Okay, listen. The Fear Street trilogy hasn’t exactly been a whirlwind of brilliant films. They’ve been good. They’ve been (mostly) entertaining. The format was original, interesting and I wouldn’t be mad if this sort of thing was done again in the near future. But trust me when I say they saved the best until last.
It’s really rare that you can say that about a franchise’s third movie, isn’t it? Think about it. The Godfather: Part III? Flop. Scream 3? It’s fine, but not a patch on the first two. Many say Toy Story 3 is the pinnacle of animated cinema, but I always argue that Toy Story 2 is far superior. However, there’s no doubt in my mind when I say that 1666 is the highest ranking Fear Street movie.
Based on the Salem Witch Trials, the audience finally gets a look at the life of Sarah Fier, who was accused of being a witch back in 1666. It’s actually a pretty heart-breaking story, and all is revealed that the town’s curse has been long misremembered. After we see exactly what happened to Ms. Fier, we jolt back forward to 1994 where the trilogy began, and follow the teens from the original movie as they aim to break the curse once and for all.
Is it original in any way? Well I’ve never seen lesbian pilgrims before, I’ll give it that.
I simply cannot review this final edition without mentioning those accents. What the fuck are they and why has no one else pointed them out? I guess you can get away with it to an extent as English/Irish accents would have been slowly transforming and altering at this point in history, but man it’s so distracting. I wish they let the actors just use their regular accents because it detracts a little bit from the movie as a whole.
Dodgy accents aside, what this third part does have is a bloody good score. Where the first two films benefitted from some really great popular music, this one had to step it up on the original soundtrack as you don’t really get that luxury in 1666. And they do a really excellent job in my opinion, utilising screeching violins and tension-building bass to the best of their ability. (I later realised this was a Marco Beltrami (Scream, A Quiet Place, Ford v Ferrari) effort. Of course.)
I have to say, Ashley Zukerman is definitely the MVP in this one. He plays both of his parts particularly well and that plot twist? Didn’t see it coming. I mean, I should have, but I didn’t! And I loved that about it. So not only was the film better as a whole this time, but the story itself was well-crafted and all culminates in a rather satisfying conclusion.
Overall, I was actually pleasantly surprised by this finale! I did not expect to care for the 1666 narrative but it was truly entertaining, and the way the whole trilogy came full circle was quite gratifying in the end.
Easily my favourite of the bunch – that neon conclusion was a doozy.
Fear Street: 1666 is available to stream on Netflix in the UK.
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