Fear Street: 1978

Directed by Leigh Janiak, Fear Street: 1978 details the bloodshed that ensues at a summer camp after a camp counselor, having been possessed by the series’ malevolent witch, embarks on a relentless killing spree. It’s a reasonably promising setup that’s employed to progressively underwhelming and flat-out tedious effect by Janiak, as the filmmaker, armed with a script written with Zak Olkewicz, delivers a slow-moving endeavor that fares especially poorly within its deliberate and excessively familiar first half – with the movie’s generic atmosphere compounded by a distressing lack of wholeheartedly sympathetic (or even interesting) protagonists. The pervasive spinning-its-wheels vibe paves the way for a less-than-engrossing midsection that contains few, if any, standout sequences, and it doesn’t help, certainly, that the picture generally transpires within a murky darkness that obscures the majority of its far-from-enthralling happenings. (The lack of over-the-top kill sequences does little to alleviate the film’s mostly tedious feel, as well.) By the time the forgettable climactic stretch rolls around, Fear Street: 1978 has cemented its place as a missed opportunity that might’ve worked had it been trimmed down significantly (ie this thing has no business running almost two hours).

** out of ****