Fear Street Part Two: 1978
Platform: Netflix
Director: Leigh Janiak
Release Year: 2021
Watch Date: July 10, 2021
My Rating: 8.7
I know that I am WAY behind in blogging again. And I have seen the whole series now. I’m still going to write this post based on my thoughts and feelings after watching it as thought I haven’t seen 1666.
I have a love for movies where kids go away to camp. The Parent Trap, Poison Ivy, Meatballs, Heavyweights…. The Sleepaway Camp movies (2 and 3….not 1) are some of my favorite B horror movies about kids who go to camp. They are hilarious. I was really excited that this installment of Fear Street was set in a summer camp. The film starts with Deena and Josh breaking in to C.Berman’s house. They convince her to let them and Samantha (who is hog tied in the trunk of the car) into the house and ask her to tell them how she survived the summer of 1978. C. Berman agrees, and so the story begins.
All of camp is preparing for the color wars (capture the flag) where Sunnyvale kids are pitted against Shadyside kids to see which town is better by winning the game. No surprise that Sunnyvale wins every year. We meet Ziggy who is being bullied by some other campers. They are going to string her up in the hanging tree, but are stopped by some counselors, including Nick Goode. Nick takes a liking to Ziggy.
Moving on to Cindy Berman and her boyfriend (Tommy) cleaning the outhouses. They end up making their way over to the infirmary where Nurse Lane (killer Ruby Lane’s mother) attacks Tommy and tries to kill him because she “saw his name on the wall.” Cindy also found Nurse Lane’s book with all sorts of information about Sarah Fier and the curse. Tommy starts acting strange after that. Fast forward to the color wars, Cindy and Tommy are in search of Sarah Fier’s hand so they can reunite it with her body and stop the curse.
Cindy and friends find the witch’s house in the forest and go looking for clues. Alice notices that someone has been in the witch’s secret lair recently….like witching the past few days. Tommy turns into a murderer. He kills Alice’s boyfriend and tries to kill Cindy and Alice, but they get away. The find an intricate set of tunnels under the camp. Tommy goes back to camp and starts killing Shadyside campers. Meanwhile Ziggy and Nick have been getting to know each other.
Ziggy and Nick end up in the outhouse where they have trapped one of the bullies and they hear Cindy, who is now under the outhouse with Alice (can you say super disgusting???). They aren’t able to help the girls up before being attacked by Tommy. During the attack, Alice finds Sarah’s hand. Nick and Ziggy run to the main assembly hall and Alice sends Cindy there through the tunnels remembering that Sarah Fier came out in the church….which is now the camp’s assembly hall.
Nick runs for help, the girls thwart Tommy (Alice dies in the process), we learn how Tommy end up with the bag over his head. The girls run to the hanging tree to reunite Sarah’s hand with her body only to find that the body was moved. The same killers from the first movie come to kill the girls….and they do. Tommy hacks Cindy up with an ax and the Milkman stabs Ziggy many times. Nick saves Ziggy and as the ambulance is taking her away we learn that her name is Christine…..C. Berman.
Back in 1994 Deena asks Ziggy what happened to the hand and tells her that they know where the bones are. Ziggy says the hand is still under the hanging tree….which is now part of the mall. They dig up the hand and take it back to Sarah’s body. The movie ends with Deena being pulled into 1666 as Sarah.
Let’s revisit our unanswered questions:
Why is Sunnyvale a perfect town, where Shadyside is a murder town….something seems awfully shady about that. Did you see what I did there (mwahahahaha….no one thinks I’m funnier than I do). This is still unanswered, although I’m certain that it is important.
Is Sarah Fier really the one doing all of this? I question whether she was really a witch or if there is really another witch behind this. So often women were accused of being witches when they weren’t actually…..case in point, The Crucible. I have serious doubts that Sarah is the witch everyone claims her to be.
How does the witch pick her victims? Samantha’s blood disturbs the bones of Sarah Fier when she gets out of the car, which triggers her being hunted by the long dead killers…..but that seems off. Did C. Berman also find Sarah’s bones? Did all of the other killers over the years? And what about the preacher in 1666? Victim selection is still unknown, however we do know that Deena and friends are the first to find Sarah’s bones because they were not buried under the hanging tree.
Why is the Sheriff so unbelieving, but then he goes to someone’s house (presumably C. Berman) with a note “It’s happening again”? Distrust for the Sheriff is now extra high…Why didn’t the ghosts try to kill him? Why didn’t he tell the truth? His family’s last name is Goode….which makes me think of Sarah Good who was hanged during the Salem Witch Trials. Maybe his ancestor was spurned by Sarah Fier. This situation seems highly suspect.
How did Samantha go from the ghosts trying to kill her to the next killer? Why didn’t that happen to C. Berman? Samantha’s name went on the wall, which is why she is now trying to kill Deena. It’s almost as if someone is trying to clean up all of the evidence. It is still unknown why the same didn’t happen to Christine.
Photo Credit: imdb.com
