The Fear Street movies were one of my favorite Netflix surprises. A trilogy released 3 weeks in a row in summer 2021, the movies were built on horror history, using eras of genre past to pave something equally reverential and contemporary with wonderful delights. Movie success usually means more movies, and Fear Street: Prom Queen is hoping to see RL Stine’s book series become the streamer’s newest IP well to tap. If Prom Queen is any indication, that well has gone drier much earlier than I thought.
We’re back in Shadyside Ohio, this time in 1988 between Fear Street Part 1 and Part 2 and well after Part 3. It’s the prom at Shadyside High! Lori Granger (India Fowler) is the outcast running for Prom Queen, with the support of her weirdo bff Megan Rogers (Suzanna Son). The odds are stacked against her though: she’s gotta battle the Wolfpack: the Heathers of their time. Melissa Mckendrick (Ella Rubin), Debbie Winters (Rebecca Ablack), or Linda Harper (Ilan O’Driscoll) would be tough competition on their own. But the front runner and Wolfpack leader Tiffany Falconer (Fina Strazza) not only is the front runner to win, but she’s got her mother Nancy (Katherine Waterston) working as hard as possible to make sure this night is going to be one her daughter remembers forever. And that’s not including a red cloaked psychopath targeting the teens in the school.
There’s a difference between inspiration and plagiarism. The 3 OG Fear Street movies, and their director Leigh Janiak, at least learned the differences as the movies went on, which is why they are so good. Matt Palmer, Prom Queen’s director, clearly has affection for the high school slasher movies of the 1980s like obvi, Prom Night. You can tell when the first kill happens what he enjoys most about them is how hilariously over the top the massacres are. The art department is the MVP here, using all sorts of incredible prosthetics to have a field day murdering high schoolers. All parts of the school and homes get used: heaven forbid a couple wants to go to shop class to hook up…with the plethora of weaponry and the killer’s disposal. Decades of films like this have prepared Matt to think he’s inspired by the past to deliver even more over the top cheap thrills to the streaming audience ready for a Friday night in.
Problem is Matt isn’t inspired: he’s just copying. And copying EVERYTHING about those films. While I like parts of Prom Night and those 80s slashers, nobody’s waxing poetically about the treatment of female characters (or any characters, for that matter) are in those films. That one dimensionality is transferred to Prom Queen, frankly insulting for 2025. There was even a template to follow: Fear Street Part 2 is a really smart updating and critique of the 1970s slasher genre. Instead, everyone here has one note to play. I hesitated even mentioning the rest of the Wolfpack outside of Tiffany and Melissa, because they’re not even one dimensional: they’re murder fodder. So if you’re lucky like Katherine Waterston or Suzanna Son you get a cool dimension. Otherwise, I think intentionally, everyone else is set up to be offed, cause that’s the goal of Prom Queen. And that’s not inspiring: it’s lazy and condescending to a cast that was ready to do something interesting but not given the chance to.
So Fear Street: Prom Queen is a swing and a miss. Hopefully this is a one off. Let’s maybe bring Leigh Janiak back and try another, modern trilogy this time? RL Stine’s written what? Over a hundred of these? There’s gotta be some interesting stuff in there we can do a new trilogy on. Let’s get out of the past Netflix, and trailblaze us into horror’s future!