Fear Street: Prom Queen Review: A Bloody Betrayal of the Franchise 

In 2021, Netflix debuted a fresh trilogy of horror movies inspired by R.L. Stine’s Fear Street book series, unleashed on a Friday of three subsequent weeks as part of an unprecedented event release strategy. At first glance, the period setting and young cast of the Fear Street trilogy seemed like an excuse for Netflix to bank on the success of Stranger Things, strategically positioned to help fill the gap left by the lengthy hiatus between new seasons of the streaming service’s flagship title. However, the three films became a hit on their own, thanks to Leigh Janiak’s sleek direction, unexpected character depth, a queer-centric narrative concerned with social themes, and deliciously paced slasher kills. Given the critical and commercial success of the Fear Street trilogy, it’s shocking that Netflix took so long to release a fourth movie. However, watching Fear Street: Prom Queen makes us wish they had waited even longer to get it right, as the latest instalment is a downgrade of everything that made the first three special.

Set in 1988, Fear Street: Prom Queen takes fans back to Shadyside, a city marked by a history of violence and structural inequality, living in the shadow of the prosperous Sunnyvale. While the cultural schism between the two neighbouring communities was part of the Fear Street trilogy foundation, in Prom Queen, the conflict is reduced to a few throwaway lines, added for brand recognition but with little meaning for the actual plot. Instead, the fourth movie unfolds almost entirely in Shadyside High, as six senior students vie for the coveted prom queen crown.

First, we have the Wolf Pack, a quartet of popular girls led by the vicious Tiffany Falconer (Fina Strazza). Then, the two outliers of the competition are rebellious drug dealer Christy Renault (Ariana Greenblatt) and ostracized Lori Granger (India Fowler), who is constantly bullied due to the pervasive rumors that her mother killed her father at prom, many years prior. Unsurprisingly, prom night takes a bloody turn as a masked killer starts chasing the candidates, one by one, disposing of them with extreme prejudice.

[RELATED: R.L. Stine Confirms Even More Fear Street Movies Are on the Way (Even After Prom Queen)]

The very premise of Fear Street: Prom Queen already betrays the franchise’s ethos. Either through the lenses of romantic love or sorority, each Fear Street movie told a story that was essentially about women loving and supporting each other. On the contrary, the new installment is about the petty disputes of high school girls who are never given more than one or two personality traits. The movie doesn’t care about explaining the characters’ motivations, and after each of them is described in a lengthy and slow internal monologue at the opening scene, almost all of them will be reduced to the role of the next victim, deprived of agency or relevance. It’s an appalling contrast with the Fear Street trilogy, where even minor characters are made memorable through their choices.

Lori and Tiffanny, as arch-rivals, get a bit more screen time than the rest of the cast. Not that it does them any good. Lori’s desire to challenge the odds and become prom queen is born from a collection of cliches, including her poorly hidden crush on Tiffany’s jock boyfriend. As for Tiffany, she is nothing more than the popular girl who wants to remain popular, which, of course, means she must be cruel all the time, per the book of tired stereotypes. As a result, the two main women of the new Fear Street are so incredibly bland that watching them on screen becomes an exercise in boredom. And yet, Suzanna Son’s Megan Rogers, Lori’s best friend, might be the biggest waste of talent of the movie, paraded around as half-baked queer-bait in an incredibly heteronormative high school story.

Another aspect of the Fear Street brand that Prom Queen unceremoniously murders is its ability to surprise the audience. Each original trilogy movie peeled back new layers of an interconnected mystery that constantly challenged fans to question every rule of its supernatural game. Fear Street: Prom Queen is more akin to a classic slasher movie, never straying from the most obvious path until its very end. The plot’s predictability makes the whole experience a lot less thrilling than it could have been, something that’s worsened by the fact that the kill scenes are not particularly impressive.

The special effects team of Fear Street: Prom Queen does its best to improve each murder sequence, making the most of practical effects and blood-soaked prosthetics to bring some fun to a dull story. Unfortunately, the deaths are too familiar to make any impact. Also, these scenes are sabotaged by rushed editing that fails to build anticipation and just splatter the screen with blood as fast as possible, so the story can go back to the redundant bickering of Lori and Tiffany. Without reasons to care about the victims or well-directed scenes that build the suspense before the blade finally cuts the flesh, not even the gore of Prom Queen can save it from being tedious. It’s clear, by comparison, how much the franchise has suffered with the departure of Janiak, as Prom Queen lacks the expressive direction that elevated the original movies.

It’s not all bad, as Prom Queen carries over some stylish lighting that the original trilogy cemented. There’s still some genuine care put into capturing the feel of the 1980s through clothing, hairstyle, and selected soundtrack. Without the “Fear Street” brand on its title, Prom Queen could even pass as a casual horror movie you turn on with friends when you need something that doesn’t demand attention to keep running in the background. But the latest Fear Street installment is by and large the worst in the franchise, while also a low-tier slasher and a cinematic disservice in terms of character depth, relevant themes, and well-rounded script.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Fear Street: Prom Queen is now streaming on Netflix.