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    Movie Review

    Fear Street Part Three: 1666 casts a spell with witch-centric story

    Alex Bentley
    Jul 16, 2021 | 2:40 pm
    Fear Street Part Three: 1666 casts a spell with witch-centric story
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    The first two Fear Street films gave writer/direct Leigh Janiak and her team chances to pay tribute to other classic horror films. The third, Fear Street Part Three: 1666, while treading upon familiar ground of stories about witchcraft, branches off on its own to become something wholly different.

    When last we left Deena (Kiana Medeira), she had reunited Sarah Fier’s long-lost hand with her body, only to immediately get mind-melded with Sarah in 1666. Now living as Sarah in an early settlement upon which Shadyside and Sunnyvale would grow, Deena encounters many familiar faces from the first two films who are also now inhabiting new people. They include Hannah Miller (Olivia Scott Welch), Henry (Benjamin Flores, Jr.), Lizzie (Julia Rehwald), Solomon Goode (Ashley Zukerman), and more.

    When strange things, including the premature rotting of food and other unnatural occurrences, start happening, townsfolk are desperate to have something to blame them on. A secret romance between Sarah and Hannah, verboten in the highly religious society, is just the thing on which they can grasp, and soon both are being accused of being witches who are cursing the community.

    The film becomes a hybrid, taking traits and storylines from the first two films and imposing them on the new characters. It’s a clever and yet simple technique, giving the filmmakers enough rope to tell the new story while keeping it tethered to the other two. But Janiak and co-writers Phil Graziadei and Kate Trefry stay true to the period, reveling in the language, repressed thinking, and general filth of the time.

    Part Three: 1666, like the first two films, is much better made than one might expect, especially for films based on relatively tame R.L. Stine books. There’s no doubt each of the films is a hard R in the ratings, but everything is done with a purpose instead of just carnage for carnage’s sake. The filmmakers are not interested in just titillating the audience with blood and sex; they want to make sure everything about the story they’re telling makes sense and has an emotional connection before they ever get to any killings.

    This attention to detail pays off, especially in the final act of the film, which brings elements from each of the films together in a satisfying way. The multiple different killers that the films have introduced could each be at the center of their own movie, but the idea that we only get little tastes of each keeps them from wearing out their welcome or becoming less creepy.

    By the end of the third film, Madeira has fully established herself as a star, someone who can counted on to lead other films with full confidence. Likewise, Janiak has proven herself as an assured filmmaker, someone who knows how to transform a well-known property into something completely different and great.

    Now that all three Fear Street films are available on Netflix, the streaming service has its own hit trilogy that should have no trouble attracting viewers in the near term, and for years to come. It’s easy to see them coming back for another round in the near future, and if Janiak is at the helm, they will be in good hands.

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    Fear Street Part Three: 1666 is now streaming on Netflix.

    Kiara Medeira and Olivia Scott Welch in Fear Street Part Three: 1666.

    Kiara Medeira and Olivia Scott Welch in Fear Street Part Three: 1666
      
    Photo courtesy of Netflix
    Kiara Medeira and Olivia Scott Welch in Fear Street Part Three: 1666.
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    Movie review

    Nerdy teen comedies make a comeback with new movie Summer of 69

    Alex Bentley
    May 9, 2025 | 10:45 am
    Sam Morelos and Chloe Fineman in Summer of 69
    Photo courtesy of Hulu
    Sam Morelos and Chloe Fineman in Summer of 69.

    There was a trend in the late 2010s/early 2020s of bawdy comedies featuring teenage female protagonists, including Blockers, Booksmart, and Yes, God, Yes. Those types of films seemed to go by the wayside in recent years, but they’re making a comeback with the new film Summer of 69.

    Abby (Sam Morelos) is a high school senior and video game streamer who has had a crush on her classmate Max (Matt Cornett) for her entire childhood. When she learns that Max has recently broken up with his longtime girlfriend, she’s determined to make her move. With advice from a confidant that Max likes a certain sexual position, Abby sets out to learn as much as she can about it, including hiring a stripper, Santa Monica (Chloe Fineman), to help her.

    Coincidentally, Santa Monica is facing a situation where the club at which she works, Diamond Dolls, will be closed if the owner doesn’t come up with $20,000 in a week. Abby, who comes from a well-to-do family, seems to offer the perfect solution, and so the two agree to a week of lessons for that amount. Naturally, all sorts of complications arise, as well as the two women forming an unexpected bond.

    Written and directed by Jillian Bell, with help from co-writers Jules Byrne and Liz Nico, the film is both suggestive and innocent at the same time. For all of the talk about sex and innuendo, having the nerdy and inexperienced Abby at the center of the film ensures that the story remains relatively chaste throughout. That includes scenes at the strip club, where Bell makes the choice to show almost no nudity.

    Most of the humor of the film stems from Abby’s lack of experience, highlighted by her having “sexual” fantasies about Max that never actually get to the sex part. The juxtaposition between Abby and Santa Monica is also used for laughs, although Bell and her co-writers make sure to include a side story for the dancer that makes her into a three-dimensional person.

    What ultimately makes the movie succeed is the way it keeps its characters relatable. Many high school films feel the need to play into a bunch of stereotypes, but those are kept to a minimum here. Instead, Bell upends expectations by delivering honest - sometimes to a fault for the characters - dialogue that acknowledges the spectrum of sexual realities for high schoolers, a version that differs from insatiable horniness of some other teen comedies.

    Morelos, one of the stars of Netflix’s That ‘90s Show, makes for a charming lead, someone who can convincingly take her character from awkward to confident over the course of the story. Fineman, best known for her current stint as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, complements her well, showing her comedic prowess in a number of physical scenes. A supporting cast that includes Nicole Byer, Paula Pell, Alex Moffat, and Natalie Morales keeps the energy level high.

    Despite its titillating title, Summer of 69 is much more sweet than naughty. Like most coming-of-age movies, it’s about a girl who’s trying to figure out where she fits in the world. The answers she finds aren’t always the ones she was expecting, but in the best possible way.

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    Summer of 69 starts streaming on Hulu on May 9.

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