Written by: Matt Palmer & Donald McLeary
Starring: India Fowler, Suzanna Son, Fina Strazza, Chris Klein, David Iacono, Ella Rubin
Rating: [1.5/5]
At a certain point one’s dislike for a movie cannot be blamed on the production itself but rather the individual opting to watch it. When you know either through past experience or a gut feeling that you will not enjoy a movie, watching it anyway sets everyone for a bad time. That is where I have found myself with the Fear Street movies, where I have hated each and every one of them, yet I chose to watch Prom Queen hoping it would finally turn the tide. To the surprise of no one, including myself, the tide did not turn, not even in the slightest.
With all of the troubles in Shadyside high school’s history, the latest prom will hopefully create some great memories for all involved. Lori (India Fowler) hopes to receive the prom queen crown but faces stiff competition from Tiffany Falconer (Fina Strazza), who’s more popular and will not let the former forget the nasty rumors of what happened to her parents. This sets up a contentious prom where things only get worse when an axe-wielding assailant begins killing people off.
Four movies in and the only thing the Fear Street films have continually produced is monumental disappointment from this reviewer. These films perpetually get a chance simply because on paper they show some promise, but somehow on every single occasion the execution fails quite miserably. It’s almost impressive how much these films manage to fall apart, with Prom Queen not being an exception as much as I had hoped it possibly would. Where this production fails occurs in its approach of crafting an 80s pastiche in its emulation of slasher films of the past but does not even begin to reach that quality.
The setting of this film does not stray away from many slashers in existence where an unpopular final girl seeks to survive against not just a crazy killer on the loose but also the struggles of high school. However, this struggle does not stem from typical high school woes but from the fact her father’s murder has fallen on the shoulders of her mother even though no evidence actually points to that carrying any truth. A good story never gets in the way of the truth, and Lori has this hanging over her neck for most of the runtime, with Tiffany and her friends never letting her forget. This establishes our final girl with a pure soul very different than everyone else around her. The creation of this character falls in line with pretty much every slasher out there. In this arena, no real expectation exists. In a slasher, where they sink or swim appears in the disposable characters and the kills. As you can imagine, it is my opinion the film certainly sank.
With these side characters, we have a host of absolutely soulless archetypes that really do not bring anything of value to the story. The writing and dialogue they had to work with were truly difficult to get through. Their attempts at humor left plenty to be desired and mostly fell flat, leaving their only remaining purpose in this film for them to die in an entertaining manner at the hands of the killer. Unfortunately, they could not even do that properly, as the kill scenes throughout stunk to high heaven. None of them brought anything new nor shocking to the audiences, which brought up the singular question of what the point of this film was. Evidently I do not have the answer, and I am not sure anyone else does either.
In the end Fear Street: Prom Queen exists as a bad slasher with the veneer of 80s films within the same genre that did this exact premise so much better. It contains no inventive kills, no real humor to attach ourselves to from the side characters, and a final girl that is simply just fine. From its start to the end, it maintains this mean-spirited approach throughout, and when we get the final reveal of the killer’s identity, it’s not only frustratingly bad but also not incredibly surprising either, leaving me befuddled. Perhaps I have finally learned my lesson with these films and will simply skip the next one of these to come out, or perhaps Netflix will finally see the quality on display should bring more hesitation on further green lights.
Films with Josh 
