Fear Street Part 1: 1994, a throwback to slasher films of the 90s, is an adaptation of R. L. Stine’s novels of the same name, involving teenagers who put aside their personal conflicts for a mission to seek the truth behind murders in their town.
Fear Street Part 1 opens with the gruesome murders of eight people in a mall in Shadyside, touted to be the “Killer Capital of USA”. The skull masked killer, Ryan Torres (David William Thompson), who is shot at by a cop, is among the deceased.
Sheriff Nick Goode (Ashley Zukerman) doesn’t comment on Shadyside’s massacre or its dubious history of brutal murders as the dark forces can’t be explained.
Siblings Deena (Kiana Madeira) and Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr) are high schoolers and residents of the spooky town. Josh suspects that these murders are perpetrated by the one-handed witch, Sarah Fier (Elizabeth Scopel), who he believes possesses people in Shadyside for revenge.
When he confides in his sister that he is seeking the truth behind the killings, she advises him to stop messing with this potentially horrifying venture.
Meanwhile Deena is still in love with Sam (Olivia Welch), her Ex, who has moved to Sunnyvale. Sam is too afraid to come out of the closet and, since their break-up, has taken Peter (Jeremy Ford) as her boyfriend enraging Deena further.
When Sunnyvale football team holds a candlelight vigil for the Shadyside Mall massacre victims, a skirmish between the teams heats things up.
As Peter follows the Shadysiders’ bus in his car with Sam sitting next to him, they meet with an accident and Sam gets hurt. She inadvertently crawls out of the car and is suddenly shaken by strange noises and a flash of a scary face.
When a skull masked man comes after Deena and her friends, Kate (Julia Rehwald) and Simon (Fred Hechinger) that night, Deena reaches hospital to confront an injured Sam. The masked man, however, attacks and kills Peter along with a few attendants there.
While escaping, she manages to snatch the killer’s mask and is horrified to see Ryan who was supposed to be dead in the mall massacre. They seek Sheriff’s help in the matter but he refuses to believe in their story.
After Josh explains the whole chronology of murders by various killers through newspaper clips, they think that perhaps Sam has disturbed the witch’s grave.
Their plan to give the witch a proper burial goes in vain as the killers are unstoppable. On Simon’s suggestion, they even try to burn the supernatural killers with Sam’s blood as a bait, but to their horror, the killers reconstruct themselves and come after them.
When they chance upon a news about one of the survivors of the Nightwing massacre named C Berman, they try to contact her, but the call goes to her answering machine. However, the clips provide a lead that she had survived by dying first.
With the killers almost closing in, Sam decides that, since she is as it is going to die one way or the other, it is sensible to die and be revived back to save everybody else.
Do the five accomplish this dangerous mission and succeed in getting rid of the deadly supernatural forces on a murderous spree?
Fear Street Part 1 ending explained in detail:
The rescue plan
In an unexpected twist, the Sheriff reaches a dilapidated house and slips a note from the door saying, “It’s happening again.” The mystery behind the murders deepens with this action.
Next we see them in a medical store with Kate piling a mix of drugs in separate heaps while Simon outlines the order and time interval between each ingestion.
Slowly these drugs would make Sam’s heart stop. Once she is out of the witch’s radar, they can bring her back with adrenaline.
They all smudge Sam’s blood on their clothes so as to fool the killers and to give Sam time to pass out. They split to cover all exits.
Sam is too afraid to die. What if they fail to bring her back? Deena assures her that she would do anything it takes to revive her from the dead and promises to take her on a date as soon as it all ends.
Sam tries but cannot swallow the pills and vomits everything out. As the killers come attacking together, Kate is brutally murdered followed by Simon.
Meanwhile, Sam exhorts Deena to kill her by putting her head in an aquarium. As one killer is about to pounce at Josh and another at Sam and Deena, Sam breathes her last. Suddenly, the witch is seen shrieking in pain, and the next moment all killers disappear.
Sam’s revival
Deena uses all the adrenaline pens to revive Sam but in vain. Josh cries thinking everyone’s dead. But Deena has not accepted defeat yet.
She tries hard to pump her heart to revive her and succeeds as Sam spews froth and coughs. The survivors breathe a sigh of relief.
Next we see the Sheriff recording an interview with Deena, Josh and Sam. They lie about going to the store for Sam’s prescription and make up a story about being spooked as the lights went out and they hid behind the counter.
When they are asked to explain Kate and Simon’s murders, Deena ironically exclaims if succumbing of underprivileged teenaged overachievers to drugs will fit in the narrative of another Shadyside tragedy.
It clearly shows that there has been a deliberate cover up of murders with false narratives for years. Something definitely is being hidden on purpose. But what that is, is kept under wraps.
As Sam’s mother, who is waiting outside the Sheriff’s office, forces her to leave, she resists her and admits to her romance with Deena by planting a kiss and promising to see her later that night. She is no longer afraid of expressing her sexual preferences anymore.
The unexpected return
Deena hands a mix tape and a note to Sam, reiterating her love. As they listen to the tape, the door bell rings. It is certainly eerie initially, but turns out to be just a pizza delivery. When she is on her way back to her room, the phone rings.
Shockingly, Berman is calling back. Deena is furious for she has taken so long to reply. When Deena reveals that they have killed the witch and other killers, she replies that they cannot be killed.
This really is a horrifying surprise for Deena and the audience as well. As they speak, Sam starts hearing the witch’s voice calling her name.
Berman reveals that the witch makes the rules and does whatever it takes to get what she wants. She warns that they are not safe as she will find a way to come for them.
Next we see a scary visual with the witch standing in front of a wall in a cave with fire burning. The wall has the names of all the previous killers etched on it. And the last name on the wall is of Sam Fraser.
At that moment, we suddenly see Sam standing next to Deena who is still on the phone. Soon she looks down and we see she has been stabbed by a knife by Sam who is straight-faced and grim.
The witch has found a way to them through Sam. Josh, who is chatting as usual with his friend about the murders, feels a tap on his shoulder.
As he looks up, it is revealed to be Deena, holding her wound. She leads Josh to Sam whom she has tied, and, with the noises she is making, it is very clear that the witch has managed to possess her.
Though Deena is brutally hurt, she still wishes to bring Sam back to her senses. Fear Street Part 1 ends with the promise of more gory drama and side stories to carry the horror franchise forward in the next part of the trilogy.
Also Read: Fear Street Part 2 1978 ending explained: What happened at Camp Nightwing?