The Fear Street series of films kicked off in 2021 with a trilogy of films based on the years 1966, 1878, and 1994. Now, four years later, another Fear Street: Prom Queen is coming out on the streaming service that released the previous trilogy of films, based on the series from author R.L Stine, Netflix. The previous three films were connected through the towns and the killer that crossed over into each of the movies. This new film has ties to the previous films in a different way that the others tied together. It still has a campy and over the top nature the others had, though.

On the brink of Prom Night at Shadyside High, hence the title “Prom Queen” the students trying to win the title of Prom Queen, that include Christy Renault (Ariana Greenblatt), The Wolfpack a click of stuck up girls, Linda, Debby, Melissa (Ella Rubin), led by Tiffany Falconer (Fina Strazza) and Lori Granger (India Fowler) whose family are a bit of pariah in the town prepare themselves for the night of their lives. Getting the right dress and date are of the utmost importance. Except one by one, they all start disappearing.  Fowler’s character has to prevent her own demise and figure out who is killing the Prom Queens and why.

Matt Palmer, the director, with the help of Donald McCleary as a script writer, tries to do something original with R.L. Stine’s, which these films are based on, work, but it’s hard. These stories don’t have a lot of depth or originality to them.They fall back on many of the horror tropes that have come before in similar types of movies.  The film introduces characters played by relatively known actors, and of course, those are the actors who inevitably become the killer. It’s horror movie 101. There isn’t any originality to the story. The original trilogy has at least one of the three films that gave something new to the genre. That was Fear Street :1978. The 70s are the best genre for films anyway, so it makes sense that one was the best.

This version of Fear Street leans in on three specific films that come to mind: Mean Girls, Heathers, and A Nightmare On Elm Street. Even though it’s its own original story, there are a lot of similarities to the 80s slasher genre and those films. The high school angst, previous connections to other Fear Street movies, and girls bullying other girls are all main themes of this film. These are classic tropes as aforementioned earlier. It’s hard for filmmakers or authors to come up with any original stories these days. If you like this kind of story, you’re definitely going to like this film. I think it’s too much like things that have come before it to be very good.

The cast mainly has newer younger actresses playing the potential titular Prom Queen, but there are a few familiar faces in the cast. Those are, Lily Taylor, she’s been in everything in her career or it seems like it, Chris Klien from the American Pie franchise as Principal Wayland, and Kathryn Waterston, from Alien Covenant and the Fantastic Beasts Franchise, as the mother of Stazza’s characters overbearing mother. These three add a nice element of respectability to the cast and film as a whole. Even they can’t save this movie that is obviously doomed from the start.

With any horror film, the blood and guts and gore are essential to whether or not they are very good or not. Sometimes, though, that doesn’t matter because the plot is so bad. The kills in this version of Fear Street are pretty crazy. Electric hand saws, machetes, scythe, and electricity are all used as methods of killing people in this movie. The blood and guts and gore galore are all over this film. Once again, though, even the creative kills can’t save a doomed movie. There are a lot of the pieces that just don’t work here as they might have in other Fear Street films.

One thing I do love about movies set in the 80s, though, are the soundtracks that most of these films use for them. Classic songs like “Gloria “ from Lori Ann Branigan, “Sweet Dreams” from the Eurythmics, and “Hey Little Sister” from Billy Idol are all used to perfection in this movie. These songs are essential for any teen angst movie set in this decade. If only they could have fit “New Order” from Blue Monday in here, it would have been a perfect soundtrack. 

India Fowler is a newer actress who was cast as the lead in this film, but she didn’t strike me as someone who could lead a film such as this.  Maybe it’s the nature of her character, but she seemed meek and mild to be trying to stop a serial killer. I never got the indication that she was a true lead actress in this role. In fact, I felt Fina Strazza as the bad girl leader of the Wolfpack was more of a leading lady in this movie. That confusion in leading roles is a big problem with this film. You need an actress who can command the stream in a movie such as this. Having a meek and mild leading lady doesn’t work for a horror film.

Fear Street:  Prom Queen has a lot of things wrong with it, the least of which is its leading lady. The script is too obviously copying other more successful films. The direction leans into the campy 80s vibes too much.  The soundtrack works, though. The bloody and violent kills were fun to watch, but I found myself bored by the predictable plot points and certain characters, which were obviously going to be the killer. This version of Fear Street wasn’t as good or original as the others that came before it. Here’s hoping future installments of this series are better and more thought out than this one was.

1 ½ stars 

Dan Skip Allen