Fear Street Part 3: 1666 (2021)

Movie Info

Trapped in the past like a bad episode of Dark Shadows?!?!? Get ready for some cheesy “thee” and “thou” talk

Reunited Sarah Fier’s hand to her body has sent Deena (Kiana Madeira) into the past and the start of Sarah Fier’s curse on the town of Shadyside.  Trapped in Sarah’s body Deena learns that the stories the children of Shadyside and Sunnyside have been told about Sarah aren’t all true, and that the real terror could be someone much closer.  Sarah Fier will continue to haunt the present unless Deena, her brother Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr.), and Ziggy Berman (Gillian Jacobs) can stop it.

Directed by Leigh Janiak, Fear Street Part 3:  1666 is a horror supernatural slasher movie.  Following Fear Street Part 2:  1978 released one week before, the film is the final entry of Netflix’s Fear Street Trilogy which adapts the stories of R.L. Stine which began in 1989.

I never read a Goosebumps or Fear Street book, so I have no nostalgia or soft spot for them.  By the time they were both out, I was already reading Stephen King and other horror novelists “for adults”.  While Fear Street was meant to be a young-adult to adults series, the translation to film has felt a bit rocky.  It seems to want to be both and unlike a PG-13 movie, Fear Street can’t seem to pick a side.  Due to plot aspects, a ******spoiler alert****** is in effect.

…the worst version of the Monster Squad

The story plot of this entry is a bit of a head-fake though it isn’t a big surprise.  The Fear Street Part 3:  1666 is only about half the movie and then it segues into Fear Street:  1994—Part 2.  The 1666 portion provides the origin of the Sarah Fier and does it by drawing parallels between Sarah and Deena (and further trying to create parallels by recasting many actors from the previous two films in the 1666 setting).  1666 exposes the true villain (the too good to be true Nick Goode), 1994—Part 2 is Deena, Josh, and Ziggy trying to bring him down.  Due how the story was set-up, it was pretty obvious that the story would revert back to 1994 and have to be finished there.

The cast still struggles a bit with the roles.  No one is bad, but no one is a stand-out.  Ashley Zukerman as the “big bad” villain feels pretty weak, and I wish a better actor had been hired for the role.  I also feel that the Martin character played by Darrell Britt-Gibson who appeared in Fear Street Part 1:  1994 had been more incorporated into the story (like maybe show how he was affected by the Sunnyside-Shadyside curse in 1978).  It felt a little out of place to bring him in as a main character so late in the game.

The uninspired killer is attacking the so-so final girl!!!

The horror is a bit better in this entry with a bit more tension.  The second entry still probably holds up the best in that aspect, but both eclipse the first film.  A lot of the 1666 stuff felt like generic “colonial” stuff and it also felt like it should have been a bit more modern (like 1766 or 1866).  It felt like a bad knock-off of The Witch as it was presented here.  I like that the better and cooler killers got a bit more play in this entry in the final battle at the mall.

Fear Street Part 3:  1666 underwhelms like much of the Fear Street series, but both the second and third parts showed improvements on the initial entry.  I don’t know that Fear Street has the wrong idea in how it is made, but if it is going to go horror, it feels like it should go complete horror…especially if it is an homage to classic slashers.  Swearing, nudity, jump scares, and lots of blood were essential to classic slashers, and Fear Street doesn’t match up, but it is also not progressive enough to be considered a reflection or a post-modern horror film.  It needs more of an identity…and hopefully if we return to Fear Street, it will get one.

Related Links:

Fear Street Part 1:  1994 (2021)

Fear Street Part 2:  1978 (2021)