Rereading My Childhood - Fear Street

Silent Night

Every year when I enter a store and see that first inkling of the holidays, whether it be a single tree, a splotch of red, or a display that houses snowman ornaments, a sense of dread settles over me like a peppermint-flavored miasma. It's that time of year when there are songs about casual sexual coercion veiled as "Christmas music" on the radio and boomers are telling me I should be jolly. No other holiday elicits such nosiness and intrusion. "Why don't you put a smile on your face? It's Christmas!" No, Karen, I will not. I'm just trying to buy some laundry detergent and a slice of cake before I go back out into the blistering cold to drive home in a freezing car that will finally warm up as I pull into my driveway. Or, it's not cold enough and there's no snow, and I know that when summer comes around, it won't be just irresponsible hunters and gender reveal parties that will cause wildfires. And then there's the gross consumerism driven by the capitalist quagmire we are all entrenched in.

It's fitting that Fear Street: Silent Night takes place in a department store. A multi-story temple to excess from the '80s is a perfect symbol of Christmas. So, get under a blanket and read this cozy tale of murder with me.

Our protagonist, Reva Dalby, is, to put it mildly, a bitch. She works in her father's department store at the perfume counter and spends her time making fun of the customers. This isn't what makes her bitch. I have no problem with Reva's animosity toward customers. I understand it. As someone who has worked in retail, the job would be great except for the customers, especially today when every terrible person thinks they should be allowed to wander in and abuse the hourly workers. What makes her terrible is her laziness and rich-girl entitlement. Her boss asks her to stock something and she refuses to do it, invoking her father's name. She's as bad as the customer who says, "You need to give me this whole thing for free because I have an expired coupon and the customer is always right."

Anyway, while she's not working and making fun of customers, she puts on her lipstick. She puts the color to her lips and she starts bleeding. Someone has slipped a needle into her lipstick!

We go back two weeks and Reva is breaking up with her terrible boyfriend, Hank.

Once, he'd punched his fist through a screen door because she refused to go to a dumb Arnold Schwarzenegger movie with him.

That's not great. When she breaks up with him, he flips out and demands to know why she is breaking up with him. She says that there's someone more interesting and he doesn't like that. He says, "You'll be sorry about this, Reva." He grabs her and yanks her around. For some reason, she's the bad guy in this scene! What? Hank is the one yelling and grabbing at her, but she is cold so she's portrayed as the bad guy. We're entirely too casual about domestic abuse now, and I think things have gotten better. Think about how bad things were back then. How's that for your '90s nostalgia?

Anyway, after Reva breaks up with Hank, she goes to visit her father at the department store. There, in the dark, someone touches her from behind! She spins around and comes face to face with a man!

A man-nnequin, that is. Prepare yourself, this is not the last of the mannequin-based scares.

As she heads to her father's office, the previous security guard, Mr. Wakely, rushes past her. Her father just fired him because Mr. Wakely was drinking on the job. Also, Mr. Dalby needs some cheap labor, er, kids to work during the holidays. They can make extra spending money! And Mr. Dalby can add another story to his mansion.

Reva offers a job to Mitch, the boy she's currently smitten with. Then his girlfriend, Lissa-with-two-esses, asks for a job. Reva tells her to dress nice and show up for work at the perfume counter.

Reva's cousin, Pam, also asks for a job and Reva tells her that there aren't any positions, which is a lie, and Pam knows it's a lie. Pam is so upset she calls her boyfriend, Foxy. We'll get to him later. Then she hangs out with her two friends, Chad and Mickey, the latter of which is Mr. Wakely's son. Remember? The guy who was fired? Anyway, Pam, Chad, and Mickey (whom Stine just has to tell us has a bad complexion because of the chocolate he eats) go to 7-11. At the counter, the cashier (whom Stine just has to tell us is chubby) tells Chad to empty his pockets. Chad insists that there's nothing in them and then cops show up. The Three Amigos jump into Pam's car and there's a police chase. They lose the cops, and then Chad reveals that he had some jalapeno dip in his pocket. They are almost arrested over jalapeno dip. Some fucking Kraft shit from 7-11. Kids, do crimes better.