Film Review: 'Fear Street Part Two: 1978'

Desperate for a way to save Sam (Olivia Scott Welch) from Sarah Fier's possession, Deena (Kiana Madeira) and her brother Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr.) go to the only person they know to have survived a Shadyside massacre. That person is C. Berman (Gillian Jacobs), who reluctantly recounts to them the summer of 1978 when tragedy struck Camp Nightwing. Clean-cut counselor Cindy Berman (Emily Rudd), her rebellious sister Ziggy (Sadie Sink), and everyone else at the camp are in grave danger as the curse of Sarah Fier strikes another unsuspecting Shadysider--Cindy's boyfriend Tommy Slater (McCabe Slye).

With her possessed beau ravaging the camp and leaving bodies in his wake, it's up to Cindy and Ziggy to put aside their differences and find a way to escape Camp Nightwing with their lives. How will this massacre end? And will C. Berman's tale give Deena the information she needs to save her girlfriend's life?

To answer the sorta-question that ended my Fear Street Part One: 1994 review: no, Fear Street Part Two: 1978 doesn't outdo its predecessor. And if you thought my synopsis sounded a little familiar, you've stumbled onto the main problem I had with the film. While it's not a steep drop in enjoyment from 1994, 1978 feels like it copies a lot of elements from the first film--and uses them to lesser effect. Barring the romantic angle for obvious reasons, the dynamic between Ziggy and Cindy heavily mirrors the one between Deena and Sam from the first movie. Ziggy and Cindy even replicate Deena's hyper-nihilistic attitude and Sam's "not being true to herself" inner conflict respectively. There's also a second copycat dynamic going on between Cindy and her former friend Alice (played by Ryan Simpkins), with both dynamics going down the same path of the girls working through their issues while they try to stay alive and stop the curse. In addition to being a rehash of Deena and Sam's shared plot arc from 1994, the story-within-a-story aspect of 1978 leaves the action stripped of most of its tension. Going in, you already know that the attempt to end the curse will fail and (for the most part) who among the main cast is going to be alive once the bloodshed ends.

(I also couldn't help but feel this movie rips off Friday the 13th a little bit. There's of course the whole "massacre at a summer camp" premise, but I also noticed how this film features a camp counselor named Alice, with Ryan Simpkins even being styled to look similar to Adrienne King circa 1980. Though admittedly, the shorter hairstyle brought to mind Dee Wallace comparisons at first.)

Sadie Sink and Emily Rudd give good performances as the estranged Berman sisters, with Sink getting the added benefit of Ziggy not sharing in Deena's introductory cruel streak. Her resentment of Cindy doesn't have any baselessness to it and, this time around, the film gets around to fully paying respect to both girls' struggles. While Cindy's blind optimism and attempted Sunnyvale assimilation are constantly derided as wrong, the movie doesn't semi-justify Ziggy and Alice's cynical reckless abandon like the first movie did with Deena. This time around, Leigh Janiak admits that Ziggy and Alice's ways of "coping" with their Shadyside misery aren't any better or healthier than Cindy's. But unlike their counterparts from 1994, Ziggy and Cindy spend so much of the movie apart that their development together doesn't pack the same punch as Deena and Sam's. Sink and Rudd still put their all into it, but they're just not given enough time to get you invested in the sisterly bond between their characters.

"Doesn't pack the same punch" can also be applied to 1978's overall story. While the story never becomes too boring, it does drag to a crawl in spots. The whole sequence of Cindy and Alice being stuck together in the tunnels is the most notable example, with other moments when the film's sense of urgency takes a dip peppered throughout. You'll stay engaged as things take a turn for the scary, but the consistent state of suspense 1994 had isn't present here. At least the acting remains on par with what was seen in the first movie. Sink makes for a strong lead as Ziggy Berman while Rudd sells Cindy's growth as an awkwardly neurotic perfectionist who turns into an unexpected badass as the night goes on. Alice goes through a similar transformation to Cindy's as they're forced to work together to survive. She starts out the standard weed-smoking, sex-craved, foul-mouthed rebel who clashes with "good girl" Cindy. But once the Nightwing slayings start, Alice opens up to Cindy and reveals her softer side as they rekindle their friendship. Ryan Simpkins gives a stellar performance during Alice's character arc, SPOILER ALERT though it's a shame that it ends with Alice giving a way too on-the-nose rousing speech that predictably leads into her death. Spoilers Over

With the summer camp setting comes an increased amount of supporting/side characters. The sweet-natured Nick Goode gets the most screentime of the lot, with Ted Sutherland selling Nick as the good-natured counterpart to his crueler brother Will (his young version played here by Brandon Spink). Sutherland and Sink share some cute chemistry as Ziggy and Nick begin to bond and the former shines as Nick becomes Camp Nightwing's pseudo-Tommy Jarvis as he goes out of his way to protect the campers. SPOILER ALERT That bravery and the unlikely connection Ziggy forms with Nick makes it more upsetting when Nick ends up turning his back on Ziggy and dismissing what happened at the camp as simply another Shadysider going crazy. This combined with Nick's present-day actions of warning Ziggy and agreeing to meet with her makes it hard to pinpoint whether Nick is a friend or foe. It's a question Part Three better provide an answer for. Spoilers Over

Of the minor cast, Chiara Aurelia makes the biggest impression as near-sociopathic camp bully Sheila. Michael Provost is energetically effective as arrogant tool Kurt and McCabe Slye makes the most of his slim screentime to make you like Tommy Slater and feel bad when he becomes an unwilling pawn in Sarah Fier's game of revenge. Another actor playing a limitedly-timed role is Gillian Jacobs as the surviving Berman sister, with Jacobs doing well at depicting how haunted the woman is by her childhood trauma. Kiana Madeira reprises her role as Deena, giving a kick to her desperation to save Sam and finally put an end to the Shadyside curse.

While the cast here may give as much heart as the one for 1994, Fear Street Part Two: 1978 suffers from recycling so many beats from the film that came before it. A lot of these beats aren't as impactful as they were the first time around and a capable cast can't make up for a derivative and sometimes stagnant story in full. But the cast of 1978 is responsible for keeping the film from sinking too far down the rating scale and the story (while familiar) still has some frights and depth to keep you watching. And if nothing else, the cliffhanger finale seems to promise that Fear Street Part Three: 1666 will be a complete change of pace plot-wise compared to the previous two films. Fingers crossed that 1666 ends the trilogy on a spooky high instead of a dull low.

Score: 6.5 out of 10 bottles of Tylenol.