Fear Street Part 2: 1978

Directed By: Leigh Janiak

Starring: Sadie Sink, Emily Rudd, Ryan Simpkins, McCabe Slye, Ted Sutherland, Gillian Jacobs, Kiana Madeira, Benjamin Flores Jr. and Olivia Scott Welch

Synopsis: Shadyside, 1978. School’s out for summer and the activities at Camp Nightwing are about to begin. But when
another Shadysider is possessed with the urge to kill, the fun in the sun becomes a gruesome fight for survival.

Review: The story continues! Fear Street 2 picks up exactly where the first left of. We are taken through the chapter which is narrated by a survivor of the Sarah Fiers curse, C.Berman. since the incident she has gone into hiding and our surviving trio from the first part track her down to help break the curse.

We are happy transported to 1978, we are introduced to Ziggy Berman (Sadie Sink), running through the woods, someone hot on her heels, thud, she hits the wooded ground, she is knocked down by a group of young teens. Standard bullies, after a brief, yet intense scene some camp councillors arrive. We are introduced to Camp Nightwing – the place we know, much like Camp Crystal Lake, will be home to a bloodbath.

We get to know two camp councillors, Cindy Berman (Emily Rudd) – Ziggy’s older sister, and Councillor Nick Goode (Ted Sutherland) the to-be sheriff of Shadyville. The two play very prominent roles in this story.

Cindy Berman is from Shadyside and wears a polo shirt and comes across as a real do-gooder, while Ziggy is more a rebellious prankster who is always up to something mischievous, though Cindy comes across as a prude, she may have been more like Ziggy than we initially think.

The sequel to Fear Street isn’t as fast-paced as the first, but it holds your attention with, once again, well-written characters and an interesting story that builds upon the Sarah Fiers mythology. The camp setting is familiar and slasher fans will rejoice to see the setting of the camp used as the main theme.

The soundtrack is once again amazing, Carry On My Wayward Son is the main track to this entry, the song is not only great but also being a staple of the hit series Supernatural, you can’t help but think of the show. Kansas – the band who perform the track have created a solid horror-staple song, which I would assume was not an initial intention, yet it works so well. The background music during some scenes is familiar to that of Friday The 13th and you can’t help but get nostalgic.

Horror fans and gorehounds will have to wait 45 minutes for the first shed of blood, but once it starts, it doesn’t stop and no one is safe. The kids at camp and the councillors fall victim to our axe-wielding psychopath who may even put Jason Voorhees to shame, he doesn’t stalk and slash, he sprints and hacks. We also get to see an iconic moment of him donning his trademark burlap sack.

The main cast is extremely likeable, Sadie Sink and Emily Rudd are very likeable as the Berman sisters, after seeing the first entry, we know tragedy is in store for them and their lives will never be the same again.

Fear Street Part 2: 1978 may take a little longer than the first to get to the slicing and dicing but we are introduced to some amazing characters (one being the mother of the razor blade-wielding, Ruby Lane) while being fed more mythology on the Sarah Fiers curse. Once the bloodshed begins, it becomes a no-holds-barred fight for survival as our axe-wielding psycho doesn’t hesitate when someone gets in his path. Fear Street Part 2 is a solid 4.5 stars. The Fear Street trilogy is proving to be a welcome return to horror elements we know and love.