It has been four years since Netflix released the Fear Street trilogy -- three interconnected slasher films that mixed 80s nostalgia, supernatural lore and time-hopping ambition. The movies came out during a period when anything evoking retro aesthetics, especially the 1980s, like Stranger Things, practically guaranteed success. Though far from perfect, the original Fear Street trilogy had its own pulpy charm, especially in the way it linked three different time periods together into one cohesive and mysterious narrative.
Now, for reasons only Netflix executives may fully understand, the streaming giant has expanded the franchise with a new standalone instalment -- Fear Street: Prom Queen. Directed by Matt Palmer and based on R.L. Stine's 1992 novel The Prom Queen, this new entry attempts to recapture some of the trilogy's magic. Unfortunately, it misses the mark on nearly every level.
If you were a fan of the original films and approach Prom Queen with high expectations, prepare for disappointment. This instalment feels not only unnecessary, but downright disconnected from what made the previous films work. Beyond its over-reliance on neon lights and 80s soundtrack, the film lacks the layered mystery and emotional investment that once made the Fear Street films worth watching. It tries so hard to look and sound like the 1980s that it ends up feeling like an extended music video rather than a fully realised horror film.
Set in 1988, the story follows a masked killer who begins stalking and murdering the prom queen candidates of Shadyside High on the night of the dance. At the centre of chaos is Lori Granger (India Fowler), a gutsy outsider who dares to challenge the school's reigning social elite -- an all-girl clique nicknamed The Wolfpack. When Lori enters the race for prom queen, the other contestants begin disappearing one by one and the night quickly descends into blood-soaked terror.
The mysterious masked murderer in Fear Street: Prom Queen. Netfix Thailand
Thanks to the title, it's clear this story revolves around prom night and we're introduced to a handful of girls vying for the crown. But the issue is that they're all flat, underdeveloped characters. The film relies on a dull voiceover to dump exposition and it does little to build genuine tension. The slasher sequences are there but without any meaningful character development or emotional investment, the kills feel more like checkboxes being ticked than moments of real horror.
Despite its relatively short runtime of 88 minutes, the film drags, largely because everything feels rushed and undercooked. We're given almost no insight into the characters' lives, motivations or relationships. There's barely any time to care about who's being killed or why. A decent slasher film doesn't necessarily need a complex plot, but it does need suspense, pacing and stakes. Here, all three are sorely lacking.
Even worse, Prom Queen suffers from a profound misunderstanding of its time period. While the soundtrack gets some points for accuracy, featuring era-appropriate hits that momentarily succeed in evoking the mood, the rest of the 80s homage is wildly off the mark. The costume design, hairstyles and makeup choices are bafflingly inaccurate. The dialogue doesn't sound remotely like it came from 1988. It's as though the creative team skimmed a Pinterest board labelled "80s aesthetic" and called it a day. For those of us who lived through that era, the inauthenticity is glaring and grating.
When filmmakers attempt to set their story in a specific decade, they owe it to the audience to do their homework. Here, the superficial visual cues are used as lazy shorthand instead of actually immersing us in a believable world. The result is a setting that feels phony and distracting, further eroding any atmosphere the film might have built.
That said, if you're just in it for the gore, Fear Street: Prom Queen does deliver some creative kills. There are a few moments of well-executed brutality that will likely satisfy genre fans looking for nothing more than a slasher fix. Some deaths occur early on and while that hurts any chance of establishing character arcs, it does at least bring a jolt of energy to an otherwise flat narrative.
Netfix Thailand
The cast includes some familiar faces, like Chris Klein (American Pie) playing the father of one of the girls. Unfortunately, like nearly every other character in the film, his role is underwritten and barely relevant. He's introduced with some mild fanfare but quickly fades into the background. Even more disappointing is the inclusion of Lili Taylor, a truly talented actress who is criminally underused. She plays the school's vice-principal, written as a wet-blanket authority figure, yet the script never allows her to lean into the role enough to make her either a threat or a compelling character. She's clearly meant to be a foil to the students, but her appearances are so scattered and poorly timed that her presence feels pointless.
The biggest problem with Prom Queen is that it simply gives us no reason to care about the characters, the setting or even the lore. Shadyside, once full of supernatural mystery and eerie atmosphere, is reduced here to a generic high school backdrop. The story fails to expand on the Fear Street trilogy in any meaningful way. It neither builds on the lore nor introduces new elements to justify its existence. The few callbacks to the original trilogy are weak and feel tacked on, making this movie feel even more disconnected from its predecessors.
In the end, Fear Street: Prom Queen is a forgettable, style-over-substance slasher that leans on gore and nostalgia but offers little else. If you're hoping for another fun, pulpy ride through the cursed town of Shadyside, you won't find it here. Instead, you'll get a movie that tries hard to look cool, but never figures out how to be interesting. And while the original trilogy may not have been flawless, this instalment makes them look like cinematic masterpieces by comparison.
- Fear Street: Prom Queen
- Starring Fina Strazza, India Fowler, Suzanna Son
- Directed by Matt Palmer
- Now streaming on Netflix
