Four years after Netflix’s ambitious three-part Fear Street trilogy, the franchise resurfaces with a new standalone entry. Directed by Matt Palmer, this loose adaptation of the R.L. Stine novel of the same name heads to the 1980s for a pitched battle for prom queen supremacy.
Lori Granger (India Fowler) is the underdog in 1988’s crop of hopefuls, earning the ire of her rivals as the big day approaches. Shadyside High’s mean girl contingent aren’t the only ones who have it in for Lori, though – there’s a masked killer on the loose, and they’re targeting this year’s wannabe prom queens. As the party gets underway, the candidates start to disappear, leaving Lori in a desperate fight for survival while a soundtrack of ’80s tunes rages on.
Prom Queen takes the same approach as its three predecessors, slathering liberal amounts of gore all over a film that feels like it was made for a much younger audience. After spending three films chasing the local witch, this standalone entry goes full-on ’80s slasher, featuring a hooded figure wielding (among other sharp implements) a dirty great fire axe. With the bulk of the action unfolding over one night, it’s a classic slasher movie setup in the vein of, well, Prom Night.
Sadly, that Prom Night turns out to be the 2008 remake rather than the one starring Jamie Lee Curtis (itself not all that great). Buckets of blood and an ’80s soundtrack can’t hide that there’s not much going on under the hood, between the paper-thin characters and uninvolving mystery. Grown ups in the room Lili Taylor, Katherine Waterston and Chris Klein give a break from all the screaming teenagers, but they’re underutilised in a film which seems to think that being set in the 1980s is novelty enough. As an introduction to slasher films, it’s diverting enough, but those who were there the first time around will find nothing new here.
Watching Fear Street: Prom Queen as a person over a certain age is much like going to prom as a person over a certain age; it’s headache-inducing, slightly annoying, and wasn’t intended for you in the first place.
FEAR STREET: PROM QUEEN is released on Netflix on May 23rd, 2025.
