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In a stage drama surprise, many of the actors from “Part One” and “Two” return in new, 17th-century roles, sporting colonial rags and period speech that nobody quite pulls off. The final installment, “Part Three: 1666” backpedals to an even earlier time, bringing us to the village of Sarah Fier.
#FEAR STREET COLOR WAR SERIES#
Carnage and a series of close calls follow, but the change in scenery ensures that “Part Two” never feels like a clone of “Part One.” The actors help: The combined talents of Sink, Rudd and Ryan Simpkins, as Cindy’s co-counselor Alice, raise the tension by a few notches. The place gets especially gruesome once the sun sets and a killer - again, a Shadysider accursed - turns color war into a red rampage.
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Think “Wet Hot American Summer” infused with the macabre. This part of the story centers on two sisters spending a summer at Nightwing: Ziggy (Sadie Sink), a sneering misfit camper, and the elder Cindy (Emily Rudd), a priggish, type-A counselor. Motifs accompany overt references to classic horror movies, as when Simon cites a survival strategy he learned from “Poltergeist.” His borrowed idea turns out to be a bust, inspiring Deena to proclaim that their emergency “is not like the movies.” Using an abundance of playful genre tropes, Janiak gives the movies a stylized energy. Leigh Janiak, who directed the trilogy and co-wrote the three screenplays, has deftly adapted Stine’s stories for the screen. Why Sarah is holding a centuries-long grudge against Shadyside is one of the mysteries powering Deena’s journey. And then there’s the 17th-century witch, Sarah Fier, who possesses their corpses and orders them to strike from beyond the grave.
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Deena discovers that the undead killers are Shadyside’s deceased mass murderers. More methodical are the forces behind the zombies’ reanimation. In other scenes, they take ages to track down their teenage targets - long enough, say, for a pair of exes to make up and make out. Sometimes a mere trace of blood is enough to allow the menaces to sniff out their prey and pounce. The “Fear Street” universe’s rules of zombie conduct are not especially consistent. Every few decades, Shadyside is the site of a mass murder, and each time, the killer is an apparently stable resident who just seems to snap. Nearby, a golden glow falls over the sublime Sunnyvale, Shadyside’s richer, snootier neighbor.
#FEAR STREET COLOR WAR FULL#
Shadyside is drab and dejected, full of cynical kids who work hard and play harder. Stine, the “Fear Street” movies take place in side-by-side suburbs. This Grand Guignol was an ambitious experiment for the streamer, and it mostly succeeds: “Fear Street,” an engaging and scrappy mini-franchise, plays like “Scream” meets “Stranger Things” built on a supernatural premise sturdy enough to sustain interest and suspense over nearly six hours.īased on books by R.L. Released on Netflix on consecutive Fridays, the three movies that make up the event straddle the line between weekly television and cinematic franchise. Like fresh entrails sewn into an old skeleton, the “Fear Street” trilogy is a new creature.
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