Fear Street Part 1: 1994

## Release

***Fear Street Part 1: 1994*** is the first movie of *The Fear Street Trilogy*. The film is based upon the book series of the same name by the author, R.L. Stine. Development for the film began in 2015 at 20th Century Studios, Leigh Janiak was hired as director in 2017, and filming took place from early to mid 2019, back to back with its two sequels.

The films were planned to be released theatrically in 2020, but plans changed due to Covid-19; the film was released on July 2, 2021 as a Netflix Original. It received generally positive reviews from film critics.

Two sequels — *Fear Street Part 2: 1978* and *Fear Street Part 3: 1666* — were released in the following two weeks after the first film's Netflix release.

## Plot

On the night of the 30th of September 1994, Heather Watkins finishes her shift at the book store in Shadyside Mall. As she does, she comes across her co-worker Ryan Torres but eventually leaves him to his antics but Ryan's behaviour soon changes as he falls to the Shadyside curse and targets Heather. As Heather runs through the mall, she discovers the bodies of other mall workers only to be grabbed by the killer and gutted. As she starts dying, she grabbed the mask and revealed who it was that hunted her down. Sherriff Nick Goode then arrived but came late to the scene as he shoots Ryan in the forehead also killing him. The Shadyside Mall murders are soon reported on the news which continues to dub their home town as murder capital of the United States with Sunnyvale being the polar opposite. The murders are blamed on Shadyside's local legend, a witch named Sarah Fier who supposedly possesses innocent Shadysiders and makes them kill every decade.

The next day, Deena Johnson tries writing a letter to her ex-girlfriend, Samantha Fraser but soon goes to find her brother, Josh, who is downstairs on the computer and gets him to leave for school. As the two arrive, Deena remains in her upset mood due to her recent breakup with her girlfriend. As Josh walks down the corridor, he is drawn to looking at Kate Schmidt, one of his sister's friends and his crush. As Deena makes her way to the bathroom, she finds Kate and Simon Kalivoda who believe the recent murders were that of Sarah, a belief Deena does not share. The latter is soon convinced by her friends to join them at the vigil dressing up in her band outfit. At the vigil hosted by the Goodes who are showing their respect for the loss of the Heather, Deena noticed Sam and Peter within the crowd, the latter then grabbed Sam's butt as the vigil continued. A fight then broke out causing the two sides to become aggressive to one another. Upon returning home, Kate lead the charge in verbally hating Sunnvale, as the bus drove on, a car soon began tailing them and reveals the driver to be Peter, the car also has Sam inside who is sat next to him.

Kate and Deena grabbed a nearby cooler and attempted to throw it at the tailgating car in an attempt to retaliate but their efforts were stopped once Deena gained a nosebleed. As the cooler falls, Peter loses control and his car crashes, he and Sam survive but the latter sees visions of Sarah Fier. As Nick interrogates those involved, Peter quietly shows his annoyance at the state of his car but Deena retaliates and claims his dad will just buy a new one with the two being careful how they confront each other in the presence of the Sherriff. As the situation continues, Sam is taken to the hospital to be checked for any further injuries.

That night, Deena and Josh are at home with Kate and Simon babysitting. As Deena wanders around the house, she calls the hospital in hopes to hear how her ex is doing only for Ms Fraser to answer and claim Deena just wants to make Sam's life a misery even more, she then states her daughter is fine but not to call again. As the call goes dead, Deena grabs a drumstick and hits it against a drawer in frustration causing it to splinter. As she hears the door knocking, she tries getting Josh to answer but he doesn't hear him. As Deena goes to answer the door, she sees nobody there but then she notices a figure cloaked in a disguise and believes it to be Peter who is out for revenge for what had happened at the crash. Kate then drops the children she is with off at Mary Lane's house and the two head to the Johnson house not pleased with the fact their friends are being stalked.

Wanting to confront Sam for sending Peter to scare them, Deena and the other three head to the hospital. Sam lays in bed eating jelly and resting wearing her school's athletic department hoodie for warmth where she is soon confronted by her ex who demands Peter stop what he is doing. As Sam continues to tell her that her boyfriend is innocent, Peter arrives only to be soon stabbed by Ryan who appears in his skull mask costume in an attempt to kill his next victims. As Peter dies, Deena and Sam run out of the run and back to the others. Upon going to leave the hospital, bodies of the hospital staff laid on the floor after being killed by Ryan. After stealing an ambulance, the group made their way to the police station to report the incident.

