Fear Street: Prom Queen review
Cool kids skip prom night. Smart ones skip Prom Queen.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Fear Street: Prom Queen
Directed by Matt Palmer
Written by Matt Palmer and Donald McLeary
Starring India Fowler, Suzanna Son, Fina Strazza, Katherine Waterston, Lili Taylor, Chris Klein, Ariana Greenblatt and David Iacono
Fear Street: Prom Queen Review
2021’s Fear Street trilogy has always befuddled me for a couple of reasons. First, though they were very popular releases…years passed without solid word on future entries. Second, and most importantly, I have never figured out exactly who they were intended for. Mostly, the series is firmly in the young adult horror category. The kind of movies that make sense for Netflix to release five years after young viewers on the platform got their first taste of gateway horror with the launch of Stranger Things. A pattern that fits the recent release Clown in the Cornfield as those kids are now another four years older and ready for something slightly more hardcore. Except…there is this one strange choice in the first Fear Street chapter that sticks out like a sore thumb. A kill involving a bread slicer that wouldn’t be out of place in a Terrifier sequel.
What makes the moment so odd is that neither of the follow up movies attempt to match it. There’s just this one extreme horror moment placed inside a movie that appeared to be for tweens who didn’t want more than a brief toe dip into the genre. I applauded the moment…as I do any movie finding a way to sneak some true horror where you don’t expect to find it…even if I never understood its existence. It probably scarred more young viewers than anything since a six year old me sat down to watch Return to Oz in a movie theater.
The release of Fear Street: Prom Queen puts my first question to bed. Though it took four years to return…Netflix is back in the Fear Street business. There is no trilogy to enjoy this time around…just one feature set in the 80s. Producers return…but the film comes from a different creative team. Like the original trilogy…it comes from R.L. Stine’s series of young adult novels. As I clicked play on the latest installment…I kept thinking about whether Prom Queen would answer my second question. If it would age up its content to match the four years of aging fans of the trilogy had undergone. If this would be more Clown in a Cornfield…or more of the same. And, of course, whether an out of nowhere extreme horror moment would find its way into the mix.
The answer to the latter is a resounding snore. Fear Street: Prom Queen takes a step back from the original trilogy in every way. It’s less exciting, less fun, less interesting and of a perceivable lower quality. As for who it’s directed at…I’m inclined to say “no one” …but I’ll settle on “people who thought the Fear Street Trilogy was too confusing”. If you’re reading that and thinking “the Fear Street Trilogy wasn’t at all confusing” …you’re right. And Prom Queen isn’t for you. This is a dumbed down version of a toothless slasher. Kill scenes are mostly unmemorable. The order of demise is clear-cut. The reveal is obvious. Fear Street: Prom Queen is a paint by numbers attempt to make a horror movie that won’t bother anyone.
That’s harsh. There are some fun limb chopping moments to be had here. They’re easily the highlight of an otherwise milquetoast affair. The story revolves around prom night, obviously. Six candidates for prom queen are lined up for slaughter along with their dates and anyone else who happens to get in the way. Lori (India Fowler) serves as our lead character. She’s an outcast with a dramatic backstory. Tiffany (Fina Strazza) is the popular mean girl. Her friends comprise three of the other candidate slots. Cannon fodder is the best way to describe them. Ariana Greenblatt appears as the sixth candidate, Christy. Christy has the most interesting character of the bunch so of course she doesn’t even make it to prom night.
A masked killer picks them off one by one in an order that is so obvious that Prom Queen is incapable of providing suspense or surprise. In fact, the most surprising thing about Fear Street: Prom Queen is that it is based on an R.L. Stine novel and not an AI prompt. If you head to one of the many AI platforms right now and asked for a slasher outline set around prom and a masked killer…it wouldn’t be any less original than Prom Queen feels.
The movie is set in 1988 for anyone who wants it. Outside of the music played throughout the prom there’s no reason for it aside from explaining the lack of cell phones. They could have had an 80s themed dance and a sign that reads “no phones allowed” and had the exact same aesthetics and playlist.
Scare Value
The cast is fine. The movie looks unremarkable. Death scenes are too predictable and to the point to leave a mark. There’s a strange dance-off in the middle of an argument that might be the highlight of the movie given how weird it plays. There is what amounts to something a person who has never seen a slasher movie before might consider a twist in there. Even that is delivered in a way for it to make the least possible impact. Not only is it revealed in the wrong way at the wrong time…it only confirms the only suspect you probably had in the first place. Fear Street: Prom Queen is a skip.
1.5/5
Fear Street: Prom Queen Link
Streaming on Netflix
