‘Fear Street Part 1: 1994’ review: Did ‘Goosebumps’ have stabbings?

For a horror writer most associated with middle schoolers, R.L. Stine’s “Fear Street Part 1: 1994” has one of the more gruesome deaths onscreen so far this year. It involves a girl’s head and a bread slicer and results in splattered hippocampus.

The scene is freaky, but it’s OK. Nobody really needs a brain to enjoy this movie. “1994” is the first part of the “Goosebumps” author’s horror trilogy, with the next two chapters — “1978” and “1666” — being released respectively by Netflix on July 9 and 16th. Each one is engineered, it would seem, to emulate the style of title date. (Except for 1666, which is roughly 200 years before movies were invented.) “1994” has hints of “Scream” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” for example. There’s even some “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” shoved in there.