Fear Street: Prom Queen (2025)

Score: 1 / 5

I still think the Fear Street trilogy from 2021 is one of the coolest original ideas from Netflix, though it's almost certainly Leigh Janiak who deserves the credit. The films were among my favorites that year, due to their content and aesthetics alike, and even their marketing and "distribution" on the streaming service within mere weeks of each other was experimental and brilliant. I never read R.L. Stine's young adult book series of the same name, but from what I understand, Janiak's stories were mostly original; regardless, I find them highly entertaining and deeply fascinating. So when I heard a new entry had been greenlit and that it would be based on one of the books, I was thrilled.

Sadly, Janiak has no credited presence in Fear Street: Prom Queen, the first attempt to expand her series into a franchise. And it's a palpable, consequential absence. Part of what made Janiak's trilogy so memorable and fun was her ability to synthesize relevant pop culture with genuinely upsetting scares, mixing genre conventions with keen attention to the time period of her chosen settings. Sometimes, horror just feels bespoke: this same aesthetic is why I so dearly love the Williamson/Craven Scream franchise and the Murphy/Falchuk AHS series. They just feel made for me. I wasn't too worried about a new creative in charge of Prom Queen, because Janiak's considerable foundation was sure to carry through, right? Bring in some '80s slasher vibes, pretty dresses, and solid rock music, and it's bound to be a good time, right?

Yet Matt Palmer's tepid film seems less inspired by Prom Night and Carrie and more scared of them. It doesn't even really feel like part of the Fear Street franchise, as almost nothing connects it to the previous trilogy. Sure, there's a lot of chitchat about Shadyside, the town's lamentable history, and its eternal tensions with neighboring Sunnyvale, but such dialogue is only barely enough connective tissue to suffice. This may as well have started as a draft for a rejected subplot of Riverdale on the CW, and one hewing far too close to generic high school melodrama to actually engage any of its own interesting ideas.

Everyone's a suspect? Randy's famed and mostly accurate accusation of Prom Night in Scream does help us view the 1980 cult classic differently than most of its slasher ilk in that there isn't a clearly identified (and/or identifiable) masked killer with possibly supernatural abilities. Yet there are also arguably too many characters and not enough interest in them to drum up any suspense here; we know there will be at least one killer, and it could be anyone, so we don't get attached to any characters at all. Attempts at dynamic queer characters? Lili Taylor pops in for a few scenes as a lesbian-coded vice principal a little too interested in the prom's success, but she's little more than the same kind of red herring than in any other prom movie (opportunistic, pitiful teacher wanting connection). Good music? At bare minimum, a prom movie should have killer beats, and this one

The acting is mostly passable, though the ensemble fails to mesh stylistically. The Regina George of school, Tiffany Falconer and her Wolfpack gang -- a name which simply does not fit, though I hoped for a moment we might get a supernatural Trick 'r Treat moment with them (if you know, you know) -- are written flatly and predictably, so Fina Strazza's pseudo-camp delivery feels forced and Sisyphean. Her foil, protagonist Lori Granger (India Fowler), is the underdog of the prom queen competition. One wonders how the mild-mannered, constantly bullied girl who shows no interest in her classmates or her hometown even got in the race, and Lori herself seems ambivalently annoyed and annoying about the whole affair. Does she want the crown just to spite her nemesis? Does she actually want Tiffany's boyfriend Tyler (David Iacono), who seems to have eyes only for Lori? By the time they dance off alone in front of their peers, I found myself kind of hoping they'd just brawl already; instead, we're treated to a curious inversion of the Ozdust dance in Wicked, whereby Lori dances strangely and endearingly while Tiffany is so desperate to be cool and popular that she makes a damn (and sweaty) fool of herself.

Oh, and while all this is happening, there's a killer on the rampage. In a striking slash of red, the killer emerges periodically wearing a mask and scarlet rain poncho that is almost interesting. Appearances aren't what make a killer memorable, but this one is lacking on all fronts. Palmer can't seem to construct a reasonably intelligent chase or even ramp up much by way of suspense, making the kill scenes random and clunky, forced and brief. He doesn't hold back on the gore, that's for sure, but then he doesn't even do anything interesting with the gore (maybe that could have painted the killer a la It's a Wonderful Knife, or the killer could have left blood-smeared notes on the lockers, or maybe if prom was a whiteout theme with red highlights so people made tie-dye dresses that looked bloody? I don't know, but there was room to play here, and instead the entire realm of possibility is left unexplored). 

Palmer's seeming desperation to force this story into the Fear Street aesthetic also leads him to pitfalls in other areas. Grotesque costumes and hair beg audiences to feel nostalgic, as if the only way Palmer thought this film could work was by making people want to relive prom night of forty years ago. The soundtrack includes some nice choices -- Laura Branigan's "Gloria" gets a lovely extended moment during the dance off that feels directly referencing the climax of Prom Night -- but they never stop, and rarely play enough of a song to get into it. The music isn't supporting story beats; it's forcing us into a headspace through what amount to slapdash sound bytes.

Katherine Waterston has fun with her part -- Tiffany's uptight and demanding mother -- and provides the only overt link to the previous trilogy that I caught (other than a character name or two, like Goode) during a spoiler-y final shot that raised more questions than it answered. Is Sarah Fier at work with this rash of killings, as usual? It didn't seem like it until that final shot, but if it's the old witch, her modus operandi is way off this time. Which is another reason why Fear Street: Prom Queen is ultimately merely disappointing. If you want a nostalgic slasher, why would you pick this instead of watching Jamie Lee Curtis disco dancing? If you want something interesting about Stine's young adult murder town, why would you pick this instead of Janiak's films? Palmer doesn't provide us with any reason to vote in his favor.