Fear Street Part One: 1994 came out in 2021, and it instantly became our modern Romeo and Juliet, but with a gay twist that makes it enjoyable and better. And we’re not budging on that! R.L. Stine’s book-adapted movie series captured the hearts of the queer community by featuring two queer main characters at the center of a horror story. Let’s delve into this messy sapphic thriller!
Spoilers Below!
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The film followsthe cynical, nihilistic Deena Johnson (Kiana Madeira), who despises her life and describes it as a never-ending tragedy. Her father is an alcoholic who is rarely home. She’s stuck living in Shadyside with her brother, Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr.), a place known for high crime rates, occultism, and elitism. To make matters worse, Deena recently broke up with her girlfriend, Samantha Fraser (Olivia Scott Welch), who wasn’t comfortable coming out and moved to the neighboring wealthy city, Sunnyvale, with her newly-divorced mother.
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One night, both the Shadyside and Sunnyvale football teams gather for a vigil for a murdered student, and Deena meets up with Samantha to return her belongings after the breakup. The two get into a heated argument in a desolate area before the Sunnyvale and Shadyside football teams erupt into a huge fight. A few Sunnyvale students jump into the lead jock’s car—Peter, Samantha’s new boyfriend—and chase after the Shadyside football team’s bus. Deena “accidentally” throws a cooler from the emergency door, which ultimately leads to Peter crashing the car into the woods. When Deena and her best friends, Kate (Julia Rehwald) and Simon (Fred Hechinger), find the wreck, everyone was thankfully alive. However, Samantha starts to vomit blood, seeing red visions of a witch and occult-related images.
We know many members of the community despise Deena, but she’s a perfectly imperfect character. The movie does an excellent job of reminding us that she’s a teenager still trying to understand herself and her relationship. Deena had so much empathy for Samantha, who was unable to freely be herself due to the negative perceptions surrounding queer people in the 90s. We appreciate how she was able to feel empathy while still holding Samantha accountable for her actions due to her refusal to come out.
Women don’t always need to be happy to be great characters. It’s one thing to dislike Deena for her selfishness, but it’s another to judge her for not being a ray of sunshine. She keeps it honest and fair!
The tragedy of Deena and Samantha, ironically, isn’t due to their queerness, but their refusal to live without one another. It’s heartbreakingly beautiful. Without spoiling too much, Deena puts her friends and little brother in danger because she can’t handle the thought of Samantha dying to save their lives. The first installment of the trilogy ends with a shocking death we didn’t see coming, and don’t know how to sit with.
While the movie is undoubtedly entertaining and somewhat cringeworthy, it is mostly enjoyable. However, we cannot overlook its flaws. It’s hard to ignore that some of the leading actors were in their mid to late 20s while playing teenagers, which is especially noticeable when sex scenes are involved. The romance between Josh and Kate was also expected, but it didn’t make much sense in terms of the story, given that the two aren’t even in the same grade and share no common interests. And for a movie set in the 90s, it feels and sometimes looks far too modern!
Overall, the movie isn’t perfect, and we appreciate how it doesn’t try to be. It serves the right amount of humor, cringeworthy moments, romance, and fear to be considered a queer horror go-to.
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