History YMMV / FearStreet

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Leigh Janiak was quick to say she envisioned more films and a potential TV series, alleviating some fan worries that the mythology around the other killers wasn't fully explored. A hypothetical TV series would also present an opportunity to adapt characters and stories from the books, addressing concerns over the film trilogy being an InNameOnly adaptation.

* OneSceneWonder: Heather of course! She's set up as the DecoyProtagonist just like Casey Becker from ''{{Film/Scream 1996}}'', only for her sudden and tragic death to establish that AnyoneCanDie.

* TheyCopiedItNowItSucks: While Ziggy was well-received as a protagonist, there were a few complaints that Sadie Sink just recycled her [[TypeCasting character]] from ''Series/StrangerThings'' in a different decade.
* TooCoolToLive: [[spoiler:Alice]] seems to be set up as stereotypical stoner slasher fodder. However, she quickly grows past that point, displaying numerous HiddenDepths and a great demeanor when dealing with [[spoiler: [[AxCrazy Tommy]]. However, she's sadly killed with an axe strike to the chest before she can join Cindy and Ziggy in trying to put an end to the Shadyside curse.]]

* ValuesDissonance: ''Door of Death'' takes place in the 1850s and features Jake Fear's FreudianExcuse being that he was manipulated and exploited by his young wife Cassandra Ryan. The problem is, Cassandra was confirmed to be 17 and Jake was in his sixties when they got married. That the story's trying to make us sympathize with a man who married a girl old enough to be his granddaughter (even if the age gap between them wasn't considered much of an issue in the 1850s) can make it hard to feel sorry for Jake, regardless if Cassandra remorselessly screwed him over. It just makes it seem like a shameless teenage gold digger took advantage of a creepy old pedophile. [[spoiler:And it ''really'' doesn't help when the story ends with the implication Jake will kill Amy Burke and claim her as his bride in the afterlife, with Amy being the same age as Cassandra was.]]

* CreatorsPet: A surprising case of Administrivia/TropesAreTools. R.L. Stine has said a few times that Reva Dalby of the ''Silent Night" books is something of a personal favorite since she's great fun to write. Of course, since she's supposed to be obnoxiously mean instead of unfailingly pure, and Stine writes her accordingly (since that's the reason he likes her). It works and most fans who don't find her unlikeably mean and a complete KarmaHoudini do LoveToHate her.

* FandomSpecificPlot: What if the possessed killers got to meet each other in the afterlife? This normally goes hand in hand with a found family relationship with Ruby and Tommy in particular being very close, sometimes Ryan as well, Pastor Miller being the TeamDad, and occasionally Billy being the BabyOfTheBunch.

* InNameOnly: To the original novels, with the only holdovers being the name of the town - Shadyside - and the Fear (or Fier) and Goode families.
** 'Fear Street Saga: The Betrayal' does include witches and a character being burned at the stake, however unlike in 'Part 3: 1666' it's Susannah Goode who is burned, after being accused by Edward Fier of being a witch, with the Fier family then being cursed by Susannah's father. (Sarah Fear being an invention for the 'Fear Street' films)

* RelationshipWritingFumble: Since Cindy's boyfriend quickly becomes the killer, and Alice's is [[spoiler: the first victim]], they spend the majority of screen time with each other. More emphasis is placed on the rebuilding of their friendship, sometimes making them come across as exes getting back together. Alice has been stated to be gay by WordOfGod, suggesting this was intentional. Cindy even seems [[spoiler: sadder about Alice's death than having to kill Tommy]].

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Sarah Fier did have sympathetic motives. However, the twist that [[spoiler: Sarah Fier was never a witch]] is treated as a major reveal about the character. This is despite the fact that we know [[spoiler: Sarah ''would have'' made a DealWithTheDevil to curse the town had Solomon Goode didn’t]] Although other viewers point out she only considers doing so ''after'' [[spoiler:nearly the entire town turned on her and Hannah over false accusations of witchcraft]] and said consideration is more out of a desire for her and the woman she loves to survive than anything else. It should also point out that all the circumstances are [[spoiler: the result of Solomon's own deal, and as shown elsewhere on this page it's possible that he intentionally pointed the harm toward her. So it's not like Solomon merely beat her to the punch either.]]

