2021
1666 ends a trilogy that goes Basically Scream, Basically Friday The 13th, Basically... The Crucible meets The Blood On Satan’s Claw?
It’s a really odd choice, and the most interesting thing about the series for me. (Offhand. the Dark Shadows timewarp storylines and Ginger Snaps Back are the closest parallels I can think of.)
The 1666 section is impressively grim, with a much less jokey tone and the most gruesome moment in the series, before cycling back to 1994 for a finale with a number of clever uses of the slasher-explaining lore.
It plays with the recurring problematic idea in historical horror of “the witch hunts in Puritan times were horrible... but what if there were actual magic-using devil-worshippers too?” though it does tweak it rather than straight-up victim blaming.
Having Deena see this herself in a flashback and reuse the cast as she sees the townsfolk as people she knows works quite well, underlining that the kids in 1666 are still just kids and making their reactions to what’s happening hit home, allowing some victims to survive and some survivors to get death scenes, although it also uses 1978 cast members which makes the idea that it’s Deena’s perception not quite scan.
On the whole, the trilogy makes a lot of effort to create a unified theory for supernatural slashers, like it looked at how Jason and Michael acquire supernatural backstories to explain coming back from the dead for ever more sequels. It then runs with that idea in a pretty interesting way. I think 1666 is the most interesting though it doesn’t entirely work without seeing at least 1994, and appreciated the pretty inventive tie-up (apart from the genre savvy characters failing to address a sequel hook).
Also, Oasis on the soundtrack, but oh well.
So this is a low-key recommendation with some big caveats, especially about Part 2.
Also nice that the main plan works and we get a happy ending for our hero and her girlfriend.
No comments:
Post a Comment