Fear Street: Part Two – 1978

That went south in a hurry. I haven’t seen a franchise fall off the table this quickly since The Matrix. Whatever I enjoyed about Fear Street: Part One – 1994 was absent from Fear Street: Part Two – 1978. Instead of a unique horror experience with young heroes to rally behind, Part Two was standard camp slasher film straight out of the Friday the 13th world.

We don’t need another Friday the 13th film. There are at least a dozen already in existence, and every single one sucks.

Part Two starts where Part One left off: a friend-turned–psychopath tied up with a phone cord and a visit to the survivor of the 1978 Shadytown massacre to figure out what to do about it. Survivor C. Berman (Gillian Jacobs) remembers it fondly: “this one time, at band camp…” Seriously, it was at camp.  And it was 1978, so the clothes are tacky, the colors are loud, and the kids are dicks. Sisters Ziggy (Sadie Sink) and Cindy (Emily Rudd) are at odds while at camp together. I suppose I liked the part where Ziggy and boyfriend Tommy (McCabe Slye) get a visit from the loco-eyed, knife-wielding nurse insisting that Tommy is gonna die tonight one way or another, so she as well be the one to do him in.

That does it for the stuff I enjoyed about this film. After that, Tommy goes psycho and blood happens again and again and again. There isn’t a trigger to Tommy; he just shows up possessed and axes a guy. The neither-rhyme-nor-reason part of the Fear Street franchise is not its best feature, but it’s the only 1978 [read: Greased, Too] that turns the bad feature into its only feature.

The differences between Part One and Part Two couldn’t be starker. Part One was as much mystery as it was horror; the victims didn’t see themselves as victims. They formed bonds, they pooled resources, they problem solved, and mostly they came up with ideas of how to stay alive and stay alive for the indefinite future. Part Two is a straight spam-in-a-cabin flick. Watch teens run. Run teens run. Watch axe hack. Hack axe hack. Watch blood flow. Flow blood flow. There isn’t anything provocative or worth investigating at camp. There’s just blood. Oh, and don’t forget teen age sex, so the kids can be rightfully punished for their “sins.” This whole thing reeks of film oft seen before.

After the first Fear Street, I couldn’t wait to watch Parts Two and Three. After the second Fear Street, I no longer wish to watch Part Three. Fear Street kids? You’re on your own; I suggest all town denizens move to Elm Street or Camp Crystal Lake or wherever; it amounts to the same thing.

There’s a maniac out there somewhere chasin’
Teens and campers both with hearts racin’
That guy with the blade
Making a plasma parade
Say, does he answer to “Jason?”

Rated R, 109 Minutes
Director: Leigh Janiak
Writer: Zak Olkewicz, Leigh Janiak
Genre: Friday the 13th, part n [where n>12]
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Traditional horror fans
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Anybody who got into Fear Street: Part One – 1994