** Ruby Lane is very much a CuteMonsterGirl whose first appearance in the trilogy is not unlike an EnthrallingSiren. Simon even admits being drawn in because she was hot.

** The fact that Sheriff Goode is responsible for framing Martin for graffitiing the Shadyside Mall back in Part 1 is treated as a major reveal that gives Martin pause and makes him reevaluate Goode's character. However, when told the spray paint cans had been planted, Goode gave an incredibly weak SarcasticConfession outright admitting that he did so, which was juxtaposed with his PoliceAreUseless dismissal of Deena and Sam's story. Not to mention, [[ChekhovsGun why include this detail at all if it wasn't going to come up again?]] Sure, they needed to get Martin and Josh in contact so he could help them set up the finale, but then why draw attention to the supposed frame-up? Not to mention, "planting cans to frame an innocent man of tagging his place of work" is ''several levels below'' "participating in a centuries-long curse directly responsible for several mass murders and generally dicking with the quality of life in your rival town" on the scale of evil deeds and we already know Goode is complicit in the latter.

* FriendlyFandoms: Fans of ''Fear Street'' and ''Stranger Things'' are pretty much guaranteed to overlap, mostly due to the nostalgic essence of both properties along with the fact that cast members like Sadie Sink and Creator/MayaHawke have worked on both. Both also have messages about growing up and moving on.[[note]]In ''Fear Street'', it's Sam and Deena's faltering relationship, while in ''Stranger Things'', primarily during the third season, it's Will's struggle with realizing the main party is growing up.[[/note]]

** For anyone familiar with the Salem Witch Trials, they might recognize Sarah Fier and Solomon Goode’s names as the combined name for Sarah Good, one of the first three women accused of witchcraft. Had Sarah married Solomon, she would've become a HistoricalDomainCharacter. It would be even easier for Solomone to [[spoiler:frame her for his DealWithTheDevil, along with giving him a more powerful motive.]]

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Leigh Janiak was quick to say she envisioned more films and a potential TV series, alleviating some fan worries that the mythology around the other killers wasn't fully explored.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Nearly all the killers not featured in main roles get this, but none more so than Billy Barker, mainly because of his genuinely creepy design despite being a small child and the fact the flashbacks focusing on him were pretty brutal. Many wished that he had a larger role in either ''1978'' or ''1666''.

* RelationshipWritingFumble: Since Cindy's boyfriend quickly becomes the killer, and Alice's is [[spoiler: the first victim]], they spend the majority of screen time with each other. More emphasis is placed on the rebuilding of their friendship, sometimes making them come across as exes getting back together. Alice has been stated to be gay by WordOfGod, suggesting this was intentional.

** For anyone familiar with the Salem Witch Trials, they might recognize Sarah Fier and Solomon Goode’s names as the combined name for Sarah Good, one of the first three women accused of witchcraft. Had Sarah married Solomon, she would've become a HistoricalDomainCharacter, except younger and not homeless. It would be even easier for Solomone to [[spoiler:frame her for his DealWithTheDevil, along with giving him a more powerful motive.]]

** It’s to invoke irony, but hearing Deena say [[spoiler:”Goode is evil!”]] can cause a few snickers. Not to mention that it's repeated several times and even spray-painted on the mall's walls; making it a rather bizarre attempt at some ArcWords.

[[folder: The RL Stine Books]]

[[folder: The 2021 Netflix Trilogy]]

[[folder: The 2021 Netflix Trilogy Part One: 1994]]

[[folder: The 2021 Netflix Trilogy Part Two: 1978]]

