Fear Street: 1994

***Fear Street Part One: 1994*** (titled onscreen as ***Fear Street 1994***) is a 2021 American supernatural slasher film directed by Leigh Janiak, with a script co-written by Phil Graziadei and Janiak, from an original story by Kyle Killen, Graziadei, and Janiak. Based on the book series of the same name by R. L. Stine, it is the first installment in the *Fear Street* trilogy and stars Kiana Madeira, Olivia Scott Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr., Julia Rehwald, Fred Hechinger, Ashley Zukerman, Darrell Britt-Gibson and Maya Hawke. The film follows a group of teenagers in Shadyside who are terrorized by an ancient evil responsible for a series of brutal murders that have plagued the town for centuries.

Development of a film based on *Fear Street* began in 1997 when Hollywood Pictures acquired the rights to the series but the project never materialized. The project re-entered development at 20th Century Fox in 2015, with Janiak hired to direct and rewrite Killen's script with Graziadei in 2017. Produced by Chernin Entertainment, filming for the trilogy took place back-to-back from March to September 2019 in Georgia with the film set for a theatrical release in June 2020. However, the trilogy was pulled from the schedule because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, Chernin Entertainment ended their distribution deal with 20th Century Studios and gave distribution rights to Netflix in August 2020.

*Fear Street Part One: 1994* premiered at the Los Angeles State Historic Park on June 28, 2021, and was released on Netflix on July 2, 2021, with the other entries, *Part Two: 1978* and *Part Three: 1666*, released weekly. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances of the cast, the horror elements and faithfulness to the source material.

## Blurb

***"After a series of brutal slayings, a teen and her friends take on an evil force that's plagued their notorious town for centuries. Welcome to Shadyside."***

## Plot

##### *The Mall Massacre*

The film starts out with a black screen with a teenage girl's voice piercing the silence. "*It began as a prank and ended in murder.*"

The first character we are introduced to is Heather Watkins an employee of B. Dalton's Bookstore in the Shadyside Mall. She is selling the book "The Wrong Number" to a very rude Sunnyvale Customer. Heather is a huge horror fan and praises the book, but the customer disagrees, calling the book as a trash and low-brow horror. Trying to hide her anger, Heather sells the book and the customer leaves, not noticing Heather giving her the middle finger.

Fast forward to the night, The Shadyside Mall is closing, the lights are all off except for the neon ones, giving the mall a futuristic vibe. Heather is closing the bookstore when the telephone rings. It's her best friend, Ryan Torres, another mall employee, who works the next store. She asks her since when she works late, and she answers since her mom used her last paycheck on scratch tickets instead of the gas bill. Then, the line goes dead. She leaves the store to look for Ryan, when a slamming of doors makes her turn in fright. It was just the mall janitor, Martin Franklin, who bids her goodnight and leaves. She sighs in relief, just as Ryan scares her from behind with an inflatable doll.

He apologizes to her and she says that she will only accept it if he takes her home, as she doesn't want to go home alone. Ryan tells Heather to wait 15 minutes until he closes the shop. But as he walks back to the store, he hears an ominous, creepy voice calling his name. He assumes it was Heather and answers, and she, not understanding anything, just calls him weirdo, as she didn't say anything. A few minutes later, Heather is inside the store organizing the books to leave, when she sees a book fell off the shelf. She goes to it and, when she is putting it on the shelf, a figure runs after her, making her jump in fright and turn around.

She calls out to whoever it was, and sees another fallen book. Afterwards, Heather assumes it is Ryan playing another prank on her. We see a hooded figure follow her, while Heather notices fallen orange juice, along with blood splatters. Heather turns around in time when she hears a noise and the figure attacks her with a knife, but she blocks it with the book she was holding. She screams in terror and runs away from the figure, who's wearing a skull halloween mask. She goes for the store door, dropping to the floor, diving for it...she wedges her upper body through. The figure grabs hold of her feet. With one last furious effort, Heather kicks, knocking him away and escapes.

Heather runs away, calling for Ryan, and enters the store where he works to look for him. When she doesn't find it, she notices a phone and hides behind the counter to dial the police. She watches the figure run through the mall in search of her. She calls the police and says she's in the Shadyside Mall, but stops when she hears the killer's footsteps. Skull Mask sees her and she flees. The woman on the other line says if she doesn't answer they will send help. Skull Mask enters the store, where Heather crawls to flee. She gets up and eyes the store, but doesn't see him. She is startled by the Skull Mask beside her, but sees that it is only a mask for sale. She walks silently and sees the exit, heading for it, but Skull Mask appears from behind and slashes her belly. She bolts like a rocket, goes for a locked door. She eyes the store again, sees the killer walking across the place.

Skull Mask searches for her, as she hides beside the blow-up doll, and soon has an idea. Later, Skull Mask sees a mark of her bloody hand printed on the wall and goes for it. He attacks, but its the doll. Heather appears from behind and bashes him in the head with a neon light fixture. She runs out of the store, screaming for help across the mall food court, but sees that everyone present is dead. All this yelling draws the attention of Skull Mask, who runs after her and manages to stab her in the back. She drops to the floor, and he stabs her in the chest. She takes off her mask, seeing that it's Ryan, who doesn't seem to recognize her, nor does he hear her. Ryan suddenly receives a headshot from Nick Goode, and the two friends die together.

