The New Fear Street Part 2: 1978 Trailer Will Give You Nightmares
"Fear Street Part 1: 1994" may be out in the world, but there won't be much breathing room since the second part of the film trilogy "Fear Street Part 2: 1978" is releasing only a week after the first.
We've already experienced what the town of Shadyside is like in 1994 — full of ghosts, queer romance, and witch curses. And with the cliffhanger of Deena's (Kiana Madeira) girlfriend Sam (Olivia Scott Welch) under the control of the witch Sarah Fier, it's looking like the story will pick right up where it left off.
We already know that the sequel is set in 1978 in Camp Nightwing. We know this is the story of how previous Fier survivor C. Berman (Gillian Jacobs) and Sheriff Nick Goode (Ashley Zukerman) know each other. Just as importantly, it's also the story of how Sarah Fier's curse manifested itself all those years ago and how it connects with both the situation in 1994 and Fier's origins in 1666.
The trailer for "Fear Street Part 2: 1978" is out in the world, and it's worth taking note of how scary it is while also noting the shout-outs it pays to horror's past.
Shadyside isn't the only town that dreads sundown
The first "Fear Street" film is an homage to all things horror from the '90s, especially "Scream," and similarly, the second film in the trilogy embraces the '70s. The trailer uses Gloria Gaynor's disco classic "I Will Survive," and uses it literally as a means to communicate our campers' desires to not be brutally murdered.
There's a huge shout-out to the 1976 film "Carrie," which starred Sissy Spacek as a telekinetically powered teen whose being bullied results in a school-wide massacre. In "Carrie," Spacek gets drenched in a bucket of pig's blood. In the "Fear Street" trailer, we see a young Nick Goode (Ted Sutherland) and Ziggy Berman (Sadie Sink) contemplate doing the exact same thing.
We also get our fair share of creeps in masks, one of whom is a child. The '70s had its fair share of evil kid movies, including "Devil Times Five" and David Cronenberg's "The Brood." But of course, the killer people are mostly interested in is the one with the sack over his head from "Fear Street Part 1: 1994," who we already know is the one Berman and Goode faced off against when they were kids.
It's obvious that this latest masked killer is an homage to Jason Voorhees, who also wore a sack over his head before he switched to the now-iconic hockey mask. And while Voorhees is clearly an influence given the look of the killer and the similar locale of a summer camp, "Friday the 13th" isn't a '70s horror franchise — it started in 1980. However, Jason's sack-cloth look is inspired by another film — 1976's "The Town That Dreaded Sundown."
The Town That Dreaded Sundown's influence makes the Fear Street trailer scarier
Three things about "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" being an influence on "Fear Street" make this trailer scarier and more interesting once you know. The first is that, just like with "Fear Street," "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" is about a town beset by a killer on the loose — and yes, that killer does attack people by a lake at one point.
The second thing is that "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" is actually based on true events, via Arkansas Online. In the 1940s, Texarkana really did have a killer on the loose who was eventually nicknamed "The Phantom" — he killed a number of young people before disappearing. The characters from the "Fear Street" movies are themselves reckoning with the fact that the legend of Sarah Fier is actually true and not just a story people tell their kids.
Lastly, "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" ends on a deeply metatextual note. At the close of the film, people are lined up to see the actual film "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" and you can see The Phantom's shoes in the line — suggesting that the real-life killer could be inside the theater with the audience, watching and waiting. "Fear Street Part One: 1994" already has an inherent self-awareness to it due to its desire to evoke the Wes Craven era of '90s horror movies. Perhaps we'll see more of the same from the next "Fear Street."
"Fear Street Part 2: 1978" streams on Netflix beginning July 9.