** A lot of fans view Alice as AmbiguouslyGay, and this has been supported by Leigh Janiak and Ryan Simpkin. Since she is introduced having sex with Artie and genuinely seems to like him, this begs the question of whether he's TheBeard, Alice likes him as a friend but doesn't love him (and simply doesn't realise her sexuality) or she's actually bisexual. She refers to him as the only ''person'' she's ever loved, implying she has no love for her family, so she could even have just latched onto him without realising her feelings weren't romantic.
** Ziggy's disdain of Cindy's efforts to improve her life seem to be just simple cynicism - believing no one gets out of Shadyside. But Cindy's later speech about how she tried to ignore her old friends and Alice has a moment where she says she "couldn't" ignore Ziggy. So maybe Ziggy was resentful because she thought Cindy might actually make it, and she'd given the impression she'd be leaving her sister behind.
** Tommy hears voices for a whole day and doesn't actually become possessed until hours later - in contrast to Ryan Torres from ''1994'', who heard voices and seemed to become a killer within a few minutes. Is this because [[spoiler: Tommy is Nick's first victim, and he'd gotten more effective at making sure the possession happened more quickly by 1994]]? Or is it more practical - since [[spoiler: Tommy going on his rampage at night during Colour War might be easier to cover his tracks]]?
* CaptainObviousReveal: [[spoiler:C. Berman is actually Ziggy, and not Cindy.]] Ziggy fits much more easily into the CoolLoser protagonist archetype, she's the main focus of the trailers and the poster, she's played by the bigger star, there's a closer resemblance between the two actresses, and perhaps most obviously, [[spoiler:why refer to her solely as "C" in the 1994 segments if she is Cindy? Bafflingly, Josh is shown reacting to the reveal at the same time the audience learns about it, which would imply that Christine was telling the story in ''[[ThirdPersonPerson third person]]''.]]
* CommonKnowledge: C Berman was telling the entire story in the third person to prop up the twist that [[spoiler: she's really Ziggy and not Cindy]]? In the film itself, it's clear the flashback we see is not literally the story she is telling. There are events shown that one sister isn't there for and would not feasibly know the specifics of. Even if some of the information were found out later from newspaper reports, there are intimate details that there are no survivors of. So the audience is being shown what actually happened, but Deena and Josh are only being told the story as C Berman remembers it.
* GrowingTheBeard: Critics tended to call ''1978'' the strongest film in the whole trilogy. It helps that the film gleefully uses typical SlasherMovie tropes while still being interesting, subversive in some aspects, and having a plethora of likable characters. It also has the best [[RewatchBonus rewatch value]] once [[spoiler:it's revealed that the Goode's are the main villains of the trilogy.]] It's probably helped by the fact that it was the last film of the series to be shot - meaning the cast and crew had all settled into their roles.

** Likewise, with Sadie Sink being the bigger name and playing the more colorful protagonist in terms of personality, she attracted the majority of praise. But as time has gone on, people have also come to see the work of the unknown Emily Rudd in a good light too; acknowledging that the role of Cindy was likely the harder of the two to play (see VanillaProtagonist below) and that the film would not be what it is without her as Cindy too.

* TooCoolToLive: [[spoiler:Alice]] seems to be set up as stereotypical stoner slasher fodder. However, she quickly grows past that point, displaying numerous HiddenDepths and a great demeanor when dealing with [[spoiler: [[AxeCrazy Tommy]]. However, she's sadly killed with an axe strike to the chest before she can join Cindy and Ziggy in trying to put an end to the Shadyside curse.]]

** Good lord, Nurse Lane! The poor woman saw her daughter - who she loved and knew was a NiceGirl - become a murderer and be branded as a psychopath by the town. She's spent years trying to prove that Ruby was innocent, and then she ends up taken away and branded as crazy herself. [[spoiler: While she appears to be healthy and free in 1994, who knows what she had to deal with in the years that preceded]].
** Poor Cindy as well. She has to deal with all the above-mentioned baggage that Ziggy does and, on top of that, a sister who is utterly horrible to her and dismissive of her attempts to improve her life. She also gets no respect from her former friends, who mock her for being a goodie-two-shoes. Then Tommy - who she was in love with - gets possessed and she even says she couldn't bring herself to kill him. And juxtaposed with the scenes of C. Berman in the future, we're led to believe the massacre [[BreakTheCutie broke her]] completely. [[spoiler: Even worse with TheReveal that it's Ziggy who survived, meaning Cindy's TookALevelInBadass still led to her dying young]].

