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Fear Street: Prom Queen fumbles the crown

The fourth installment in the franchise is a drab, muddled mess, where trite clichés and tepid cinematography are what truly deserve to die.

Fear Street: Prom Queen fumbles the crown
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A tawdry plastic crown is worth killing for in Fear Street: Prom Queen, the fourth film adaptation of R.L. Stine’s teen horror book series. Unlike the previous trilogy of Netflix originals released in the summer of 2021—each part respectively distinguished by the years 1994, 1978, and 1666Prom Queen is a standalone project, meaning that it doesn’t grapple with the lore conjured by its predecessors. It does, however, share a principal setting: that of the supposedly derelict suburb of Shadyside, this time circa 1988. While the period setting and litany of era-specific horror homages should make the film a veritable playground for tongue-in-cheek satire, Fear Street: Prom Queen doesn’t merely fall flat dramatically, but dashes any opportunity for visual intrigue in terms of cinematography, costume design, and, most vitally, its on-screen carnage. 

Matriculating senior Lori Granger (India Fowler) has one final goal before graduation: being crowned prom queen. Though clear-skinned and fair-haired, Lori is the clear underdog among the competition, as the popular clique—dubbed “the wolf pack”—are expecting to claim the title. At the top of the ballot is the supremely bitchy Tiffany Falconer (Fina Strazza), the uncontested alpha of the group who relishes every opportunity to taunt Lori about her father’s untimely death (“May your dad rest in hell, Granger,” Tiffany jeers within the first five minutes). Lori’s ardent defender is her best friend Megan Rogers (Suzanna Son, Red Rocket‘s Strawberry), a “stoner horror nerd” who thinly conceals her own distaste for Lori’s pursuit, but opts to support her nonetheless. The only other unconventional candidate is bad girl Melissa McKendrick (Ella Rubin), whose salaciously punk appearance and side hustle as a local drug dealer indicate that she’s mainly vying as a form of rebellion.

As the fateful night approaches, something sinister is unleashed in Shadyside. One by one, the prom queen hopefuls are picked off (and, increasingly, so are their dates), the mounting body count flying completely under the radar of all of the adults. To be fair, it’s easy for viewers to similarly feel unfazed by the kills, as all but one scene—involving a guillotine paper trimmer—lacks any sort of shocking viscera. All too often, director Matt Palmer cuts to black or red before the knife plunges into young flesh.

Vice principal Breckenridge (Lili Taylor) is more concerned with presenting a vague brand refresh of the morally bankrupt student body. She sees Lori as the perfect pick for prom queen because of her comparative innocence and intellect amid the competition. Meanwhile, Nancy Falconer (Katherine Waterston) is obsessed with ensuring that her daughter secures the title, a preoccupation that clearly propels much of Tiffany’s worst behavior. Even Lori’s own mother (Joanne Boland), who is widely speculated to have killed the father of her child on their own prom night 18 years earlier, is completely checked out despite being on the police force. 

Truth be told, hardly anything lines up in co-writers Palmer and Donald McLeary’s script. Though Fear Street: Prom Queen often circles back to the allegations surrounding Lori’s mother, she is hardly a fixture in the plot itself. It’s clear that petty grievances from the adults’ tenure at Shadyside High have been passed down to the next generation, but very little background is provided outside of inconsequential lines of dialogue that communicate a sense of familiarity, say, between the vice principal and Tiffany’s mother. It’s clear that the writers began to develop certain characters to serve as red herrings—a creepy janitor, a duo of Tiffany-obsessed sycophants, the suspiciously docile principal—but there isn’t enough depth offered to ever truly suspect them, making the final killer reveal all the more lackluster for its predictable, banal nature. 

Oddly, there also seems to be some romantic tension between Lori and Megan (who dons a dapper suit to prom); either this plotline was sloppily cut during the edit or the writers are so far removed from teen girl social cues that they can’t help but completely miss the mark (there could have been a more concerted nod toward Jennifer’s Body or even Mean Girls, but alas). Another frustrating development occurs between Lori and Tiffany’s beau Tyler (The Summer I Turned Pretty‘s Dylan Iacono), who suddenly shifts his gaze toward the unpopular girl for no apparent reason. (There isn’t even a blatant rip-off of Carrie‘s twist to justify it). 

It’s not entirely fair to bash Fear Street: Prom Queen for its refusal to knock off legendary horror titles, but it does feel dually lazy to not provide a novel approach to an ’80s-set slasher while also refusing to tactfully engage with the tropes that make those titles so memorable. It’s also hard not to lament the fact that Chloe Okuno, director of Watcher and the “Storm Drain” segment of V/H/S/94, was originally set to direct this film. Her deft handling of women-centered horror as well as era-specific camera equipment would have surely elevated this project. 

In reality, the film’s lighting is oppressively dark in a way that almost obscures any of the ’80s-appropriate flourishes installed by the production designers, whether in the school’s eerie boiler room or the decked-out gymnasium. The only standout is Megan’s room (shown for perhaps 15 seconds) whose Lucio Fulci poster, flanked by gothic décor, is served by the almost non-existent illumination. There are sparse flashes of camcorder footage, a gimmick that Palmer would have done well to lean upon more, because the light and texture it imbues would have more intentionally cemented Fear Street: Prom Queen in its time period—though perhaps too much of this juxtaposition would only highlight its cinematographic drabness. 

Void of genre send-ups, visual finesse, ’80s styling, or horror’s requisite bloodshed, Fear Street: Prom Queen doesn’t even possess the distinction of attempting to emulate horror films from the decade it’s set in. This Netflix Original dud could only ever aspire to be a copycat killer, but even then, it doesn’t have the guts.

Director: Matt Palmer
Writer: Matt Palmer, Donald McLeary
Starring: India Fowler, Suzanna Son, Fina Strazza, David Iacono, Ella Rubin, Chris Klein, Ariana Greenblatt, Lili Taylor, Katherine Waterston
Release Date: May 23, 2025 (Netflix)

 
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