Fear Street: Prom Queen is part of the new series of horror movies, based on the books of R.L. Stine. This is largely a generic slasher movie that follows a by-the-numbers beat
Still from Fear street: Prom Queen
Cast: India Fowler, Suzanna Son, Fina Strazza, Katherine Waterston, Lili Taylor, Chris Klein, Darren Baker, Ella Rubin, Ariana Greenblatt, Christy Renault, David Iacono, Ilan O'Driscoll, Ryan Rosery, Damian Romeo, Dakota Taylor, Luke Kimball
Director: Matt Palmer
Rating: 2/5
Runtime: 88 min
Following closely on the heels of the well-received 2021 trilogy, Co-writer/director Matt Palmer’s Fear Street: Prom Queen is part of the new series of horror movies, based on the books of R.L. Stine. This is largely a generic slasher movie that follows a by-the-numbers beat. A few stray references to the previous films do not mark this as a sequel.
It’s 1988, the town of Shadyside, has already seen murders and supernatural events in the past but life goes on and Prom Night has to be celebrated. Terror nights are common in a town like this and the fresh young teens who are out to have a good time don’t care a hoot. Even horror movies have an avid audience here - not to say anything about horror tricks played on each other for fun. Horror seems to be a commonplace occurrence and it seems like no one is afraid until the slaughtering begins at school.
Lori Granger (India Fowler), is running for prom queen despite being unpopular and the object of vicious gossip. Rumor has it that her mother (Joanne Boland), who is now an officer with the local police department, murdered her father. Lori desires to win in order to put a stop to the incessantly wagging tongues. As is typical in films like these, she has competition from members of a popular girl group “the Wolfpack,” led by Tiffany Falconer (Fina Strazza), and a small-time drug dealer Christy (Ariana Greenblatt). The competition is of course going to try to break Lori’s resolve…
The movie is gimmicky, ritualistic and formulaic. There’s nothing new to look forward to here. Palmer and Donald McLeary’s screenplay plays safe by sticking to a pattern. The killer stalks the intended victim before moving in for the kill. It’s a repetitive scenario that loses efficacy at the first instance itself. The candidates for prom queen are ones being being picked off and the ‘killer’ wears a mask and a red rain slicker so there’s no way of knowing who he/she is. The narrative is teeming with likely suspects and obvious red herrings. Then comes the messy face-off and the big reveal.
It’s routine horror stuff, but there’s lot of brutal gory violence to stomach. The acting is largely flat, and monotonous but for the shrieking, and the dialogue doesn’t sound real enough. The younger cast members look rather indistinguishable while the older ones make their presence felt. Lili Taylor as the school’s vice principal and Katherine Waterston and Chris Klein as Tiffany’s parents, leave a mark. The narrative is a drag. There’s hardly any suspense and the emotions never come into play.
The fear street trilogy had better kills and slightly better characters. This film is neither scary nor interesting. It’s also very predictable. There’s no twist in the tale to whet your interest. There are no interesting characters here either. Palmer makes a sincere effort to replicate the look of an 80’s slasher flick and he does a decent enough job. That’s this film’s only saving grace.
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