Returning to the year 1666 we get to see how it all started. How did Sarah Fier become the one handed witch who laid a curse on Shadyside and its citizens? 

Fear Street has been a horror trilogy that has grown in stature with each film and this final part to the trilogy caps it all off so well that it raises my opinion of the first film which I found merely fine. 

The lions share of this film is set in the past where actors from the previous two instalments play the main characters of a burgeoning settlement in 1666. Kiana Madeira who is our protagonist Deena in the modern day is now Sarah Fier and their lives have a very important parallel in that she is falling in love with a woman. It is just that in 1666 homosexuality is likely to get you vilified as a witch and blamed for the misfortunes of the town. 

I was really intrigued and entertained by both the story parallels and visual cues that this film shares with its two predecessors. Teenagers just want to party and enjoy themselves no matter the era, people fall in love regardless of gender and others dream of power and possessions. But perhaps most interesting was the major difference that adults are a major factor in this story. In the previous two films teenagers are mostly left on their own to fend for themselves against the monsters unleashed upon them. Here adults are around to react to things they do not understand and be the catalyst for the curse that later unleashes those monsters. 

All of this led me to thinking about how this final film adds so much more social commentary to the previous films enjoyable slasher roots. The Sunnyvale versus Shadyside dynamic is a commentary on how the rich get richer whilst the poor struggle in their shadow. And that the rich want to ensure this never changes. The third films revelations reveal how brandishing a woman to be a witch is very much the actions of a patriarchal society whilst it’s story of homosexuality across the films focuses on inclusion and how society can change for the better. All of this wrapped in a trilogy that pays homage to the horror films it is inspired by and delivering brutal and entertaining violence. 

After the brilliant jukebox musical choices in the first two films this one has to rely on a creepy score for the majority of its runtime thanks to its setting in the past. But as the story wraps up it does not disappoint and manages to include the likes of Offspring, Oasis and Pixies to its incredible soundtrack. 

All in all co-writer/director Leigh Janiak has delivered a fantastic achievement. A trilogy of horror films that build to be far more than the sum of their parts. 

My reviews for the original films are here:

Fear Street Part 1: 1994

Fear Street Part 2: 1978