Fear Street Part 3: 1666 (dir. Leigh Janiak, 2021) – After returning the missing hand to the burial ground, Deena watches the true history of Shadyside unfold through Sarah Fier’s eyes.
The tale of Sarah Fier is finally coming to an end. Through the eyes of Deena, Fier herself (also played by Kiana Madeira) is ready to reveal the terrible truth behind her dark history that intertwines with that of Shadyside. Travelling further back in time, Fear Street: 1666 takes us back to where the curse had first taken hold of their hometown.
Set in the 17th century, the stage is perfect for a pagan ritual to brew amid a superstitious folk. Quick to accuse Fier and Hannah (Olivia Scott Welch) of witchcraft because of their forbidden intimacy, the town soon finds their excuse to hang the women when a preacher goes mad and commits an unforgivable crime.
Fear Street Part 2: 1978 (dir. Leigh Janiak, 2021) – The story of Sarah Fier’s curse on Shadyside continues back in a summer camp in 1978.
Movie monsters tend not to stay dead. Slashers notoriously churn out sequel after sequel, allowing them to return unharmed and continue their slaughter fest in endless cyclical fashion. Unlike its genre predecessors, the Fear Street series has its narrative planned out right at the start. Rather than merely aiming for bloodier, the franchise has bigger plans, moving backwards in time in calculated steps towards its monster’s origins.
Part 2 follows the events of 1994 directly. With the help of her brother Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr.), Deena (Kiana Madeira) has found the sole survivor — or the final girl, if you will — of the witch’s curse 16 years ago. She asks for the truth that could save her partner’s life. Reluctantly, C. Berman (Gillian Jacobs) accedes and revisits her traumatic memories at Camp Nightwing back in 1978.
Fear Street Part 1: 1994 (dir. Leigh Janiak, 2021) – A group of teenagers uncovers the secrets to the brutal murders that have been plaguing their hometown.
Halloween has arrived early on Netflix that has unleashed a full line-up of brand new horror films, from The 8th Night to A Classic Horror Story. Among which, it is the Fear Street trilogy that has most horror fans talking – and for good reason too.
Set in a trendy mall of 1994, the first instalment lets loose a costumed killer, who takes an obvious leaf from the Scream playbook in his familiarly choreographed murder. The killer is eventually shot to death and unmasked. But his lack of motive points to a bigger mystery at hand.
76 Horror Bookstore – Tin Can of Fear (dir. David Chuang & Hung Tze Peng, 2019) – An anthology of four horror short films.
There is no telling what you will get with movie anthologies. Taiwanese production 76 Horror Bookstore is no different. While adapted from web novels by the same author, the four segments share few similarities, mismatched in tone, style, and even subgenres within horror.
That said, this one starts off strong. Set in an old apartment building, Rent(4/5) conjures the disquiet that comes naturally with its unsettlingly mysterious history. All this spells bad news for its latest tenant, lone and unable to afford a different place. More disconcerting than her new home is her landlord, who seems to hoard secrets of his own. Not every revelation makes sense, yet this detracts little from the excellent build-up.
Night in Paradise / Nagwonui bam (dir. Park Hoon-jung, 2021) – A hitman sets on a path of vindictive violence after his refusal to switch sides ends in personal tragedy.
Violence is a vicious cycle. Those who make a life out of it eventually find themselves imprisoned by its infinite loop, trapped in a bloodbath that starts soon as it ends until death. Night in Paradise chronicles this brutal fate of Tae-goo (Uhm Tae-goo), a hitman whose sister and niece were murdered after he rejected the offer to join the rival gang of Chairman Doh (Son Byung-ho).
To exact revenge, he kills Doh and his men and flees to Jeju Island. There, he finds shelter with arms dealer Kuto (Lee Gi-yeong) and his niece Jae-yeon (Jeon Yeo-bin). But peace doesn’t last long. Chaos re-ignites when the new leader hunts him down in a final act of retribution.
The New Mutants (dir. Josh Boone, 2020) – Superpowered teens fight to escape the secret facility keeping them against their will and unexpectedly, their darkest fears.
What can you say about a movie that never really had a chance to truly begin? Taking more than an hour to settle into any semblance of a coherent story, The New Mutants turns out as bland as rumoured, squandering the huge potential of a supposed horror-skewed X-Men chapter.
Laying bare its lack of interest in storytelling, the opening scene launches straight into the eye of an unnatural storm, as though its leading mutant needs no introduction. Young Native American Danielle Moonstar (Blu Hunt) comes into the picture screaming and confused as she witnesses her father’s death during their attempted escape.
