Hot on the heels of the release of Fear Street Part 1: 1994, the follow-up film Fear Street Part 2: 1978 has the difficult task of not only continuing the groundwork of what came before it, but also of traveling to an earlier point in time in the mythos of Shadyside to help elucidate the overall storyline, as well as craft its own unique narrative. While the debut film could have easily only minimally set the stage for the directions of the trilogy, filmmaker Leigh Janiak clearly didn’t want to take the easy way out and went above and beyond what was necessary for a definite first part in a series, though this sophomore installment doesn’t quite as successfully navigate the ambitious narrative threads while also delivering a compelling standalone adventure. Despite the film’s overall lack of cohesion, its disparate elements all work well enough in their own right, with fans of the summer-camp slasher subgenre sure to take the most delight out of the middle chapter of the trilogy.