##### *Morning In Shadyside*

We are introduced to Deena Johnson, who is in her bedroom writing a note to her ex, Sam. "~~Dear Sam, I hate you.~~" "~~Dear Sam, I wish we never met.~~" She writes one more sentence when the alarm rings, she leaves the room and we find out what she wrote was: "Dear Sam, Go fuck yourself. -Love, Deena."

##### *Stop The Bus!*

On the bus back to Shadyside, Kate is in a rage at being punched and commoves the crowd of angry Shadysiders. The crowd applauds her, and Simon stirs up the students even more. Deena, who was isolated from everyone, sees headlights approaching the bus. She goes to the back door and sees that three Sunnyvale students are in a car chasing the bus. She calls out to Kate and Simon when Lee, one of the Sunnyvalers (who is wearing a skull mask), throws a bottle of something at the bus. Lee throws another bottle onto the bus and Deena, Kate and Simon discover that the other two Sunnyvalers are: Peter and Sam. As Deena grabs a cooler, Simon presses his ass against the door window while saying "Sunnyvale Sucks!".

In the car, Sam begs Peter to stop. He says her to chill. Back to the bus, Deena opens the cooler and tells a confused Kate to open the door, which she does. Deena plans to throw the cooler in the car, which Kate reluctantly helps, but they stop when Kate tells Deena that her nose is bleeding. Kate backs away and Deena, scared, accidentally drops the cooler on the car, which loses control and falls into the forest. In despair, Deena yells the driver to stop the bus.

##### *The Market Massacre*

Deena turns to see the Skull Mask killer running towards them, knife raised, ready to attack them. Kate arrives just in time and saves them with a makeshift flamethrower made from a lighter and hairspray. Deena and Sam run away and Kate hides behind the bakery counter. Deena considers drowning Sam on the lobster tank. Kate spies Skull Mask through the cake window until she loses sight of him. He quickly finds her, pulls her by the hair, and tries to stab her in the chest, but she blocks it with her forearm. He tries to stab her in the chest again, but she is faster again and blocks the blow with a metal cupcake pan. Kate tries to escape, but is pushed to the ground, and in the meantime, her body hits the lever of a bread slicer, activating it. Skull Mask jumps into the bakery space, as Kate tries to escape, but he manages to catch up to her and slams her face into a cake.

While Simon runs interference at the stock, he is attacked by Ruby Lane, who tries to slash his neck with her razor blade, but he notices the atemptive, shoves the boxcutter to her throat, and runs. Josh runs interference in the aislees and is attacked by The Nightwing Killer, who almost axes him. As Kate screams, Deena desperately tries to drown Sam.

    Skull Mask chokes Kate and stabs her in the stomach, but Kate pulls the knife out of her stomach with a kick to the killer, but he throws her onto a worktop. When Kate realizes that she is about to be pushed into the bread slicer, she tries to fight off Skull Mask, but despite her efforts, he pushes her head directly into the machine's blades. When Simon leaves the stocks, he finds Josh, who just escaped from The Nightwing Killer, and he shouts to him to go as Ruby is after him. They run through the supermarket aislees until they stop in shock when they see Kate's bloodied and headless body hanging out of the bread slicer. But, as they turn to face each other, the Nightwing Killer appears and axes Simon's head, while Josh runs away, scared to death.

## Cast (In Credits Order)

* Maya Hawke as Heather Watkins
* Charlene Amoia as Rachel Thompson/Sunnyvale Costumer
* David W. Thompson as Ryan Torres (as David Thompson)
* Noah Bain Garret as Skull Mask (as Noah Garrett)
* Darrell Britt-Gibson as Martin Franklin
* Ashley Zukerman as Nick Goode
* Jana Allen as TV Reporter #1
* Kiana Madeira as Deena Johnson
* Benjamin Flores Jr. as Josh Johnson
* Julia Rehwald as Kate Schmidt
* Fred Hechinger as Simon Kalivoda
* Matt Burke as Football Coach
* Christian Bridges as Fun Shadyside Football Player
* Matthew Zuk as Mayor Will Goode
* Olivia Scott Welch as Samantha "Sam" Fraser
* Jeremy Ford as Peter
* Jaime Matthis as Shadyside Player
* Danyon Huntington as Sunnyvale Skullmask
* Elizabeth Scopel as Sarah Fier
* Tayla Rogers as Babysitting Twin #1
* Maya Rogers as Babysitting Twin #2
* Jordana Spiro as Mrs. Lane
* Diane Sellers as Check In Nurse
* Eric Mendenhall as Nurse Beddy
* Todd Allen Durkin as Officer Kapinski
* Jordyn DiNatale as Ruby Lane
* Lloyd Pitts as Nightwing Killer
* Kevin Waterman as 'The Milkman' Harry Rooker
* Emily Brobst as Billy Barker
* Keil Oakley Zepernick as 'Shame Killer' Isaac Milton
* Michael Chandler as 'The Pastor' Cyrus Miller
* Lacy Camp as Mrs. Fraser
* Meghan Packer as TV Reporter #2
* Gillian Jacobs as C. Berman