[[folder: The 2021 Netflix Trilogy Part Three: 1666]]
* AbandonShipping: [[spoiler:Ziggy/Nick]] was a popular pairing, until it's revealed that [[spoiler:the Goodes have been running the curse of Shadyside]] and [[spoiler:Nick's not only been the responsible for cursing Tommy, and for the Camp Nigthwing Massacre, but for the massacres in 1994]], and after that most, if not all fans jumped the ship.

** A lot of fans view Alice as AmbiguouslyGay, and this has been supported by Leigh Janiak and Ryan Simpkin. Since she is introduced having sex with Artie and genuinely seems to like him, this begs the question of whether he's TheBeard, Alice likes him as a friend but doesn't love him (and simply doesn't realise her sexuality) or she's actually bisexual.

* GrowingTheBeard: Critics tended to call ''1978'' the strongest film in the whole trilogy. It helps that the film gleefully uses typical SlasherMovie tropes while still being interesting, subversive in some aspects, and having a plethora of likable characters. It also has the best [[RewatchBonus rewatch value]] once [[spoiler:it's revealed that the Goode's are the main villains of the trilogy.]]

** For anyone familiar with the Salem Witch Trials, they might recognize Sarah Fier and Solomon Goode’s names as the combined name for Sarah Good, one of the first three women accused of witchcraft. Had Sarah married Solomon, she would've become a HistorticalDomainCharacter, except younger and not homeless. It would be even easier for Solomone to [[spoiler:frame her for his DealWithTheDevil, along with giving him a more powerful motive.]]

** For anyone familiar with the Salem Witch Trials, they might recognize Sarah Fier and Solomon Goode’s names as the combined name for Sarah Good, one of the first three women accused of witchcraft. Had Sarah not married Solomon, she might’ve forced to [[spoiler: to join his DealWithTheDevil.]] Which makes this count as {{Foreshadowing}} to [[spoiler: her innocence.]]

** In the flashbacks when Deena worked it all out, the Goodes are seen saying the killers names. The narm part comes in when you see Ashley Zukerman and Ted Sutherland, who played the two versions of Nick, play every Goode shown, just with a wig and fake glasses and facial hair to differentiate between Goodes.

** [[spoiler:Nick Goode]]. When [[spoiler:he]] comented on how he wanted to things differently in Part 2,[[spoiler:was he being genuine about not wanting to go on with the curse? If so, did he feel reluctant about the nature of what his family did, or did he merely feel bad about doing it himself and would be down with the curse going on, as long as he didn't have to be the one to make it?]]

** As pointed out on the Headscratchers page, Sarah did have opportunity to [[spoiler: speak and at least try to expose Solomon right before she was hanged - and the fact that the lair was under his house would most definitely make him look suspicious.]] She however chooses not to, instead using her last words to [[spoiler: give a false confession that exonerates Hannah. Was she so broken by the treatment that she assumed that no one would believe her? After all, she doesn't know her friends believe that she's innocent. Or more morbidly, did she not feel like trying to save the townspeople who were so quick to shun her? Perhaps her curse on Solomon was a compromise - let the cruel townspeople suffer for their crimes, but try to save future generations]].

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Sarah Fier did have sympathetic motives. However, the twist that [[spoiler: Sarah Fier was never a witch]] is treated as a major reveal about the character. This is despite the fact that we know [[spoiler: Sarah ''would have'' made a DealWithTheDevil to curse the town had Solomon Goode didn’t]] Although other viewers point out she only considers doing so ''after'' [[spoiler:nearly the entire town turned on her and Hannah over false accusations of witchcraft]] and said consideration is more out of a desire for her and the woman she loves to survive than anything else.

* GeniusBonus: For anyone familiar with the Salem Witch Trials, they might recognize Sarah Fier and Solomon Goode’s names as the combined name for Sarah Good, one of the first three women accused of witchcraft. Had Sarah not married Solomon, she might’ve forced to [[spoiler: to join his DealWithTheDevil.]] Which makes this count as {{Foreshadowing}} to [[spoiler: her innocence.]]