Horror movies need to keep reinventing themselves in order to keep being scary, otherwise the baddies just lose their power to frighten.
The robot from Forbidden Planet now resembles a toy that answers your niece’s maths questions.
The Creature From The Black Lagoon looks like it needs some E45 and Christopher Lee’s Dracula is rendered less scary when there are more terrifying predatory aristocrats in Boris Johnson’s cabinet.
Fear Street: 1994 is the first instalment of Netflix’s new horror trilogy and it has already garnered plenty of praise for being funny and smart.
Funny and smart is what I want from Parks And Recreation or Rick And Morty, though, rather than a scary film.
Although self-aware enough to know it was riffing on other, better horror movies, Fear Street struggled when it came to doing something genuinely exciting.
Instead of being a reinvention of horror this was more like a greatest hits of previous villains. A spooky girl, scarred loner, and a knife-wielding killer in what may as well have been the costume from Scream all popped up.
Clever, but ultimately these are villains from the past we’ve all reckoned with.
The ’90s soundtrack was great but Fear Street was like going to see a hotly tipped band only to find out they only do covers.
Fear Street: 1994, Netflix
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