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Fear Street Part Two: 1978
By Brian Costello,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Horror sequel has violence, gore, drug use, language.

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Fear Street Part Two: 1978
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Based on 7 parent reviews
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Very good sequel!
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What's the Story?
In FEAR STREET PART TWO: 1978, the '90s teens of Shadyside track down the elusive C. Berman, and try to find out how she was the only survivor of the Camp Nightwing in July 1978. As Berman begins to tell them the story, the movie flashes back to when misfit teen Ziggy (Sadie Sink) and her goody-two-shoes sister Cindy are back at summer camp. Ziggy is bullied by the "mean girl" snobs from Sunnyvale, who accuse her of being a witch, and camp counselor Cindy dates the bland jock Tommy Slater. Cindy is mocked by her former friend Alice, who is now a stoner who dates fellow stoner Arnie. While cleaning the mess hall, Tommy is almost stabbed to death by Nurse Lane, the mother of the previous Shadyside killer Ruby Lane, and Nurse Lane tells him that he will die that night. The campers and counselors from Sunnyvale believe that Nurse Lane was possessed by Sarah Fier, the infamous local witch from the 17th Century. Cindy and Tommy go to the infirmary to get to the bottom of what happened, and they find Alice and Arnie already there. They find Nurse Lane's diary, and a map leading to Sarah Fier's house in the nearby woods. The diary says that Sarah Fier cut off her hand to gain eternal life in a deal with the devil. They follow the map and find an open grave and a passage into a room leading to a cave that runs under the campground. Upon entering, they see the names of all the previous Shadyside killers, and at the bottom, they see Tommy's name. Soon, Tommy becomes possessed, grabs an ax, and kills someone. Meanwhile, the campers are engaged in playing "Capture the Flag," and as the Sunnyvale kids take on the Shadyside kids, Ziggy and Sunnyvale golden boy Nick Goode, widely believed to be a future Sheriff of Sunnyvale, bond over a love of spiders and Stephen King, a bond that leads to romance. But when ax-wielding Tommy emerges, the campers and counselors must run for their lives, find a way to stop Tommy, and figure out a way to end Sarah Fier's centuries-long curse, once and for all.
Is It Any Good?
This movie is better than Part One, with some actual surprising twists. Fear Street Part Two: 1978 continues the parody of/homage to the "teen slasher" movies of decades past, with gratuitous everything: ax murder violence, sex, profanity, drug use. While catching their breath between moments of gory bloodshed, the teens find time to talk about not fitting in, the "mask" of normalcy the popular kids must wear to hide their not-cool love of arachnids and Stephen King, bad parents, and getting out of their lousy hometowns as soon as they graduate. Like the first one, there are genuine attempts to sincerely address what some teens of any decade must contend with (depression, coming out to conservative parents, identity and pressures to conform), and while these are likely to be drowned out by the scenes of ax murders and witchcraft, it's a worthy effort and one that separates these movies from the slasher movies they're drawing from, where the teens are little more than hedonistic soon-to-be-victims of the homicidal maniac.
While the music placement isn't as obnoxious as Part One, there are definitely some eyerolling moments. Apparently, there's a law on the books which states that any coming-of-age nostalgia movie set in 1970s America must feature "Slow Ride" by Foghat or "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult, and preferably both. It's a cliche, but it's somewhat rooted in reality, unlike the irritating conceit of forcing the good musical taste of the writers into the "brooding rebel artsy quirky nonconformist misfit" characters (i.e. Juno and Stranger Things), because, apparently, The Velvet Underground, Runaways, and Buzzcocks were just as much a part of American teen 1970s pop culture as disco, the Captain and Tenielle, and "Carry On My Wayward Son" by Kansas. Furthermore, it shows where the parody becomes self parody, and distracts from the actual nostalgia for the YA novels on which these movies were based. Regardless, this is the rare example of a sequel that's better than the original.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about horror movies like Fear Street Part Two: 1978. How was this movie both a parody of and homage to the "teen slasher" movies of the late 1970s and early 1980s?
How does the violence in this movie compare to other horror movies you've seen? How much is too much?
There's a lot of gratuitous sex, violence, profanity, and drug use in this movie. How much of this do you think is due to trying to imitate the slasher movies the movie is referencing, and how much of it seems like blatant ways to engage the audience -- ironically enough, through the same methods employed by those who made the slasher movies of the '70s and '80s?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: July 9, 2021
- Cast: Sadie Sink , Emily Rudd , Ryan Simpkins
- Director: Leigh Janiak
- Inclusion Information: Female actors
- Studio: Netflix
- Genre: Horror
- Topics: Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- Run time: 109 minutes
- MPAA rating: R
- MPAA explanation: Bloody horror violence, sexual content, nudity, drug use, and language throughout.
- Last updated: February 17, 2023
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