Weekend Watch: Fear Street Part 1: 1994, And The Tomorrow War
A horror thriller and Chris Pratt in combat
Image Credit: Netflix
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, new horror on Netflix and Amazon sends Chris Pratt to the future to battle aliens. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite
Netflix already has its fair share of horror thrills on its servers between the tween-friendly chills of Stranger Things and any number of other nightmare fuel (no, I don’t mean Too Hot To Handle). From the evidence of the first film in the Fear Street triptych, the latest addition is well worth it for those who like a good scare.
Channeling the 1990s style (and mainlining the music of the time) of Scream, Fear Street is set in the town of Shadyside, a place that is haunted by poverty, crime and killing, right next door to the more affluent and safer Sunnyvale. The film’s credits hint at the story to come in the other entries – tracing the complicated history of the two locales.
Our focus here is a group of teens who, upon learning of the latest violent act (a slaughter in a mall carried out by a teen in a cloaked skeleton costume), decide to investigate whether it is tied to the town’s terrifying history. As you might suspect, this does not go well for them.
Co-writer/director Leigh Janiak has a compelling, funny, roustabout of a slasher flick to offer here, driven by spirited performances from the likes of Benjamin Flores Jr., Julia Rehwald, and Olivia Scott Welch, who dive into the story’s various turns and bring engrossing life to their various characters, who mostly sidestep cliché.
Though this is adapted from a set of RL Stine novels, don’t go expecting youth-friendly Goosebumps terror – this is full-on, R-rated horror with the blood and gore to justify it, though Janiak is smart enough to utilise them effectively. Can the second and third parts match up? Ask me next week…
Fear Street Part 1: 1994 is on Netflix now. Parts 2 and 3 will follow on consecutive Fridays.
Image Credit: Amazon Studios
Chris Pratt has had some success with sci-fi, though that has largely been via the Jurassic World films and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (we’ll skip over Passengers for now). Now, he’s looking to combine the more serious tone he deployed in a small role in Zero Dark Thirty with big, blockbustery concepts, albeit one that won’t end up on big, blockbustery screens.
Bought from Paramount, The Tomorrow War comes from Deadfall writer Zach Dean and director Chris McKay, who makes his live-action debut after the fun and frenetic The Lego BatmanMovie. Here, he’s saddled with a story that has little room for knowing winks, instead contenting itself with a few nods towards humour that big, wannabe-spectacle movies find room for.
The Tomorrow War finds humanity of the future locked in a last-ditch battle with nasty, invading insectoid creatures known as Whitespikes. The conflict is going so badly that the human race is on the verge of being wiped off the face of the planet. With dwindling forces, the top brains have hatched a plan to open a time gate back to the present day, where raw recruits are drafted to help fight. One such draftee is Dan Forester (Pratt) a science teacher who conveniently happens to be a former special forces soldier. He and several others (including Sam Richardson, who nabs most of the available chuckle-inducing lines) are sent forward, and naturally, things quickly go pear-shaped.
Largely content to be bombastic and gung-ho, while largely asking that you handwave away most of the science, which has plot holes you could send an army through (though not back in time). It wants to be something along the lines of Independence Day or Edge Of Tomorrow while never quite matching the madness of the first or the brains of the second.
It’s entertaining enough, though you can see why Paramount decided to offload. Even if the film does offer the value of JK Simmons growling conspiracy chat with a Santa beard.
The Tomorrow War is on Amazon now.