Netflix has been dominating the horror movie scene throughout the month of July with the release of its Fear Street trilogy event. Dropping a sequel the week after the premiere of its predecessor is a gutsy move. Doing it twice in a row is particularly unheard of. And yet, probably the craziest thing they’ve done with this series is to set the concluding chapter in Puritan times. Yes, Fear Street Part Three: 1666 is here and ready to go full Crucible. Surprisingly, it really works.
Written in the faux Olde English language of films like The VVitch, 1666 tells the origin story of the Shadyside town curse from the point of view of the woman who legend says cast it. At the end of last week’s film, trilogy heroine Deena (Kiana Madeira) made contact with the skeleton of Sarah Fier, the famed witch whose dying curse still haunts the town. Through this contact, she was seemingly cast back to Sarah’s time period, where this final chapter picks up.
Although the film itself is somewhat vague on what exactly has happened to Deena, it is eventually explained that Sarah is allowing her to experience her story through her own eyes, thus both characters are played by Madeira. In fact, the entire cast of the first two films is back as well, now playing their colonial ancestors. It’s pretty high concept, but eventually you settle into the rules of this new world and enjoy the ride you’re being taken on.
It turns out these Puritan teenagers have a lot in common with their contemporary counterparts. As series Writer/Director Leigh Janiak expertly demonstrates, history has been repeating itself in Shadyside for generations. Much like Deena and Sam in the ’90s, Sarah Fier, it turns out, also had a forbidden relationship with her girlfriend Hannah (the dual roles of Olivia Scott Welch). When the crops rot and the water goes bad, tensions start to flare and rumors fly throughout the small settlement. One possessed murderer later, the town goes full witch hunt on their LGBTQ neighbors. Through this story, 1666 is essentially a parable about the real monster at the heart of this series: homophobia.
1666 returns full force to the themes and social commentary of 1994, to great effect. It even builds well off the character development and backstory laid out in 1978, tying all three films together and finishing on a high note. The only real problem with this concluding chapter is its deceptive pacing. I won’t get into any spoilers, but at the exact midpoint of the movie, it blatantly ends one story and begins another. It is therefore difficult to discuss this as one cohesive movie when in reality it is actually two separate movies stitched together.
Overall, I found the Fear Street trilogy to be a fully rewarding experience. I’m glad Netflix took a chance on this experiment in film production, and look forward to what’s next for Janiak. The only downside to this bingeable release schedule is that it didn’t allow time for the trilogy to fully grow in the minds of its audience. The anticipation before a sequel’s release is part of the fun, which distributing them all a week apart sort of dampened. Still, I’m glad Janiak had the opportunity to fully develop her three-part story without much external interference. Fear Street works as a trilogy, and Part Three works as a satisfying bookend.
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