Fear Street Part Three: 1666 (2021)


When Deena (Kiana Madeira) and Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr.) reunite the severed hand and skeletal remains of the witch Sarah Fier in an attempt save Deena’s ex-girlfriend Sam (Olivia Scott Welch), Deena experiences a vision which reveals the origins of the curse that has plagued her town for centuries. 

After introducing audiences to the doomed residents of the cursed town of Shadyside (Part 1) and exploring fragments of the town’s grisly curse in more detail (Part 2), director Leigh Janiak and her co-writers Phil Graziadei and Kate Trefry, now take a deep dive into the origins of the curse, flashing back to 1666 and introducing us to the alleged instigator, the witch Sarah Fier. As with the previous films, viewers can expect twists and revelations – and, finally, some answers – regarding the dark history of Shadyside. Many of the actors from the previous two films return to portray characters from the town’s past, direct ancestors of the characters they previously played. Rather akin to Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004), this helps the audience to immediately identify with characters as well as establish a strong sense of ancestry. This duality bolsters the overarching themes of the trilogy regarding (Queer) identity, class, and generational conflict. The exploration of the rivalry between Shadyside and Sunnyvale reveals tragedy, injustice, and violent intolerance…


At the heart of Part 3 is a Queer love story and a powerful commentary on the persecution of women and minority groups, specifically the LGBT+ community. A vicious witch hunt is set in motion when Sarah (Madeira and Elizabeth Scopel) falls for her neighbour Hannah (Scott Welch), the preacher’s daughter. Their relationship is regarded as unnatural and unholy by their puritan community. Before long, they are accused of witchcraft and fraternising with the Devil. The film is at its most powerful when it highlights the thread of persecution of those seen as ‘different’ by a fearful and ignorant society, from the past all the way to present day, where there are still places in the world where being gay is punishable by death. Tension mounts as grave injustices are inflicted upon the two young women, and there’s a hefty emotional wallop when the fate of Sarah Fier is finally, achingly revealed, and we come to understand why her anger continues to enshroud the town from all those centuries ago. Of course, there are several more twists and revelations when the story races ahead to the 90s again, and Deena and co must race against time in a climactic bid for survival. And justice.

The Fear Street trilogy has been an immensely entertaining and thrilling ghost train-ride, and Part 3 offers a fitting and wholly appropriate finale. Throughout the thrills and chills and bloodshed, Janiak has centred the characters, giving audiences relatable and sympathetic figures to root for. The overall story arc segues seamlessly between films, consistently building to a very crowd-pleasing climax while enriching the mythology. That the series centres around a Queer love story is also remarkable. And meaningful. LGBT+ representation in mainstream horror is still relegated to the periphery. Sure, there might be gay characters in certain titles, but often their inclusion feels tokenistic. Here, we have a story that not only features gay characters but centres them. Their love for each other is what motivates the action at the heart of proceedings (Deena is trying to save Sam, who was possessed by Sarah Fier) and offers them hope of a happy ending. 

Popular posts from this blog

Whistle and I’ll Come to You (2010)

Image
Dir. Andy de Emmony After placing his senile wife in a care home, retired astronomer James Parkin (John Hurt) heads for the coast to revisit their ‘old haunts’, including the now out-of-season hotel they honeymooned in. By day he is stalked along the windswept beaches by a spectral figure dressed in white, and by night he is terrorised by strange sounds and someone, or something, attempting to enter his room… In the 2000s BBC4 attempted to reignite the old Ghost Story at Christmas tradition by adapting MR James’s A View from a Hill (2005) and Number 13 (2006). This series was seemingly short lived though, as their next outing wasn’t until 2010, and an unusual reinterpretation of James’s classic chiller Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad . While de Emmony’s direction captures the atmosphere and tone of James very well, this film differs significantly from other adaptations, including Jonathan Miller’s supremely unsettling 1968 take . Neil Cross’s screenplay only incorpo...
Read more

Halloween: Resurrection

Image
2002 Dir. Rick Rosenthal Four years after mistakenly killing a man she thought to be her brother (really, Dimension Films? Really ?), long-suffering Laurie Strode is eventually hunted down by her not really dead actual brother, crazier-than-bat-shit Michael Myers, and murderlised. Making his way back home to Haddonfield, Myers discovers the crew of an online reality show has taken over his house (!) to broadcast a Halloween special featuring a group of dumb-fuck teenagers dared to spend the night in the house of ill-repute. Naturally he goes on yet another killing spree. And it's all caught on camera and broadcast online for other dumb-fuck teenagers to watch. Yes, all of this actually really happens. It really fucking happens. Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later did not warrant a sequel. It was intended not only as a twentieth anniversary celebration of John Carpenter's classic chiller , but as a way to draw the series to a close, with its original heroine finally co...
Read more

Caveat (2020)

Image
Isaac, a brooding drifter suffering from memory loss, agrees to look after Olga, the niece of his acquaintance Moe. A troubled woman prone to bouts of catatonia, Olga lives in an old, ramshackle house on an isolated island in the middle of a dark lake. Isaac agrees to wear a chained harness that prevents him from going into certain rooms. He gradually comes to learn of the unsettling history of the house and the unquiet dead it harbours within its walls... Written and directed by Damian McCarthy,  Caveat  is steeped in the Gothic tradition. With distinct echoes of the work of Edgar Allan Poe, it is ripe with a lingering atmosphere of morbidity and decay. McCarthy's screenplay toys with themes such as psychological rot, dark family secrets, and the aftermath of unspeakable violence and cruelty. The story unfolds within the creepy confines of the lonely, mouldy house, with myriad forbidden rooms, hidden passageways and concealed bloody secrets. The house itself is cut off from c...
Read more