Fear Street Part 1: 1994 – Shadyside's Curse, Explained | CBR

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Fear Street Part 1: 1994, available on Netflix now. 

At the beginning of Netflix's Fear Street Part 1: 1994, based on the works of R. L. Stine, the town of Shadyside seems to be beset by disconnected murderers, making it the murder capital of the nation. However, as the film progresses, the teen protagonists realize that all of the killings are connected to a curse placed by Sarah Fier, a woman executed for witchcraft in 1666. While Fear Street seems to take a straightforward approach to the witch's curse, the film's ending shows there is more to the curse and Sarah Fier than first revealed.

The first mention of Sarah Fier comes from an online chat between Josh and an Internet user known as QueenofAiranDarkness. In the chat, Josh discusses the murders at the beginning of the film. He concludes that the curse of Sarah Fier likely caused them and that she "possessed another Shadysider."  This scene establishes some of the lore and establishes Josh as the expert on that lore and on what is to come.

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Meanwhile, Josh's sister Deena is still reeling from her breakup with Sam, a cheerleader who recently moved to Sunnyvale from Shadyside. At school, many people are focused on the murders, but since they have become so commonplace, many students are seemingly immune to the horror. Deena's friends, Simon and Kate, have painted part of a nursery rhyme based on the legend of Sarah Fier. The rhyme states, "She reaches from beyond the grave to make good men her wicked slaves. She'll take your blood. She'll take your head. She'll follow you until you're dead." Both Kate and Simon are clearly just making light of the tragedy. Deena berates them because people died, and she completely dismisses the curse.

After a tense memorial that ignites rivalries between Shadyside and Sunnyvale, Sam's new boyfriend, Peter, and another unnamed Sunnyvale boy follow the Shadyside bus and throw a liquid at it, taunting the Shadyside students as they travel back to Shadyside. Sam is in the car as well, but she clearly disapproves of their actions. Deena tries to dump a cooler out of the emergency exit in revenge, but she stumbles and accidentally throws the entire cooler at the car, causing Peter to swerve and crash. Notably, Deena's nose starts bleeding before the accident, which may indicate that supernatural entities are already influencing events.

After the crash, Sam stumbles out of the car, bleeding from her injuries, including a nosebleed. As she crawls away from the car, her blood gets on the ground. Sam has a vision of the witch, but at the time, she just believes she is seeing things because of her injuries. The next night, the Shadyside Killers begin to stalk Deena and her friends, but they really are on the trail of Sam's blood, which got on their clothes after the accident.

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Later in Fear Street, Sam realizes that she saw Sarah Fier after Josh figures out the true undead nature of the Shadyside Killers. Josh explains that Sarah was hanged for practicing witchcraft and argues that she possesses random Shadysiders to take revenge on the town. At this point, they reveal the beginning of the rhyme "Before the witch's final breath, she found a way to cheat her death. By cutting off her cursed hand, she kept her grip upon our land." According to the rhyme, through the sacrifice of her hand, Sarah Fier gained the power to possess the living to enact these murders. However, the resurrection of the killers seems to be tied to Sam in particular because she is their main target.

The rest of the film focuses on the teens trying to end the curse. First, they attempt to place Sarah Fier's bones at rest after they realize that Sam disturbed them. When that plan fails, they realize that another victim, C. Burnham, survived an earlier attack because she died and was revived. Thus, they believe that the curse will end with Sam's death. They plan to kill and then revive Sam to ultimately save her. Kate and Simon are killed before they complete the plan. However, Sam still dies, and Deena revives her. They believe they have stopped the curse, but they really have just defeated the Shadyside Killers.

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Fear Street concludes with Sam possessed, and Deena and Josh realize that they have to dig deeper into the past to truly bring the curse to an end. Therefore, while the film seems to have explained Sarah Fier's curse, the ending shows that there are more secrets for the siblings to uncover in the next two movies in the trilogy.

Directed and co-written by Leigh Janiak, the Fear Street trilogy stars Sadie Sink, Kiana Madeira, Olivia Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr., Darrell Britt-Gibson, Ashley Zuckerman, Fred Hechinger, Julia Rehwald, Jeremy Ford and Gillian Jacobs. Part One: 1994 is available now on Netflix, followed by Part Two: 1978 on July 9 and Part Three: 1666 on July 16.

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