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Film: Fear Street: Part Three - 1666
Year: 2021
Director: Leigh Janiak
Writer: Phil Graziadei, Leigh Janiak and Kate Trefry
Starring: Kiana Madeira, Ashley Zukerman and Gillian Jacobs
Review:
This is of course me finally finishing off this trilogy. Since I’ve said in my previous two that I didn’t read these books and wasn’t familiar with what they were necessarily doing, I wasn’t sure what we would get here. I did like that this trilogy introduced a story and develops it over all three. This one culminating in the events that started it in the past and the resolution in the movie’s present. The synopsis is the origins of Sarah Fier’s (Kiana Madeira) curse is finally revealed as history comes full circle on a night that changes the lives of Shadysiders and Sunnyvalers forever.
For this movie here, we are taking it into the past of 1666. We are in Union, which is a small village that will eventually split into Sunnyvale and Shadyside. For this we have a pig giving birth where Henry (Benjamin Flores Jr.) and Sarah are helping it. She is good with her hands and ensuring that they don’t lose any piglets. Their mother has passed away and George (Randy Havens) is doing the best that he can. Sarah is at the age to marry and thinks she should consider Solomon Goode (Ashley Zukerman). He is in a similar predicament as George. She does agree to take a piglet to him.
Sarah walks through the village and we meet some others. There is Lizzie (Julia Rehwald), Elijah Goode (Matthew Zuk), Isaac (Fred Hechinger), the pastor Cyrus Miller (Michael Chandler), Constance (Sadie Sink), Abigail (Emily Rudd), Hannah (Olivia Scott Welch) and Mad Thomas (McCabe Slye). Elijah is the alderman in charge and is brothers with Solomon. Cyrus is the father to Hannah and his wife Grace (Lacy Camp) isn’t a fan of Sarah. All of the teens of this village are planning a party in the woods and it appears that Hannah is coming. Sarah, Lizzie and Hannah need to see a widow in the woods for some berries with psychedelic properties before they go to the party.
They have a run in where they’re spooked by the widow. They did get what they were looking for. Our ladies take it and while at the party, Caleb (Jeremy Ford) comes on to Hannah. She rejects him, but he doesn’t take no for an answer. Sarah comes to her help and they go into the woods. We see for the era, they have a forbidden love. They kiss and hear something in the woods. They think they’ve been seen. The two of them flee back to the village where they kiss again, but Mad Thomas is a witness.
The next morning, the village is cursed. The food is rotting. The well is backed up and what they find to be the cause has poisoned the water. The animals are acting funny. Cyrus is also acting quite odd. Sarah and Hannah try to figure out what is causing this. The problem is their relationship is revealed to the town and they’re accused of being witches. There is a deeper truth here that will need to be revealed if the events in 1994 are going to be reversed. Not everyone is who they seem.
That should be good enough for the recap. Where I will start is something that I’ve said about the previous movie as well. I give credit to the filmmakers here. Knowing that you’re going to do a trilogy, that is going to be released so close together, you could cut corners since you have three movies to tie up any loose ends. I do think this does well in each of the movies being enough stand alone, but the full effect is to watch all three. The last 40 minutes of this one is legit 1994 part two. I’ll be honest though, that was my least favorite part of this.
To get back to something that I thought was a positive was the time period here. It is a bit heavy handed to go back to 1666 for this to happen, but I won’t hold that against the movie. If I was writing this, I’d probably do the same. We are in a village where religion rules. It would be a scary time for a woman with any thoughts of being progressive since you can be branded a witch. Sarah is a free spirit and woman with strong convictions. Her father knows she is of child bearing age. She likes Solomon, so if it was forced for them to marry, it could be worse. In reality though, she is in love with Hannah who feels the same for her. The problem is that she is the daughter of the minister. I like the duality we are playing with here how in 1994, Mrs. Fraser (Camp) doesn’t like Samantha (Welch) being with Deena (Madeira). I like the idea that despite all of those years later, things aren’t that much different.
As what I’ve alluded to here, the major part of this story is showing Sarah Fier and what led to the curse of Shadyside. What is interesting here though is the reveal. I’m not going to spoil it, but we get more interesting duality. I also find it interesting that this explains why it is a Shadyside that the curse is affecting. What I will say is that not everything is as it seems and Deena learns of the truth of how to finally stop things. I feel bad for Sarah and the reason she is executed. We are seeing her for the first two movies as the villain when she is just tragic.
Moving from here let me go to the acting. Madeira is someone that I’ve been hard on. I like her in this one as Sarah. Her personality fit. We don’t get as much whining and it is more determination. With how things have played out, her as Deena in 1994 in this film also was good. I also liked Welch as Hannah. She fits that innocent role for me. Elizabeth Scopel fits as ‘Real’ Sarah Fier. We only see her in flashes. Flores was fine once again as Henry and Josh. I liked Havens, Rehwald, Zuk, Hechinger, Chandler, Sink, Rudd, Camp and Slye in their roles. Zukerman is also good. His character here is an interesting one for sure. I’d say that overall the acting was once again good here.
So then the last thing to go into here would be the effects, cinematography and the soundtrack. For this one, we aren’t getting a lot in the way of effects. What we do get is interesting with like the pig turning sour and the aftermath there. We see food rotting much faster than it should. This all adds a gross element that works. There are also some wounds and blood that look good. Overall I would say the effects are mostly practical and look good. The cinematography helps here. It looks like they did well in hiding what they can through camera angles and cuts, which is a positive. Aside from that, I’m glad the soundtrack wasn’t as in your face this time around. It fits for what was needed without standing out.
In conclusion here, I don’t like this one was well as the previous one, but I’m glad that it answered most of the questions that I had. This is an interesting trilogy of movies that do well in telling an overarching story with each one still being contained enough to enjoy. I thought the acting was probably the strongest of the three. The effects were good for what we got and the cinematography helps there. Soundtrack also fit for what they needed. I liked exploring this idea of a witch and curse, while seeing what the truth of the matter is. This does run a bit long and I think going back to 1994 to finish that story does bog this down slightly. Regardless though, all of these are worth your time and I’d recommend seeing them. I’d say this one for me is an above average movie, just missing out on being good.
My Rating: 7.5 out of 10