Nick and the other officer named Kapinski are in the office when only Sam and Deena walk in to report the massacre and who the culprit was. Nick offers to talk to them and Kapisnki leaves his boss to it. As the conversation continues, Nick shows his distrust in the two teenagers and does not believe them as he states the department has been getting prank calls and sends the two on their way. As the two go to leave, Deena lashes out at Kapinski who grabs at her and gets her to behave insisting that the girl's boyfriends need to calm them down unaware that his gun was stolen. Outside, Simon began peeing against a wall but only stopped when he noticed a girl a short distance away from him, as he approached her, she got up and violently attacked him attempting to kill him with her razor only for her to be shot in the forehead by Deena.

With the group now safely back at the Johnson house, Josh explains who Simon's attacker was and says that her name is Ruby Lane. When Kate notes her confusion saying she doesn't remember her murders being reported on the news only for Josh to further explain that Ruby's massacre happened in 1965. As the conversation continues, Josh mentions the Camp Nightwing murders and Kate says that her aunt was one of the victims and that the death messed her family up. Sam then leaves the room and Deena follows her ex and the two manage to slowly reconcile now their lives are in danger. After reconciling, the two return to the others and they head back to the car crash site to visit Sarah's grave.

At the group, the four try to "un-disturb" the grave by trying to cover it back up with the red moss. As this happens, Tommy appears not too far away but charges past Josh who is near him. Back in the ambulance, the teenagers question why the curse is still active since they fixed the gravesite but come to a conclusion that it isn't as easy as it is in the movies and then further realise that the killer's intended victim was Sam. As they argue, Deena protests and notes that Simon was also targeted but Kate them debunks her by showing the group that Simon was only attacked because he had some of Sam's blood on his shirt and shoe that Sam vomited up after the crash. Wanting the curse to end for good, the teenagers come to a conclusion that it would only stop if Sam dies much to Deena's disagreement. Eventually, she hesitantly agrees and they all head to their school.

At the school, the five swap into clothes from the lost and found box so that the killers wouldn't be able to track them by using blood stains from what they were wearing before. In the bathroom, Sam and Deena reconcile and begin making out as Sweet Jane plays. As they kiss, Josh and Kate are in the same bathroom stall with Josh checking the former for any injuries and Simon on his own admiring himself in another bathroom mirror. As they all leave together, Simon notes the guilty expressions and questions if they went to what he calls "pound-town" and despite no verbal answer, he proudly claims that so did he. As their plan comes into motion, the summoned killers are trapped in the bathroom and set on fire to only reanimate and come back to life where as they chase the others down, the group barricade themselves in a room and discover that there was a survivor from 1978 who may be able to help them and that she goes by the name of C.Berman. Deena tries calling her but she has no luck as nobody answers. Not wanting to die, the five all come to a realisation that Sam will have to die just like how C.Berman did, be killed but then revived soon after as a way to trick their attackers. Managing to escape, the five leave the school and head for the supermarket where Simon and Kate work.

At the supermarket, Simon explains to his friends what to do and how to resuscitate Sam once she is considered dead. Deena comforts her girlfriend and takes her over to a nearby tank to use as a way to drown Sam. As the plan begins, Tommy, Ruby and Ryan are summoned to stop them with Josh, Kate and Simon being forced to defend themselves. But as Deena desperately tries killing Sam, Ryan overpowers Kate and shoves her head into a bread slicer which instantly kills her, Tommy then appears and slams his axe into Simon's head which also kills him, Josh then witnesses this but runs before he becomes the next victim. As Sam slowly dies, the killers vanish but she is slowly revived by Deena using the method Simon told her. That morning, although not wanting to, Deena blames the recent murders on her friends and Nick says that the story would be the two were high on drugs. Despite not liking the idea of throwing her now deceased friends under the bus that way, Deena agrees to the story and leaves the police station with Sam.

That night, Deena and Sam are cuddling in bed but the former soon gets up and gets a call from C.Berman who claims that the witch isn't done. Sam, now possessed, gets closer to Deena holding the fractured drumstick which Deena had broke earlier, she non-fatally stabs her but is soon subdued and tied up to prevent another accident. Deena promised to get her back.

## Cast

* Kiana Madeira as Deena Johnson
* Olivia Scott Welch as Samantha Fraser
* Benjamin Flores Jr. as Josh Johnson
* Julia Rehwald as Kate Schmidt
* Fred Hechinger as Simon Kalivoda
* Ashley Zukerman as Nick Goode
* Darrell Britt-Gibson as Martin
* Maya Hawke as Heather Watkins
* Jordana Spiro as Mrs. Lane
* Jordyn DiNatale as Ruby Lane
* David W. Thompson as Ryan Torres
* Jeremy Ford as Peter Brody
* Elizabeth Scopel as Sarah Fier
* Gillian Jacobs as C. Berman