The Fear Street Trilogy (2021)
Kiana Madeira and Olivia Scott Welch flirt in Leigh Janiak’s 2021 film series, THE FEAR STREET TRILOGY; the films are based on the horror novels by R.L. Stein, which were popular with teens between 1989 and 1999. This reimagining of the “Fear Street” world is modernized, much more diverse than the original series, and it is centred on a lesbian romance.
When director and co-writer Janiak was questioned by The New York Times about the queerness of the story, she replied that it was an “opportunity to tell a story that hasn’t been told within that genre very often, if at all,” and that it involved “creating this queer love story that drove everything.”
The queerness was helped along by gay writer Phil Graziadei who developed the story with Janiak and co-wrote the first and last of the screenplays with her. In a recent interview with Queerty, Graziadei spoke of LGBTQ representation in horror and explained his reasoning for stepping away from the monstrous queer trope:
“You have nuanced portrayals of queerness in horror, and embracing that power, that monstrousness. But at the same time, at the end of the day, if that’s all you see on screen, whose lens is that? Queer people don’t need movies to tell us how society sees us. We know.”
THE FEAR STREET TRILOGY follows the inhabitants of a small town who are terrorized by supernatural forces. Every few years there is a new series of killings that many believe to be tied to a witch who was hung in 1666. The witch cursed the town of Shadyside and all of its inhabitants. Throughout the centuries each new generation of townsfolk have lived short, unsuccessful, and unfulfilling lives.
Each film in the trilogy is set in a different period: 1666, 1978, and 1994.
Take the time to watch all three, because if you only watch one you’ll be missing most of the story – and it’s worth it to see through till the end. It’s not everyday we get a mainstream film trilogy centred on a lesbian love story!
THE FEAR STREET TRILOGY is streaming on Netflix.
THE FEAR STREET TRILOGY
2021. USA.
Director: Leigh Janiak
Screenplay: Phil Graziadei, Leigh Janiak, Kate Trefry & Zak Olkewicz
Starring: Kiana Madeira, Olivia Scott Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr., Julia Rehwald, Maya Hawke, Sadie Sink, Emily Rudd, Ryan Simpkins and Gillian Jacobs
