Obsession of the Week: The 'Fear Street' Teaser Trailer

Last week, the teaser trailer for Netflix's Fear Street trilogy of movies dropped, and yours truly woke up to the news, immediately reverting back to his 12-year-old self. To say this is a major event for me would be an understatement. (If you don't know what the hell I'm talking about, go do some Wikipedia-ing.)

Anyone who really knows me knows that this is my Marvel. This is my Lord of the Rings, my Game of Thrones. This is the book series that truly shaped me into the horror-loving bookworm and writer who stands before you (and with all due respect, f**k Goosebumps). I own all 80+ titles of the original series, plus 2005's Fear Street Nights, 2014's six-book reboot, and the latest rendition, Return to Fear Street, that came out two years ago. I've literally waited YEARS for this adaptation to be made. I've been anticipating a release ever since 20th Century Fox announced its development, attaching Leigh Janiak as the director back in 2017. (*Netflix acquired all three films after Disney bought Fox and threw everyone for a loop.) 

I've written about how "Hollywood can do the movies right" on HuffPost. I wrote a retrospective piece on the 25th anniversary of the series seven years ago. I even got retweeted by author R.L. Stine himself when I shared my 20 Life Lessons learned by reading Fear Street. After seeing countless other book series from the 80s and 90s be adapted for the screen, this one is finally getting its due, and I cannot wait to revisit the cursed town of Shadyside via Netflix and (hopefully) enjoy some bloodshed this summer.

I also can't help noting that some of the "recommendations" I had made four years ago seem to have been taken into consideration based on this one-minute preview. For instance, the slasher-type font in the key art and logo of the movies echo back to the pulpy cover art of the books. A trilogy already implies a shared cinematic universe. And these films have been given an R rating, guaranteeing some hardcore thrills and violence. (The books, even though marketed as "young adult," featured teens getting slaughtered in every way possible.)

And after watching the above teaser, here are a few things we now know (and already knew)...

All three movies are definitely connected by "one killer story," taking place in three different time periods: 1994, 1978, and 1666. Based on the opening soundbites, it seems like a witch (perhaps someone from the Fier family that was introduced in 1993's Fear Street Saga?) put a curse on the town of Shadyside where the eponymous street exists, possessing people, turning them in murderers.

Maya Hawke (daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman) appears to play a teen who works in a 90s bookstore in Part One. (I hope someone had the gall to drop a visual gag poking fun at R.L. Stine's equally popular YA counterpart Christopher Pike.)

Camp Nightwing, the sleepaway camp featured in Part Two (1978), uses the same name as the camp in 1991's Fear Street: Lights Out. Also? That ax-wielding killer resembles iconic slasher Jason Voorhees from 1981's Friday the 13th Part 2. Very inspired. 

Part Three of the trilogy (1666) will undoubtedly use material from the aforementioned Fear Street Saga that explains the origins of the evil that inhabits Shadyside. 

Before I further fan the flames of my fanboyhood, I'll stop there. 

@TheFirstEcho