Horror Movie Review: Fear Street Part Three: 1666 (2021)

“One does not summon the Devil by chance. Even the weakest heart, the most corruptible soul, they must make the choice. They must extend their hand.”

Fear Street Part Three: 1666 is a 2021 American supernatural horror film, and the final installment of the Fear Street trilogy after Part One: 1994 and Part Two: 1978. It is directed by Leigh Janiak. Based on the book series of the same name by R. L. Stine.

Having reunited the severed hand of Sarah Fier with the rest of her corpse, Deena has a vision. It shows her the events of 1666 from the perspective of Sarah Fier herself. She lives with her father George and brother Henry in Union, the original settlement before it was divided into Sunnyvale and Shadyside. The community also includes Pastor Cyrus Miller, his daughter Hannah, Abigail and her sister Constance, Mad Thomas, Caleb, Sarah’s friends Lizzie and Isaac, Solomon Goode, and Solomon’s brother Elijah.

One night, while Sarah, Lizzie, and Hannah make their way to a party for the young adults, they sneak into the tent of a reclusive widow. Sarah stumbles on a book of black magic. After fleeing, she and her friends arrive at the party. And there, she and Hannah are harassed by Caleb as they reject his advances. The two run off and get intimate, unknowingly seen by Mad Thomas. The next day, Pastor Miller begins to act strange, as the town’s food and water supply is destroyed. Sarah confides in Solomon and wonders if she is responsible for the town’s bad luck. The two discover Pastor Miller has murdered several children in the chapel, including Henry and Constance. Sarah is nearly killed by Pastor Miller before he himself is killed by Solomon.

Later that night, a town meeting is held at which the town decides that witchcraft is the cause of the grim events they are suffering. Caleb claims that Sarah and Hannah are the witches responsible, in retaliation for them refusing his advances at the party. The two attempt to flee, but Hannah is captured while Sarah escapes. The town declares that Hannah will be executed at dawn.

Can Sarah and Hannah escape? Can Deena’s vision help end the curse once and for all? Watch and find out.

Fear Street 1666 honestly confused me, a lot. Firstly, they had all the actors we’ve seen play new roles. But a lot of them didn’t make any sense and weren’t explained. For example, why did Sarah Fier’s brother look like Josh? And why were all her friends just Deena’s friends? Furthermore, why was Sarah also in a romance with a girl who must be related to Sam (both played by Olivia Scott Welch)? None of this is addressed at all. What are the odds that Deena would be in a relationship with the same bloodline as Sarah Fier was? Is that even what’s happening?

On top of that confusion, it’s unbelievable to me that again, Olivia Scott Welch plays another character completely devoid of personality. Both Sam and Hannah are literally the blankest slates in movie history. What are we supposed to be seeing in her? Why is she so worth saving?

I would have much preferred a change in actors for this movie. Not only to solve the confusion above but because the change in accents is incredibly jarring. I feel the sudden Irish accents would have been less noticeable if we hadn’t already seen the actors perform. I actually didn’t find them to be too terrible but they kept coming and going throughout dialogue, which was distracting.

Mercifully, not many bangers were released in the 17^th century so the number of obnoxious needle drops dramatically reduced compared to the two previous instalments. But unfortunately the 1666 section is only the first half so they manage to squeeze them in where they can.

Fear Street 1666 reveals the twist of the Sarah Fier narrative and… I wasn’t shocked. Of course, the men are the evil ones. What a fresh concept… What’s more is they use the two tropes I can’t stand in a horror: the power of love and good ghosts. The good ghosts concept comes into play very briefly but, it’s there. Thankfully, they didn’t undo any deaths.

Fear Street is a hard slog of a trilogy. I don’t feel they needed 3 movies. Although I have to give them credit for stringing together a coherent story but they did have 6 hours to do so. I was annoyed that the 1666 section was only the first half as it had a good concept. This meant that the first half we got was slow because it had to introduce a whole town of characters quickly.

The gore, again, was great. The church reveal was dark and I enjoyed the horror elements overall. I did feel however, that they made the killers look ridiculous and even dumber than part one.

Overall, Fear Street 1666 finishes off the movies well enough, I guess. It’s difficult to care about characters that have so little going for them. No matter the sexuality of the couple, there’s always a weak, bland link waiting to be stuffed in a fridge. I feel bad Elizabeth Scopel wasn’t used more because her few seconds of acting looked great and I wish we could have seen more. Frankly, I didn’t enjoy this trilogy but then I wonder, am I just too old for this teen movie? Was it really so terrible…?