During the Comic-Con@Home, there was a panel, Netflix Geeked: Fear Street Trilogy. 

The moderator, Terri Schwartz spoke with director Leigh Janiak, cast members Kiana Madeira, Olivia Scott Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr., and Fear Street author R.L. Stine. 


For 30 minutes, they spoke about their favorite kills, challenges in filming, and more. Here are some highlights. 


For Stine, the most surprising thing when creating his books into films was the positive reaction of people when they found out about them. “You don’t get this kind of reaction for a book…It’s good for my ego!” 


My favorite kills were the infamous bread slicer death in 1994. Actress, Olivia said that her death was her favorite. She was approached to play a character where “your friends are going to drown you in a lobster tank.” She was definitely intrigued and also shared that filming wasn’t so terrible as the water was warm. 


Benjamin and Leigh spoke on the importance of the very first onscreen kill set the tone. It pays homage to films like Scream and revealing that the killer is murdering his friend added to the mystery of why and what is really going on. It reminds the audience, “Oh, we are in Fear Street, where anything can happen.” 


The author joked, “No one has ever asked me what my favorite kill is. Not everyone likes to kill teenagers.” He did share one of his favorite deaths from one of the more recent books, The Lost Girl. It fittingly made everyone squirm in their chairs. 

Kiana loves that the film series turns the old troupe of “bury your gays” on its head. This troupe usually has LGBT+ characters killed off than their heterosexual counterparts. In this film series, at the center, it is about a (lesbian) love story. 


For Leigh, she grew up on the books and loved them. While making the films, she tried to remember the experiences and feelings she had as a teen reading the books and translate them onscreen. 


The cast also shared their experience of playing the characters in 1666. Having given more time to prepare on the accents helped. Fun behind the scenes facts were shared. They brought wood from New England to their set in Atlanta. They didn’t use flat iron nails because it wasn’t used in 1666. All of these small but important details helped everyone on set. 


Olivia commented that she enjoyed playing the beginning of the love story since in 1994, our introduction to the couple is during their break up. Therefore, not only is the curse being revealed reverse style, but so is the love story. 

  • From imdb.com
  • From imdb.com
  • From imdb.com


They also shared somethings to look out for if you rewatch (and many will want to!): 

> Notice that in the mix tape in 1994, one of the songs is The Pixies “Hey” where the lyric is: “hey, must be a devil between us” By 1666, it is revealed that there really is a devil between the two lovebirds. 

> The actors who played the young and older Nick Goode worked on having the same mannerisms, including how to walk because of an injury the character sustains in 1978. 

> The reuse of time and place: you see that the mall, the camp and the village are the same location during the three time periods with the tree being the only thing that doesn’t change. 

During a game of This or That? Benji was asked what would he want, to be cursed or possessed. An excellent question. However when Stine was asked Goosebumps or Fear Street? He answered, “I would rather be possessed.” 


The panel ends with sharing bloopers complete with witnessing an injury during a make out and chasing piglets around the set and more! 

You can watch the panel here:

What were your thoughts on Fear Street?