It’s been nearly 4 years since Netflix delivered one of my favorite horror franchises of all time. Yes, I’m a massive fan of the original Fear Street trilogy not only because of its intriguing and tense plot but also because it’s great elements, amazing cast and crazy kills. I’m not a big fan of slasher films in general, but when they have a good plot, I’ll be interested. And while that’s what happened in the first 3 films of this franchise, it’s sad to tell you that Fear Street: Prom Queen is not only a dreadful film, but also doesn’t even feel like it belongs to this franchise. A rushed spinoff that not only doesn’t connect itself to the trilogy, but also misses on everything that the trilogy did so good.
Get ready to return to Shadyside, where the Fear Street saga continues with a bloody twist. It’s prom season at Shadyside High, and the popular girls are battling it out for the crown with their usual mix of sugar and spice. But when a bold underdog gets a surprise nomination and girls start vanishing, the class of ’88 is in for a prom night they’ll never forget—if they survive.
And yes, this is a full generic slasher where it’s only a guy killing girls for a stupid reason with dumb twists and uninteresting characters. What I loved about the Fear Street trilogy is that it managed to deliver characters that you would be interested in and invested into the whole story surrounding them. Well, this film might have some interesting kills and some good moments but overall this was a very disappointing experience, especially as a fan of all of this.
Starting off by the fact that whoever made this soundtrack, just searched up “Popular 80s Songs” on YouTube and got the first songs that showed up, it’s like laughably bad the way they managed to bring some stupid songs to this. Our lead character, Lori Granger, played by India Fowler, is thankfully the best character in the film, she’s quite charismatic but the script just doesn’t help her, you will care about her but not enough because whatever you guess that will happen, it will happen, simply because of how predictable this film is. The rest of the cast is quite forgettable and even the “villain” is awful, the plot twist at the end is them trying to reach the heights of the first trilogy but failing miserably that it’s even embarrassing.
I guess I just don’t understand why this is under the Fear Street name. I mean, they try to connect this film to the previous trilogy by adding a nonsense tease at the mid credits scene, it felt forced and totally off topic, it made like no sense to me at all. Even though it seems like I am (and maybe I am) hating on this film, it’s just because I love this franchise and had high expectations for this. But the thing is that they really didn’t even try here. Why not bring the same director back? But yes, there are some good scenes, mostly the kills, there are some good ones, but not most of them. Most of the entire film felt so generic and soulless. It felt exactly like I was watching just a cheap and boring slasher film.
If you’re a fan of the original trilogy, I’ll not recommend to watch this, but if you really want to and form your opinion, go on and hopefully you’ll like it! But if you’re a real fan on the original trilogy, I have no idea how you’ll enjoy this. Fear Street: Prom Queen is by far the worst film in the franchise. Even with some interesting kills, it falls flat by its boring characters, embarrassing soundtrack, and predictable twists.
Fear Street: Prom Queen releases on Netflix on May 23.
