Leigh Janiak breathes new life into Netflix’s FearStreet trilogy
As a kid growing up in the ’90s, the requisite books of choice when heading to the library or the Scholastic Book Fair were those from horror writer R.L. Stine’s beloved children’s series Goosebumps. But the tame scares of Goosebumps weren’t enough for me. It wasn’t long before I uncovered the gory deaths and supernatural mysteries of Stine’s older babysitter of a franchise: Fear Street.
Director Leigh Janiak, best known for helming the 2014 indie horror flick Honeymoon, similarly grew up as a fan of the YA horror series. “I was reading them when I was like 13, 14, and they felt crazy to me,” she tells the Cut. “They felt edgy, they felt subversive, there was sex, violence, new kills, and my experience reading them was definitely one of like, ‘Ooh, I should be reading this under the covers.
Upon revisiting one of first books in the series in doing research for the films, The Wrong Number, Janiak gushes that she was full of nostalgia and transported back to a time when she “would prank-call people at slumber parties.” She recalls the days she’d spend at the local public library, scouring the book carousel for the latest offering of teen horror. “The Fear Street and Christopher Pike books were all relegated to the carousel; they weren’t on like this fancy shelf,” she muses. “I just remember spinning it and seeing the colors of the font. I loved the covers so much and wondered what insanity was going to live within.
While the Fear Street books never showcased queer characters, Janiak wanted to turn horror conventions on their head and make the love story between Deena and Sam the heart of her trilogy — one that surprisingly doesn’t end in tragedy.
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