Directed by Leigh Janiak
Written by Zak Olkewicz, Leigh Janiak (screenplay & story), Phil Graziadei (story) and based upon the Fear Street books by R.L. Stine
Starring Sadie Sink, Emily Rudd, Ryan simpkins and McCabe Slye
Running time 1 hour and 49 minutes
MPAA Rating R for Nudity, Bloody Horror Violence, Language Throughout, Drug Use and Sexual Content
Available to watch exclusively on Netflix

by Rosalie Kicks, Editor in Chief, Old Sport

“This is Sarah Fier shit…”

As a child, each week my father would faithfully take us to visit his mother Josephine Yurasits in Catasauqua aka Catty. Josephine had the gift of the gab. As most elderly do, she loved to regale my brother and I with tales of the olden days. Personally, I may initially come off as the quiet type but once someone gets to know me - look out… SURPRISE! I’m a secret storyteller. As Josephine used to say, “my mouth goes like a ducks you know what.” I know you’re thinking pray tell, what does this have to do with Fear Street: Part Two? Wellllll… while the gang from part one’s possessed friend Samantha (Olivia Welch) is tied up in the bathroom, the teens gather around in a circle in a lady’s living room to hear her tell a story for close to two hours about the past, just like an old hen.

Not gonna lie, I basically developed a MOOD within the first five minutes or so of watching this film. As soon as the Nirvana song dropped, I felt my eyes roll into the back of my head. With Part One having 3,083,908 needle drops occur with the first fifteen minutes of the film, one could say I am suffering from trauma due to excessive nostalgia. However, in this scenario, the song was interrupted by the incessant sound of various alarm clocks, which in turn triggers a thirty-something old woman to perform mundane tasks such as: eating dinner, feeding the dog and locking the door. A plot line which, I must add, is never explained.

Picture it! sitting in a some lady’s living room listening to a story for close to two hours without even being offered a beverage or taking a break to call the pizza dude. What the hell?! NO. On top of that, by the time you get to the end you realize the CliffsNotes version would have sufficed. Essentially, what this story boils down is three elements:

1. 1978: Summer Camp bumping with dad jams

2. Imitation Jason Voorhees on the loose complete with axe

3. Spells, curses and hexes oh my!

Two Shadyside sisters, Ziggy and Cindy are at each other’s throats. Ziggy is an outsider that has found herself the target for verbal and physical abuse from the other female campers. While Cindy is a straight laced, goody two-shoes counselor, Cindy has money on the mind as she is hoping to earn some college cash in order to escape what Ziggy refers to as their predestined miserable future, ie Shadyside livin’. Due to the chaos cloud that surrounds Ziggy, there is concern that the sisters will get kicked out of the camp. However, much of that drama takes a back seat after the camp’s Nurse Mary Lane attacks Cindy’s boyfriend, Tommy Slater (McCabe Slye). This incident turns the story into a somewhat run-of-the-mill slasher in which Tommy inevitably becomes an axe wielding serial killer, complete with a bag mask, much like in Friday the 13th Part II.

Tommy ravages the campers all while a “color war” is going on between the two respective Fear Street towns’ campers. Meanwhile, the sisters and their frenemy turned compatriot Alice (Ryan Simpkins) are out to solve the mystery of what caused Tommy to flip his wig. As the girls went deeper into the cave of wonders searching for the mysteries of the witch Sarah Fier’s curse, I couldn’t help but feel my attention span slipping away into the utter darkness of the cavern. For me, the biggest issue with these films so far has been the overall pacing and storytelling. Information is doled out in such a way that evokes exhaustion. I am perplexed as to why the plot needs to be so overly elaborate. The story seems to have an identity crisis, beginning with who the intended audience actually is.

There’s no doubt that this is a wrist checking exercise that amounts to nothing more than a lesson of what not to do in a film, especially of the thriller/horror genre. Much like I said about Part One, this should have been an 87 minute chiller thriller. While watching, there came a time when I thought, “WOW! I can’t believe these teens are still sitting in that lady’s living room listening to her talk.” and well, by the end of the film, I questioned why I did the same.