The Street of Terror – Part 2: 1978 is the second part of the trilogy that pays tribute to the work of R. L Stine. If its predecessor, released a few days ago on Netflix, he played with the references to create a consistent and well-constructed atmosphere, the continuation is a game of mirrors.
This story within another is a brilliant journey through the horror genre of the ’70s and’ 80s, but it also has its own identity. An elegant conception of the codes of terror that allows you to innovate and, now, to find your own rhythm that dazzles with its solidity.
The previous Netflix film was criticized for not taking all the risks that its plot allowed it to take, especially for its experimental and light-hearted tone. This time, director Leigh Janiak takes them. And it does it with all the precision of creating a story that, despite being related to the previous, has an inspired life of its own.
It is no longer about contextualizing the characters, nor is it about creating a vision about what happens. The rivalry between Sunnydale and Shadyside has become clear, but it is reduced to a mere eventuality. The really important thing is now the origin of the curse supernatural that gravitates on the characters.
Especially about the series of brutal murders that are interspersed with an older and much more complicated story. In the first Netflix movie, the script offered little information about Sarah Fier and the curse that unleashed the brutal murderous violence. But in The Street of Terror 1978, the story reaches a much more complicated level. The increase in tension, the use of plot resources and a greater emphasis on the mysterious world are notorious.
Janiak makes his impeccable handling of tension clear, but especially, he walks a complicated path with impeccable awareness of where he is going. The Street of Terror 1978 it could have suffered the burden of being the connection between the prologue and the outcome of a larger story. But actually, has its own rhythm and it is necessary to analyze what will come next and also, to concatenate the previous information.
In the end, The Street of Terror 1978 is a brilliant step between two extremes of the same gaze on a journey into the dark. One also, created from the pattern of a type of frenetic rhythm that becomes more elaborate, ambitious and solid as the argument deepens.
‘The Street of Terror 1978‘: a summer day, blood and death
The story of The Street of Terror 1978 it starts at the same point as its predecessor ends. But he immediately moves on to a setting that will be familiar to horror movie lovers. With obvious references to Friday the 13th shows what happened at Camp Nightwing from a long flashback.
And although the resource may seem uncomfortable and even repetitive at the narrative level, in reality the director uses it in a bold way. It is not a memory, but a way of integrating information in an elegant and especially intuitive way.
In the first part, the continuous references to what happened during the bloody summer of ’78 were almost disorderly. But in The Street of Terror 1978 there is a sense of use of interpretation and the information that sustains not only the well-accomplished atmosphere and especially its mysteries.
Suddenly, Shadyside and its tragedies are left behind. But instead of seeming that the story is fragmented, Janiak manages to link scattered pieces and create a second narration. This is a brilliant storyline achievement that allows the story to run smoothly and, more importantly, entertaining.
Because The Street of Terror 1978 He does not lose sight of the fact that it is pure entertainment. What this horror story well told it is at the service of a more complicated narrative, and of the references that sustain it. The script by Zak Olkewikz and Janiak has a sophisticated tone and rhythm that surprises in its small structure.
This tribute to the world of horror is a thoughtful combination of factors. Stereotypes of slasher from the early 1980s, the pauses and rhythms of the Carpenter cinema. Everything is in the middle of a terrifying tale that its cast holds up with malicious skill.
References are everywhere and are much more elaborate than in the first part of The street of terror. In its second part, the search for the supernatural is imminent, but also the fact that violence is now a brutal force. There is no shyness whatsoever in grotesque murder scenes, let alone in the growing tension between sequences.
Small-scale fear
For the occasion, Janiak made the decision to adapt Stine’s atmosphere carefully using the notion of the domestic on the prowl. The camera follows Ziggy Verman (Sadie Sink from Stranger things) while being accused of being a witch. It all happens in the middle of Camp Nightwing and in broad daylight.
The scene is a sequence of good narrative decisions. The camera shows a red-haired teenage girl hanging from a tree. A victim that accentuates the parallels with slashers and their fragile finals girls.
But the accumulation of small pieces of information are not accidental. Ziggy immediately remembers the Carrie by Stephen King. The scene has a dreamlike touch, but it also makes it clear that what we will see next is a narration of a secret. A dangerous one, about to turn lethal and certainly impossible to stop.
One of the great virtues of The Street of Terror 1978 it is to completely shed the burden of being a movie dedicated to a target audience. The supposed teen movie turns into a twisted carnival of horrors, betting just as effectively on gore and supernatural terror.
And that’s when the film reaches its best sequencess. There is not a scene that is not the perfect piece to create a haunting narrative, well constructed and in the end, with a clean modulation.
By the end, the film bets again on the flashback and again, it remembers that there is still a piece in this mechanism of evil lurking. But by then The Street of Terror 1978 it did its job. Being a great horror movie, which is not taken seriously, although it has all the elements to do so. Perhaps its greatest virtue.