‘Fear Street: Prom Queen’ is a Solidly Entertaining Slasher that Doesn’t Stray Far from Conventionality: A Review

What is Fear Street: Prom Queen About?

Lori’s biggest competition in the race for queen is Tiffany, the popular leader of a mean-girl clique known as the Wolf Pack. All four members of the Wolf Pack are nominated, but Tiffany rules over them all with fear and manipulation. She’ll stoop to any low to get an advantage over her competition, but when the prom queen nominees start dying at the hands of a masked killer during prom night, everyone is a suspect.

Fear Street: Prom Queen was directed by Matt Palmer, based on a script he co-wrote with Donald McLeary, inspired by the book by R.L. Stine. India Fowler stars as Lori Granger, with Suzanna Son as her best friend Megan, and Fina Strazza as her worst enemy Tiffany. Ella Rubin, Rebecca Ablack, and Ilan O-Driscoll play the other members of the Wolf Pack, Ariana Greenblatt is another nominee for prom queen, and David Iacono is Tyler, Tiffany’s boyfriend and Lori’s crush. Also featured are Joanne Boland as Rose’s mother, Katherine Waterston and Chris Klein as Tiffany’s parents, and Lili Taylor as the devoutly religious vice principal of Shadyside High.

Street: Prom Queen Review

I’ve been looking forward to Fear Street: Prom Queen for a while. I think the Fear Street trilogy released in 2021 is a ton of fun, and I’ve revisited it a couple of times in the years since it came out. So, I had high hopes going into Prom Queen. I’m happy to say that most of those hopes were fulfilled, though it is now my third favorite out of the four Fear Street films.

Fear Street: Prom Queen is a straightforward slasher movie with a whodunit plot surrounding the killer. So, kind of like Prom Night (1980). The comparison is obvious, but I only state that to make the point that if you’re looking for something like Prom Night, Fear Street: Prom Queen delivers just that. It’s a good movie, with a moderately good mystery, and fun kills. Plus, it’s not like Prom Night is the only slasher where the reveal of an unknown killer is a main plot point. It’s an entire subgenre. Fear Street: Prom Queen is a solid addition to that subgenre.

The movie’s inspirations are often quite obvious, but that’s common among movies like this that are meant to evoke nostalgia. In addition to the obvious like Prom Night (1980), there are also more general allusions (or possibly coincidental similarities) to movies like Halloween (1978), The Shining (1980), and even Scream (1996). I’m not saying that as a negative, it’s just something that is very noticeable. It’s also something that viewers might enjoy or not, depending on how distracting something like that can be. Personally, I enjoy allusions in the way Prom Queen does them.

The best parts of the movie for me though, are the kills. There is an abundance of CGI used for the kills, and that’s one thing I usually harp on, but I think here the CGI is done fairly well. I do think the kills would be infinitely better if they’d stuck mostly to practical effects, but I understand some of the death scenes would have been difficult, if not impossible, to pull off in similar ways if they were done practically.

But the gore isn’t the reason I enjoy the kills as much as I do. Rather, it’s the way the kill scenes are constructed. One of them comes as sudden surprises in a dramatic moment that completely changed the way I thought the story might be headed. Other kills you can see coming, but they’re all varied enough to always be fun to watch. So, despite the CGI, I think the kills in Prom Queen are done well.

However, I do think the movie could have felt a lot more dangerous than it does. I think back to Fear Street 1994 and how devastated I was by one, maybe two of the deaths in that movie. I never felt that way during Prom Queen. There is one death in the film that I didn’t want to happen, but I got over it by the time the next scene started. Which I think points to the biggest weakness of Fear Street: Prom Queen: the story.

For a simple and fun slasher, the story is fine. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s a perfectly good foundation for stringing together a series of entertaining death scenes. But there are many opportunities for heightened drama which are never capitalized on. Lori and Megan’s friendship could have been focused on more to make it feel more real. Lori’s mother could have played a bigger role to give Lori’s story more context and direct emotion. The finale needed to incorporate more people to make it feel like someone we care about is actually going to die (I can’t make this more clear without spoilers). But that’s just me talking about what could have been rather than what the movie is. As it is, it’s good.

Rating and Recommendation

Star Rating: 3.5 out of 5

If you want to watch a fun slasher movie with interesting kills and likable characters, Fear Street: Prom Queen will give you that. If you’re a fan of the previous Fear Street movies, you’ll definitely want to check this one out, just know that despite a few direct references to events we’ve seen before, this is a standalone story. General fans of slasher horror will also probably want to give Prom Queen a watch. It’s light and entertaining slasher fun.

Fear Street: Prom Queen is currently streaming on Netflix.

Further Reading

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• Heart Eyes Review: A Romantic Comedy Slasher That Works Fine in 2 Out of 3 of Its Genres
• Best Slasher Movies of All Time
• 5 Teen Slasher Movies to Watch on Netflix if You Loved Fear Street: Prom Queen
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