That Horrible Pen

  Before reading this piece, I recommend reading my write-ups for Fear Street Part One and Part Two . It probably makes sense without doing so, but this final review and analysis does build on what I’ve already said. Review (Light Spoilers)             I’m not sure the final draft of my review of the second Fear Street film really captures my mixed viewing experience. I originally wrote a much more enthusiastically critical piece that I then changed because it turned out I’d missed some details (like how many short shorts were onscreen). The end-result was a positive impression but still a step down from how I felt about the first movie in the trilogy. I genuinely didn’t think 1978 was as inventive or fun to watch, and while it’s ultimately more about my subjective feelings than objective flaws, exactly, I still wasn’t looking forward to 1666 as much as I had been. I don’t normally do reviews and don’t like to plan a...

  Before reading this piece, I recommend reading my write-up for Fear Street Part One . It probably makes sense without doing so, but this review and analysis does build on what I’ve already said. Review (Light Spoilers) The first and foremost thing to consider with regard to Fear Street Part Two: 1978 is the hurdle of sequel-dom. My impulse is to ask the question of whether Part Two holds up on its own as a film (as a work of art) absent the larger context of its role as the middle chapter in a trilogy, and maybe that’s not a good impulse or even a workable one. The movie is securely bound to the larger Fear Street narrative, as its main story, set in the late 70s, is bookended by “present day” (1994 in the film’s timeline) sections pulling it backward to the previous movie and forward to the final chapter. There’s a split focus here that I think does the movie a disservice, not just because it makes it hard to evaluate on its own merits but because it raises questions of p...