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Five Things I Love About You: An Open Love Letter to Netflix’s “Fear Street”

The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Winona chapter.

At this point I’ve kind of decided that horror movies are my thing now. I do get pretty bored of the same old plot line though. I also get tired of the idea that the villain is  “just evil”. I mean, yeah, they are, but even evil people have motivation––pretending otherwise is just boring.

Character work in horror movies also tends to be lacking. I mean, if somebody is gonna get their head chopped off and fall down an outhouse, you aren’t concerned about doing any real thinking about their character (not technically a spoiler).

Knowing this, I can say Fear Street was not like that. I felt like everyone involved was really trying to make everything connect. While I like watching silly little movies with no real moral questions and very little emotional effort, I really enjoyed these movies. I’ve actually seen them three times with different people, and I will probably be forcing my roommate to watch them with me this week.

These movies (Fear Street Part One: 1994, Fear Street Part Two: 1978, and Fear Street Part Three: 1666), are only available on Netflix and premiered this summer (2021).

So here is my spoiler-free list of reasons to watch Netflix’s Fear Street Trilogy.

  1. Hidden Details

Not only do the twists and turns feel natural, the details really make this series. Certain lines end up having double meanings in an organic way. When I was listening to one character speak, I noticed the subtle clues that this person had their own agenda. The prop team really knocked it out of the park with the little details, and I have to wonder how many of them would be able to solve one of Taylor Swift’s album riddles (Plot twist, Reputation’s vault tracks are revealed in the next Fear Street movie—between the murders that is). 

2. Fun aesthetics and settings

You know me, reader, I’m a sucker for vintage clothes (and music). Having the seventies summer wardrobes and nineties school fits were inspirational. I’m almost upset I don’t have more events to go to with a ‘decades’ theme (okay, I’ve been upset about this my entire college career, sue me). I also was digging the summer camp setting of the second film and the 1600’s setting of movie number three. 

3. Great plot

Man! I can’t say much about this one without spoiling it, but I was very satisfied with the ending. Let me tell you, I felt good about the future of our surviving characters (RIP my favorites, you’ll know who they are).

4. Great characters and motivations

This one might be a minor spoiler, but I am obsessed with the love stories central to this plot. The parallels in roles between Deena and Cindy (and Cindy and Sam) almost made me cry. I truly loved each of these characters (or I hated them, but honey did I love to hate them). Their individual motivations made so much sense (even if I HEAVILY disagreed with them) and the actors really knew what their characters wanted. And the fact that different kinds of love were highlighted in this series (not just your standard romantic) really made the consequences feel real. 

5. Good soundtrack 

I’m honestly just going to link it here. I added a few songs to my normal rotation after seeing the movie. Hot dang!

Now if I haven’t convinced you to watch it, I truly don’t understand you as a person. These ticked all of my ‘Good Movie’ boxes. Seriously, if you agree with my other movie picks, watch this too. I know they’re dumb teenagers (the characters are at least, the actors are probably older than me), but I promise it’s worth it. And grandma, please skip the sex scenes. I did.

XOXO, Scaredy Cat

Meg Chaffee is a junior at Winona State University studying History and Political Science. She hopes to teach high school social studies, because she wouldn’t be able to deal with her students eating smart glue during craft activities just because it has the word “smart” on it. She wrote a story on Watt-pad (during middle school, in an account she can no longer access) that received far too many votes for several awards, and no, she will not give you the name. In her free time she enjoys reading, writing, and watching The Good Place repeatedly on Netflix.