A Bloody Mess, And Not in a Good Way

Fans of the first three Fear Street movies have been waiting four years for another film in the franchise. Enter Fear Street: Prom Queen, directed by Matt Palmer and fresh on Netflix. However, unlike the previous trilogy, the new film stands on its own, culling its material from R.L. Stine’s 1992 novel The Prom Queen. It wants to be an homage to 1980s horror films, but hardly arrives at that goal: At best, it’s a bloody slash fest, heavy on gore and light on mystery and intrigue.

Fear Street: Prom Queen is set in 1988 in Shadyside, Ohio, a small town known for its history of gruesome murders that’s featured in the other Fear Street films. Everybody is buzzing about prom, and the film’s protagonist, Lori Granger (India Fowler of The Agency: Central Intelligence) is looking forward to it, too. Sort of. She’s running for prom queen, but she doesn’t really know why. She does know that she needs a change: Her mother is a pariah, after being accused of a brutal murder. Everybody’s talking about the Grangers.

Lori may be able to withstand catty remarks from the popular girls at school, but she will also have to face a greater challenge: surviving a mysterious and tenacious killer who embarks on a murder spree, wiping out one prom queen candidate after another. It’s a solid premise, but this film, with its shoddy performances and tired horror tropes, feels dead on arrival.

Heavy on Gore, Light on Character Development

Horror thrillers don’t have to be logical. Done right, audiences relish the off-the-wall kills and jump scares on their own merits. But this film sidesteps any hint of character development and sharp story execution. Matt Palmer, who co-wrote the film with Donald Mcleary, has crafted a love letter to the movies he loved in the ’80s, drawing inspiration from the likes of A Nightmare on Elm Street. There was a sense of true terror in the original Elm Street films and several others that followed. But that’s the main thing missing here.

The other is a compelling protagonist. India Fowler is a fine performer, but the character of Lori feels lifeless. It’s one thing to present audiences with a brooding protagonist, but at least give the viewer something to root for in a person. Lori is the embodiment of all the horror tropes that spotlight an emotionally fragile teenage girl in peril. Audiences in 2025 expect more, and this film feels like a redo of a B-movie made in 1980.

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Lori’s main threat is Tiffany (Fina Strazza), the sharp-tongued diva leader of the school’s “Wolfpack” of popular girls. Tiffany wants to be prom queen, and since she and her clique dominate the slate —Lori is the outsider nominee— she’s confident that she’ll nab the crown. Look for teen flirting along the way because Lori has a crush on Tiffany’s guy, Tyler (David Iacono). Lori’s got a true friend in Megan (Suzanna Son), but as the tale unravels, every character becomes suspect.

Watch Out for Those Anger Issues

The killer here wears an eerie theater mask and a red raincoat, and weapons of mass splatter include an ax, large knives, a school paper cutter (the best!) and a gaggle of other objects. These are all nice touches, but the audience doesn’t know why the prom queen nominees are being targeted. And once we enter the film’s second half, all the action takes place at the high school during the prom. Surely not all the lights in all the hallways need to be off? Maybe it doesn’t matter. This isn’t supposed to make sense.

It’s nice to see Lili Taylor (Mystic Pizza, Outer Range) here as Shadyside High’s vice principal. She’s the only reasonable adult in the bunch; the rest come off as far too angry for the time period they exist in. This is 1988, not 2025. What are these adults so upset about? They haven’t lived through 9/11, political divisiveness, the banality of social media likes or the demise of network media.

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Viewer beware, you’re in for a scare.

That said, everything here serves the gory kills, and audiences looking for a mindless escape may appreciate what’s going on here. But the film lacks a compelling narrative, instead opting for overused horror tropes. Few characters generate a true spark, although Suzanna Son does stand out. Perhaps the source material was “light,” as well, but part of the joy of a great horror movie is witnessing how the screenwriter and director work together to deliver something edgy and thrilling. Fear Street: Prom Queen is neither. But it will satisfy its core fan base, and maybe that’s bloody good enough.

Fear Street: Prom Queen premieres May 23 on Netflix. Watch the trailer below.