Netflix's Fear Street trilogy has been the surprise horror delight of the summer. With three films set across multiple time frames, Leigh Janiak's reinvention of the beloved R.L. Stine teen horror book series unfolds an interwoven, overlapping narrative about a town besieged by a deadly curse. Fear Street Part 1: 1994 introduces us to Deena (Kiana Madeira) and her high school friends, residents of Shadyside, where a horrific crime spree occurs like clockwork every few decades, believed by many to be a witch's curse.
[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for the entire Fear Street trilogy.]
Fear Street Part 2: 1978 took us back to the most recent Shadyside killer before the events of 1994, and the finale Fear Street Part 3: 1666 ties it all together by traveling back to the origins of the curse - and throughout every installment, you'll find a Goode. The most powerful family in Sunnyvale, the Goodes are always around when things go bad, and as 1666 reveals, that's for good reason. It was never the "witch" who put a curse on Shadyside, but Goode patriarch Solomon, who made a covenant with the dark forces, trading the lives of his neighbors for the guarantee of success, power and privilege for his entire bloodline.
Succession and Manhattan star Ashely Zukerman plays two of the pivotal Goodes in the franchise - Solomon Goode in 1666 and Sheriff Nick Goode, first introduced in1994 (Ted Sutherland plays the younger version of the character in 1978) and back again in the second half of 1666 as the newly revealed big bad that Deena the Shadysiders have to bring to justice in order to end the curse. With all three films now available to stream on Netflix, Zukerman joined Perri Nemiroff and Haleigh Foutch on an episode of Collider's horror podcast The Witching Hour for an hour-long deep-dive into those big finale reveals, what it was like filming two features back-to-back, and the career steps that led him to Fear Street. Watch the full interview below.
During our wide-ranging chat, Zukerman went deep on playing the trilogy's big bad(s), and how he approached getting into the mindset of multiple villains.
""The thematic storyline is the same between them both. Horrible things start happening and they have to live through those things knowing that they're responsible for those horrible things... There's this attitude that you have to love your characters, and I think that's a nice trick if you have trouble identifying with bad behavior but I don't think I have trouble with that. We are all multitudes. Most human beings there's a spectrum of bad behavior."
The actor also discussed how those shared themes illuminate two different types of evil that benefit from the same systemic cruelties:
"There is an important but subtle difference between the two. One is the person who came up with it and the other is the person who perpetuated it and both of those people are interesting to think about because they are around. Especially those who perpetuate this reality, this dynamic in our society is very real. While we kept the lie alive, I feel like what's satisfying about these films is.. that it just makes sense. When it ends up that it's Nick - Solomon and then Nick, that's the only way it could have gone."
On a similar thought, Zukerman explained that, though we may never learn the full story of Solomon Goode and what he did after the events of 1666, it's not really the personal details that make that sorry so scary, but what they stand for.
"In a way, we also have that story - that's the story of America. White men having gone through slavery, the oppression of women, the witch trials, and then have to keep living for another 300 years and maintain that. That's the story of Solomon Goode after that moment. Whatever has to happen to be blind to the actual pain that you're causing or maintaining, that's the story and it's horrible."
All three Fear Street films are now streaming on Netflix.