Leigh Janiak’s Fear Street Part One: 1994 was well-received, a loving homage to the mid-'90s aesthetic replete with a substantial amount of blood and gore for a YA adaptation, and set the stage for its follow-ups, Fear Street Part Two: 1978, and Fear Street Part Three: 1666.
But Fear Street is just one of many YA horror novels to be adapted. After 2019’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was well-received by critics and moviegoers alike, Fear Street doubled down on the YA adult formula by releasing each of its three films a week apart. Once the Fear Street trilogy wraps up, Netflix will return to the YA horror well with The Midnight Club, an adaptation of Christopher Pike’s 1994 novel. Another of Pike’s works, 1992’s The Season of age, will also get the big-screen treatment, with Doctor Sleep’s Mike Flanagan set to adapt the book for Universal Studios.
There are a variety of potential reasons as to why 1990s YA horror literature is having such a moment right now, and the very specific '90s style may be one of them. In the same way that Stranger Things brought '80s horror nostalgia back into the limelight, the first installment of Fear Street may have done the same with the subsequent decade. From the neon-tinged opening sequence to the vast array of needle drops from songs like Bush’s “Machinehead” and Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer,” it’s possible that audiences are ready to see more of the mid-'90s portrayed on screen, and with the way that Scream revitalized the modern slasher movie around that time, throwback '90s horror is a very specific niche that may need filling. Plus, there’s something inherently more frightening about younger protagonists facing such mortal danger, especially with the bloody R rating earned by Fear Street.
So where else could this trend lead? It’s impossible to talk about YA horror literature from the 1990s without mentioning Goosebumps, R.L. Stine’s bread and butter. And while word came out in April 2020 that Neal H. Moritz would be adapting the series into a new live-action TV show, not much has come out about that project since then. The Jack Black-starring film adaptation in 2015 was well-received (its sequel, not so much), but even as recent as they were, they seemed to be part of a different, more whimsical trend, having more in common with fare like Jumanji than anything else. In light of Fear Street's scary, gory content, it could be high time for a darker, bloodier reboot of the classic franchise.
Young adult horror literature from the 1990s is having a moment, but it remains to be seen whether that trend lasts well into the future, or if it fizzles out as a relic of the pandemic era. Fear Street is a solid start, though, with its talented young leads and its memorable kills, so if the adaptations to come can be just as strong, horror will be in a good place continuing into the 2020s.
