MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
The Evil and The Dead
Netflix
Who doesn’t love a hoard of reanimated, supernatural murderers rising from the dead to reap the blood of all those in their path? The presence of ghosts and demons is not an uncommon plot device in the horror genre. The ghosts of the Fear Street trilogy serve as supernatural possessions that are believed to be under the control of a witch who has cursed the land. There is no killing these murderous beings unless the curse is broken. Fear Street is full of Easter eggs calling back to some of the most influential horror films that are still highly recommended today — one of which is 1981’s The Evil Dead. Sam Raimi’s gorey demon nightmare involved a book of demons and their control over the woods. Aside from the array of practical effects used for the possessions of Ash’s friends, one of the creepiest scenes is when the woods attack his sister. The branches shoot up from beneath, pulling her down and wrapping her in their grasp. This scene calls to the movie cover’s artwork as a hand bursting out of the ground pulls a young girl underneath. Fear Street takes this and transforms it by making the teens believe that the hand that is below the ground controls those above. Much like the demons who are never actually seen in The Evil Dead, Fear Street’s ghouls are possessed by something that cannot be seen.
Cursed land and Native American burial grounds are the anchor to so many ghost stories. Stephen King’s Pet Sematary and The Shining are two of the most popular. However, the Fear Street trilogy pulls reference to Tobe Hooper’s Poltergeist in its explanation of how to stop the curse of alleged witch Sarah Fier. The group of teens comes to the conclusion that the only way to stop the curse is to reunite Fier’s hand with her body.
Camp Blood
Netflix
When the killer was announced for the second installment to the Fear Street movies, it was clear that Camp Crystal Lake and its infamous killer Jason Vorhees were the inspiration for the setting. In the Fear Street universe, the Camp Nightwing killer wasn’t the first to terrorize and murder teens. Nightwing Killer is originally the possessed boyfriend of Cindy Burman. After an attempted attack, his head gets covered by a bag in an attempt to smother him. The bag remains on his head for not only the remainder of the film, but for the entire film series. The reference is ripped straight out of Friday the 13th Part II where it is revealed that Jason, the son of Mrs. Vorhees, is alive and wears a bag over his head to hide the deformity of his face. The camp of and in itself is a modernized construction of Camp Crystal Lake. Even the Nightwing Killer’s shirt is carefully constructed to match the counselors’ shirts in original Friday the 13th.
Cold-Blooded Cold Open
The 90s have slowly crept their way into main stream pop culture. With the budding success of 2022’s Scream, the horror genre has been once again flipped on its head with meta-based content. Fear Street Part 1: 1994 calls onto its 1996 predecessor Scream to mimic the infamous cold open in which Drew Barrymore’s character Casey Becker falls victim within the first ten minutes of the movie. Maya Hawke plays Heather, a young girl working at the bookstore in the mall. She is greeted by a friend, Ryan Torres, who becomes unwillingly possessed. Before he finally captures Heather, there is a chase scene throughout the mall. The two find themselves in a Hot Topic-like store with plenty of blacklights to illuminate the translucent posters on the wall. Shortly after, she is chased and murdered in a scene that is straight out of Scream. Shot for shot, the Skull Mask Killer finishes off his victim, but before he can, he is unmasked and revealed to be Ryan Torres. Heather shows the audience who her killer is, unlike Scream where it is only revealed to Casey. Maya Hawke was expected to be a much larger part of the Fear Street trilogy, but like Drew Barrymore, her death within the first ten minutes of the film helps create the notion that nobody is safe. Perhaps not even the alleged final girl.
Horror has left its mark on each generation, helping fans young and old see the possibilities of the genre grow with each passing year. The Fear Street Trilogy is comfortable and lived-in. It is bound in books and brought to life with callbacks to the 90s to be its guide. Familiarity is few and far between in the genre, as horror seeks to provoke the strange and uncomfortable. Yet, it is in this discomfort that so many find comfort and homage amongst the wreckage.
