The first adaptation of teen horror author RL Stine’s set of supernatural books makes for a marvelously entertaining throwback slasher
For a generation who came of age with both the post-Scream slasher resurgence of the late 90s and the pre-YA boom in teen-focused horror novels that started before it (at least before the term YA was widely used), the arrival of this summer’s ambitious Fear Street trilogy will bring with it a sense of giddy excitement.
The promise of an R-rated set of slashers based on the hit franchise from RL Stine, the “Stephen King of children’s literature”, focused on high schoolers grappling with a murder mystery, carries with it a cautious throwback charm, ultimate success being heavily dependent on a vital mastering of tone. How to rebrand a goofy Scooby Doo-adjacent story aimed at younger teens as a scary, and violent, triptych of shockers to be taken seriously by a wider audience, whose horror diet is far more advanced and overstuffed? How to drag the camp world of luridly embossed book covers into the 2020s, from dark corners of the school library to the global spotlight of Netflix?