Directed by Matt Palmer — Screenplay by Matt Palmer and Donald McLeary.
In 2021, Netflix pleased horror fans with the nostalgic horror-slasher trilogy of films, adapting R.L. Stine’s Fear Street series from director Leigh Janiak. Janiak’s films all had clear style, grisly horror sequences, and well-done references to their cinematic inspirations. They were all quite solid films that got their hooks into a certain audience, and it put Fear Street on the map for Netflix. So much so that I had, honestly, been looking forward to seeing how Netflix would follow up the relatively successful trilogy. Four years later (and, notably, without Leigh Janiak in the director’s chair), we now finally have that next step. Fear Street: Prom Queen also tries to be a nostalgic slasher flick, but it fails in most departments and, frustratingly, fumbles the goodwill that the first three films had earned.
Matt Palmer’s Fear Street: Prom Queen takes place in 1988 at Shadyside High School. Here we follow Lori Granger (played by India Fowler), a teenager whose reputation is marred by her dark family history, as she hopes to be crowned ‘prom queen’ at the upcoming prom, where there are several ‘mean girls’ that she will be competing with. However, unbeknownst to Lori, a masked killer is targeting the prom queen-hopefuls, and, as a result, prom night itself becomes quite the dangerous place to be for our young protagonist.
Where do we start with this one? Well, how about the style of the time period? Like I mentioned when I reviewed the original trilogy, Netflix, through something like Stranger Things, has made something of a name for itself through its nostalgia for the 1980s. Nailing the look and feel of the time period is of paramount importance when it comes to making period pieces, but, in the case of Fear Street: Prom Queen, it never gets past the look of pastiche or play-pretend. There are instances with dresses or hairstyles that look too modern, and the establishing of the period feels half-hearted. What it does have going for itself is the music, which feels like it’s playing a ‘greatest hits’ of notable 1980s songs that people know and enjoy. However, the deployment of said needle drops both 1) feels like it’s being used to cover up its visual shortcomings and 2) feels like it’s switching from song to song whenever the film is afraid that it’s putting you on the verge of sleep.
Because at the end of the day, this film is just frustratingly bland and dull. The opening five minutes are way too handholding in the film’s voice-over, as it explains who every character is, but it’s almost unnecessary that they go to these lengths, as many of the characters are boring and interchangeable archetypal characters. It’s also just got tonal issues in that, despite having plenty of death scenes with comedic potential inherent in them, the film wants, for too long, to be taken seriously. If it had leaned harder into the comedy, it might’ve been easier to forgive its shortcomings, which also include some stiff and wooden acting from some of the supporting actors. Other gripes that I have with the film is that 1), save for a couple of references, it doesn’t fully feel like a continuation of the film series, 2) that the more seasoned pros in this (Katherine Waterston and Lili Taylor are wasted with this material and these characters), and 3) that the identity (or identities) of the killer (or killers) is pretty predictable from the get-go. Perhaps the biggest sin, as a horror film, is that the death sequences are filmed in fairly matter-of-fact ways or with ineffective jump scares. There’s very little of the inventiveness that makes slashers so popular to be found here.
3 out of 10
– Review written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 