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Fear Street Part Three: 1666 Review
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Cast:
* Kiana Madeira as Deena/Sarah Fier
* Elizabeth Scopel as “Real” Sarah Fier
* Ashley Zukerman as Solomon Goode/Nick Goode
* Ted Sutherland as Young Nick Goode
* Gillian Jacobs: as Ziggy Berman
* Sadie Sink as Constance/Young Ziggy Berman
* Emily Rudd as Abigail/Cindy Berman
* Ryan Simpkins as Alice
* McCabe Slye: as Tommy Slater
* Chiara Aurelia as Sheila
* Olivia Scott Welch as Samantha Fraser/Hannah Miller
* Benjamin Flores Jr as Josh/Henry
Story: The origins of Sarah Fier’s curse are finally revealed as history comes full circle on a night that changes the lives of Shadysiders forever.
It’s not every day that a trilogy manages to maintain the same level of quality through out its entire run. In fact, most of them fall apart by the third installment. The Conjuring recently had that problem with its third installment, a disappointing chapter after two very strong movies. Fear Street has an advantage, as mentioned in past reviews, in that it was planned to be a trilogy and therefore its story was mapped over three installments.
This latest (and final) chapter sends us to 1666, when Sarah Fier was dealing with being accused of witchcraft and having relations with the Devil. Of course she’s also in a relationship with Samantha’s ancestor, drawing a nice parallel to the “present”. This makes them nice targets when the water goes sour, crops start to die and farm animals begin eating their own young. Oh and the pastor goes crazy and does something very sinister. If you thought the shocking deaths in 1978 were bad, this tries very hard to top it.
Now you might think that this would be completely set in 1666, as is the theme with the last two movies. But we still have the 1994 story to get back to, so Sarah Fier’s origin only takes up an hour of the film. We get to see how people take advantage of those with religious beliefs and get them to persecute innocent people for various reasons. You know, like the actual Salem Witch Trials. If you’re thinking, “well, this doesn’t made what Fier did after she died okay,” they have an answer for that. I’m still undecided if I like where they went, but it’s not like they didn’t plant seeds along the way.
Honestly, I could have used more time in 1666, although I realize there wasn’t really much more story to tell than what they told. It goes from point to point pretty quickly. Going back to a miniseries analogy I used, this would have likely been a standalone episode to build tension for the finale. It serves that purpose here, as well add some new layers to the mythology and finally set up the conclusion in Fear Street: 1994: Part Two. A sequel within a sequel!
If there was a big problem with this movie, it’s that it’s drawn out. It had a lot of things to tell and even though it has a lot of time, it makes good use of it…until the end. The ending of the film in particular takes a long time to get to the point. The carnage lasts a little longer than it should. There was a reason that most slashers (most of the good ones, anyway) came in between 90-100 minutes. And while this had more story than those, it also manages to needlessly drag out the climax to the conclusion we already know is coming. Plus the villain becomes almost cartoonish at that point, even dropping a pointless homophobic slur just to show that they’re the most evil. The whole “killing of innocents” thing is more than enough reason to want the villain to die, we don’t need to add in homophobia just for the hell of it.
It still manages to end things solidly, but some unnecessary decisions in the final third end up stopping this from being the best of the trilogy. It was very close to that, because the 1666 segment features the best acting of all three films and some of the darkest moments. I wouldn’t have called an homage to The Crucible when I first started watchin these films but here we are. The problems with the ending aren’t quite enough to derail things, although your mileage may vary with that one.
Overall, the entire trilogy is a success. They’re solid, entertaining films, each with their pros and cons. And while 1666 doesn’t end up being the best, it’s about as good as 1994 (I’d rank 1978 as the best one), so that’s an easy thumbs up.
