 - 5.5 out of 10 as the 2nd half was good.