| Fear Street Part One: 1994 | |
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.png) Official release poster | |
| Directed by | Leigh Janiak |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by |
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| Based on | Fear Street by R. L. Stine |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Caleb Heymann |
| Edited by | Rachel Goodlett Katz |
| Music by |
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Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Netflix |
Release dates |
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Running time | 107 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Fear Street Part One: 1994 (titled onscreen as Fear Street 1994) is a 2021 American supernatural slasher film directed by Leigh Janiak. The first installment in the Fear Street trilogy, the film was written by Phil Graziadei and Janiak from a story by Kyle Killen, Graziadei, and Janiak, based on the book series of the same name by R. L. Stine. The film follows a teen and her friends after a series of brutal slayings, as they take on an evil force that has plagued their notorious town for centuries. It stars Kiana Madeira, Olivia Scott Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr., Julia Rehwald, Fred Hechinger, Ashley Zukerman, Darrell Britt-Gibson, and Maya Hawke.
Development of a film based on Fear Street began in 1997 when Hollywood Pictures acquired the rights to the series, but the project never materialized. It re-entered development at 20th Century Fox in 2015, with Janiak hired to direct and rewrite Killen's script with Graziadei in 2017. Produced by Chernin Entertainment, filming for the trilogy took place back-to-back from March to September 2019 in Georgia, with the film set for a theatrical release in June 2020. However, the trilogy was pulled from the schedule because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, Chernin Entertainment ended their distribution deal with 20th Century Studios and gave distribution rights to Netflix in August 2020.
Fear Street Part One: 1994 premiered at the Los Angeles State Historic Park on June 28, 2021, and was released on Netflix on July 2, 2021, with the other entries, Part Two: 1978 and Part Three: 1666, released weekly. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances of the cast, the horror elements and faithfulness to the source material.