FILM REVIEW: Fear Street Prom Queen (2025)

Fear Street: Prom Queen - New Release Review

Director: Matt Palmer

Starring: India Fowler, Suzanna Son, Fina Strazza, Katherine Waterston, Chris Klein, Ariana Greenblatt, Lili Taylor

Written by: Matt Palmer, Donald McLeary

Produced by: Kori Adelson, Peter Chernin, Jenni Topping

Cinematography by: Márk Gyõri

Original Score by: The Newton Brothers

Synopsis:

When the "it" girls competing for prom queen at Shadyside High start to disappear, a gutsy outsider discovers she's in for one hell of a prom night.

Thoughts:

Back in 2021 Netflix did something a little bit unprecedented and released a trilogy of films based on a combination of the classic horror novels from R.L. Stine, with each film taking place in a different time period; the 1990s, the 1970s, and the final chapter taking place during the 1660s. Directed by Leigh Janiak, the 'Fear Street' trilogy starred up and comers Maya Hawke, Olivia Scott Welch, Sadie Sink, Kiana Madeira and Emily Rudd. It turned out to be a huge success, perhaps because of the lockdown situation during Covid, and almost instantly talk of more adaptations surfaced.

Fast forward 4 years and this time the film adaptation sticks to one particular novel, published in 1992, and follows a group of high schoolers at Shadyside High all vying to be crowned Prom Queen. But as we know, the town is cursed and not all of the kids are gonna make it to the end of Prom night.

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I was a big fan of Leigh Janiak's trilogy so had high hopes for 'Prom Queen' and although it's a fun watch, sadly it just doesn't quite live up to it's predecessor. Set in 1988, it plays out as a straight forward slasher with a masked killer eliminating the prom queen candidates (and anyone else who gets in their way) one by one until the inevitable "shocking reveal" at the end.

There's a bunch of gory kills where the camera doesn't cut away, but it does feel that some of these are just played for laughs rather than scares. There's a real lack of tension for most of the kills and the killer just sort of randomly appears but these moments don't work as successful jump scares because nothing has been built up for the audience and for the most part the editing makes the moment feel lack lustre.

With that being said it's difficult not to enjoy the 80s setting. The music, the hair, the fashion. Just the overall ambience of that time period is usually always a hit with me even if there's been an oversaturation of 80s teen slashers the past few years. The script is okay but sort of gets dragged down a bit with awkward exposition. And the predictability of it all is a thorn in it's side. We've seen all this before and there's really nothing super original about any of the characters or any camera shot choices that really stand out. Although I did appreciate the video camera sequences, I thought some of the direction was questionable throughout.

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India Fowler is a star. Very reminiscent of a young Jennifer Lawrence. She's got a very bright future ahead of her and even though the film doesn't take itself too seriously, India does a fantastic job at conveying emotion and bringing Lori on a journey with the audience. The rest of the cast are all pretty good too. Fina Strazza is a worthy high school bitch and bully. The leader of the Wolf Pack, a 'Mean Girls' type harem. She's a bit over the top at times, even cartoonish, but I guess it's the US and it's almost Prom Night and for some strange reason Prom is a really, REALLY big deal over there. Most of the ensemble are just generic stereotype characters that you'd find in every teen film ever made, however Chris Klein and Katherine Waterston's facial expressions are a hoot.

There's a few sequences that attempt to build some tension (a decent bathroom scene) but there's not a lot of scares and as the film progresses the comedy begins to slip in more often. It's obviously got a bunch of 80s horror and high school movie tropes. There's a few homages to classic horror films too like 'The Shining', 'Scream' and 'Carrie' , which is always cool, and I even heard a few familiar notes in the synthy score that was definitely a tribute to Charles Bernstein's 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'.

The killer has a decent screen presence and the mask is interesting albeit a bit random but the final reveal, which is always so important in these teen slashers, just doesn't cut it. At just under 90 minutes, 'Prom Queen' delivers everything you'd want in an 80s teen slasher, if all you want is gnarly kills and some awesome needle drops.

Verdict: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

-Gavin Logan

'Fear Street: Prom Queen' is available to stream on Netflix from May 23rd