This review was made possible by Popped receiving an advanced screener of Fear Street: Prom Queen
Before Goosebumps existed, R.L. Stine took his talents to a scrappy little town known as Shadyside with Fear Street. The youth horror fiction series would eventually be adapted into a three-part film event for Netflix. Each entry, filmed back to back and released once a week for three weeks straight during July 2021. It was an incredibly ambitious move that resulted in quite a success for the streamer. When all was said and done, people began to ask, “What’s next?” Nearly four years later, Fear Street: Prom Queen arrives on Netflix. Will this instalment be taking home the crown? Or will it be doused in pig’s blood?
Meet Your Candidates in ‘Fear Street: Prom Queen’
We’ve seen Shadyside at quite a few different points in its existence. Like that one time in 1994, or that other time in 1666, or how about that Summer camp in 1978 – now that was brutal. 10 years later, we find ourselves back in Shadyside on the eve of the 1988 Prom – Tiffany Falconer (Fina Strazza) has her eyes on the prize, ready to tear through just about anyone who’d get in her way. Enter Lori Granger (India Fowler), a quiet type who is haunted by her own mother’s past, being the central suspect in the murder of Lori’s father. Alongside her, bestie Megan (Suzanna Son), who she braves her teenage years at Shadyside High, but when Lori sets her sights on Prom Queen, she lands herself right in the crosshairs of the most popular girls in school, the Wolf Pack, led by the aforementioned Tiffany Falconer.
However, the competition begins to get slimmer and slimmer when the candidates start dropping like flies. The question soon goes from whose dying to be prom queen, to whose willing to kill for it.
A Night To Hopefully Not Remember
Let’s get the good out of the way. Probably the only person who really understood the assignment in this no-bake slasher flick would be Fina Strazza. She manages to turn in a really wicked, mean-girl performance. Taking any chance to torment Lori and crush her, and any hopes she has of winning the title of Prom Queen. Beyond Tiffany, there is not a single character in this movie worth much value. The concept of a slasher movie is that you are quickly introduced to a group of characters who will inevitably be forced to fight for their survival – what makes that interesting is how effectively the movie is able to get you invested in those characters before the blood hits the floor, however, in the case of Fear Street: Prom Queen, the movie forgets to do any of that.
You could pay as much attention as you could to this movie, more than anyone ever has before and still not know a single character’s name by the time the credits begin to roll. It does such little work to familiarize you with any of its characters that it gets to a point where you’re just waiting for these characters to die so you can get the damn thing over with. I think a well-dressed set of crash test dummies could’ve provided the equivalent of what we get in this film over its real cast. It feels degrading to refer to these characters as hogs to the slaughter, but that’s how the movie treats them.
Besides Tiffany, absolutely none of these characters stand out in the slightest. They’re one-dimensional and spew the most basic dialogue you’ve ever heard. It feels at times that most of them aren’t entirely sure what exactly they’re doing there besides waiting to meet the head of an axe. The film doesn’t even seem all that interested in its lead, unwilling to dive into anything beneath the surface and just constantly brings up her mother’s past as her own foil.
What The Hell Happened To ‘Fear Street’?
I think the biggest question I kept finding myself wondering was who made this movie?
Well, if you were guessing anyone from the previous creative teams of the original trilogy, you’d be dead wrong. In fact, the only consistency between this film and the first three is the credit R.L. Stine gets, poor him. The absence of Leigh Janiak is felt considerably. Maybe the hardest thing to believe about all of this is the fact that she delivered for Netflix in such enormous fashion, making three separate films back to back to positive reception all around and then just isn’t involved in this or any future instalment as of right now.
Don’t get me wrong, the original films are quite cliché in nature, but are elevated and made much more unique by their intensity and creativity of the overarching narrative connecting them throughout the first three films. Prom Queen is just cliché; it’s completely commonplace when it comes to ’80s slashers, and it does absolutely nothing to set itself apart from any of them. It’s a paint-by-numbers slasher film that feels more like the Cliff Notes to another, hopefully better movie.
Even the kills, which the initial trilogy really got creative with, are pretty tame and basic here. There are a few that elicited a few chuckles and maybe a slight bit of shock, but overall are pretty lacklustre. The movie maintains a pretty decent level of gore, but this time it feels a lot more cartoonish and goofy, whereas the others really made the kills feel quite sinister and sadistic. This movie, however, feels more worried about being a Scream knock-off rather than being its own thing. The film primarily relies on its ’80s setting for most of its personality, and it’s entirely stale and played out.
‘Fear Street: Prom Queen’ – Final Thoughts
If you’re a fan of the original Fear Street movies, maybe just watch those again, as this entry has absolutely zero to offer and will likely leave you incredibly unsatisfied and even a little bit more. Earlier this year, R.L. Stine sat down with The Hollywood Reporter and revealed that at least three more films in this franchise are in the works; however unclear if Prom Queen is one of those. As of right now, the only thing that I’m afraid of is another movie as bad as this one.
Fear Street: Prom Queen releases on Netflix on May 23. Check out the trailer below:
