"Fear Street Part Three: 1666" - End of the Road

Platform: Netlix

Release Date: July 16, 2021

As we come full circle, I feel myself marveling at the very small universe that Netflix's “Fear Street” series has created. It is not overly expansive and only stands at three films, but it spans across 300+ years and has managed to tell a cohesive tale that appears to link seamlessly (through the first two films at least, thus far). While I can continue to hope to see R.L. Stine's “Goosebumps” series adapted in such a way, this has still been a fun way to experience an old, but still slightly fresh, take on horror. Even with a focus on its YA tropes and influences, I think that even hardcore horror fans can find the appreciation for the older school approach. But as alluded to in the “1994” review, the way this third installment brings closure to Denna and Sam's overall story carries the make-or-break of the trilogy. Now, traveling to the origins of Sarah Fier, the story hopes to effectively capture the origins of Shadyside's curse and supplant Fier's influence on the story with something much more direct.

I revoke all of my trepedations about this third entry in the series. I was more than pleasantly surprised with both how the history of Shadyside unfolded and the structure it took. This movie followed up on Deena's returning of Sarah Fier's severed hand to the rest of her remains, giving her a vision of Shadyside in 1666 and the truth behind its dark history. As we witness this vision as the bulk of the movie, many actors from the first two films return to play representations of Shadyside's ancestors. This was a bit off-setting at first, as I struggled to think of these actors as someone other than characters they already represent in the trilogy. The Irish accents they mimicked seemed a bit inconsistent, especially that of …..Deena....., and it took a while before I become engrossed in the story enough to stop noticing. But once I did, I was hooked in this twisted tale with its shocking reveal and the horrific imagery it utilized. The situation with the pig was grotesque and the priest's actions against the children were a real eye sore (I couldn't help myself). I was skeptical of the use of religious horror since I usually find it ineffective. However, “1666” leaned into the horrors of this time period just the right amount to be as shocking as its previous slasher elements, but without feeling overly similar.

The story was very much a “history repeats itself” ordeal, with Sarah being condemned as a witch because of the discovery that she was a lesbian, similarly to Deena and Sam's history. I wanted to roll my eyes at the YA and “wokeness” of this parallel, but it really fit too well to hate it. The biggest twist comes in the form of the actual source of the evil that overcomes Shadyside. While Sarah confessed to being a witch to save her lover, it was actually Solomon Goode, the ancestor of Sheriff Nick Goode, who cut a deal with the devil. I can not express how much I appreciated this twist for what has been a pretty cut and dry narrative through the first two movies. This could have easily been the origin of the evil Sarah Fier, as we have come to know her, but this shift in perspective had a profound effect on the story we've been hearing for nearly four hours. Labeling this more interesting over entertaining compared to its predecessors, “1666” carries the most weight of the serious and almost seamlessly makes the connections with the present that were needed for a full-circle narrative. Not just in the lore of Shadyside or in its characters, but even in the familiarities of its locations. Any of its suffering could be drawn back to its YA nature, with comedic boner and drug scenes that were comical, but felt out of place in both tone and theme. A highlight, though, is how the movie surprsingly completed the narrative back in “1996,” with a roughly 25-minute “1996: Part Two”.

This laurels of this trilogy would rest on its ability to successfully bond the present and past stories with more than just familiar characters, and that it did. Once Deena learns the truth behind Shadyside and the horrors of the Goode family, she realizes that it has been Sheriff Goode and his family that has been responsible for the town's curse. Pulling together her brother, adult “Ziggy,” and the mall janitor (or “janitorial engineer”) for a “Home Alone”-like conclusion at the mall, Deena plans to kill the sheriff and end the curse. I'd be remissed to not acknoweldge that the janitor's accepting of their plan was awkwardly simple and a very random addition, though he was a fun character. Also, there is no way they had enough time to rig the mall with their traps and what not before any cop found the car outside, but, movie magic! As I eluded to the parallels between Sarah's and Deena's story earlier, I found it fitting that the present day love story tragedy mirrored that of the past's. Those parallels of the LGBTQ love plotline gives a bit more credence to Deena being the one to end the curse, as compared to another random person. For the trilogy to have such an LGBTQ undertone at the end but not push that idea in every plotline is a real testament to how this series made it part of the story, but not the story. The ending was so naturally progressive from where the story had led us that I can not wait to revisit this series for years to come. Hopefully, Netflix continues to adapt R.L. Stine's stories, perhaps even continuing to expand on the dark corners of Shadyside still left unexplored.

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RATING: 🐐 🐐 🐐 🐐. 25 / 5

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