Fear Street 1666 is easily the best film in this unique trilogy. After enjoying the first and less so the second (a fact for which I’m apparently quite wrong about), I’m only hoping others will see the qualities in this one.

Set in 1666, our cast of teens from the first two films appear here in new roles as the teens in the original settlement. We get an overall explanation of what happened with Sarah Fier back then and then we get a resolution in 1994 (with copious flashbacks lest we forget what’s happened before).

When the movie starts (sans frame story), I was kind of worried. It felt like dress-up as we see all the familiar actors in peasant garb, putting on wobbly Irish accents. It honestly made me think we were watching Jim Henson’s Crucible Babies.

But the tone changes pretty quickly as we see creepy and disturbing evidence of witchcraft and the fear and paranoia that creates in the townsfolk. This ground has been covered before in other media and there’s really nothing unique about this retelling of a good old fashioned witch hunt. But the WAY it’s done is very good… the script may not be original, but the directing, editing, and score really manage set a solid tone of unease, madness, and persecution. As long as we remain in 1666, it’s a pretty damn good – and very serious – horror movie.

But eventually it does switch back to 1994 so we can resolve the plot… and that’s a little less consistent and far more jokey (which isn’t a crime but it is a bit of whiplash). But it’s still pretty good and a lot more FUN than the early scenes. It would have been better if we’d had more time with the slashers and serial killers in previous movies, but it mostly worked out well. I enjoyed the overall resolution to the plot and the creative use of location and events.

So this is a satisfying conclusion to a very interesting trilogy of films from Netflix. Now I’m hoping they try something else daring or maybe just give us more flashback slasher flicks.

Score: 86