Fear Street: Prom Queen hits the dancefloor with a killer playlist and retro glam, but under all that shimmer lies a whole lot of shrug. While it nails the 80s look and hits the right notes in a few key moments, the film ultimately stumbles due to a weak plot, delivering a prom-night slasher that looks the part but never brings anything real to the party.
” a prom-night slasher that looks the part but never brings anything real to the party.”
Based on RL Stine’s tweenage Fear Street book series, directed by Matt Palmer and co-written with Donald McLeary, Prom Queen transports us back to 1988 Shadyside High, where the hairspray is high and the stakes are higher… I guess. Prom season is underway, and the school’s resident clique of alpha girls is locked in a crown-clawing competition. Enter Lori Granger (India Fowler), an underdog outsider with undercooked prom queen motivations and a vague ‘woe is me’ backstory that never quite connects. When her rivals start disappearing and a masked killer makes a surprise appearance, prom night takes a sharp turn from sequins to slashing.
The setup may sound juicy, but the execution plays like a tired retread. Victims peel off from the party in formulaic fashion, one by one, wandering into dim corners of the school to meet their bloody end. The kills are brutal, even gleefully dark at times, but the buildup is so telegraphed it undercuts the impact. The killer’s look—a greenish mask and red vinyl raincoat—feels more Party City than petrifying, never striking a memorable chord. It’s horror window dressing without a lasting impression.
Pacing is another casualty. We get to prom way too early, and from there, the film stalls. A Mean Girls-style clique dance number feels like it crash-landed from a different movie entirely, while an unchoreographed dance-off between Lori and Tiffany (Fina Strazza) awkwardly pads runtime instead of building tension. These moments, which should inject fun or rivalry, instead underline how little meat there is on this bone.
To their credit, the leads bring what they can. India Fowler does her best with Lori, a kind-of-outcast diner girl saddled with a vague family tragedy and even vaguer prom queen dreams. Fina Strazza delivers solid queen-bee energy as Tiffany, but the material doesn’t give her much bite. Both do their best, but neither character is given enough material to make a real impression—they’re fine, just not particularly memorable. The rest of the ensemble largely blends into the background, and the killer, despite a few inventive flourishes, doesn’t leave much of a mark. Also, Lili Taylor (The Conjuring) is in this for all of five minutes?
Where the film shines is in style. The production nails the ‘80s aesthetic, with big hair, bold colors, and a killer soundtrack that feels like someone maxed out the music budget and called it a day. It’s a vibe-forward film that looks great in stills and trailers, but lacks the momentum or uniqueness to carry its runtime. For newcomers to horror, it might offer a fun enough intro, but for seasoned fans, it barely registers amid a crowded field of better prom-night bloodbaths like Prom Night, Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II, or The Loved Ones.
“Fear Street: Prom Queen has a few glittery moments, but it never quite earns its crown.”
Fear Street: Prom Queen has a few glittery moments, but it never quite earns its crown. It’s stylish, occasionally sharp, but mostly surface-level; a prom-night slasher that plays all the right songs but forgets to bring any real soul. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come close to living up to the page-turning fun of the original Fear Street books.
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