Netflix And Chill: Fear Street: Prom Queen (2025)

Time is a flat circle. I know that could be applied to many concepts that we face as we journey through life, but I am using it here to explain the fun of enjoying the cyclical nature of horror movie sub-genres, particularly the slasher movie. Everyone knows how things have gone in the slasher movie landscape. They were, at one point, THE main horror staple for a good few years. Then they faded out. They were uncool. Then a healthy dose of self-awareness and loving cannibalism helped them to become popular again, as well as sometimes being cool. And now? Well . . . now we have a mix of slasher movies that try to keep things fresh alongside slasher movies, like this one, that are happy to unironically present fans with something that wouldn't have seemed out of place back in the early 1980s (aka the boom period for slasher movies).

India Fowler plays Lori Granger, a young woman who has spent her school years having a pretty hard time of things. She's a target for the likes of Tiffany Falconer (Fina Strazza) and her crew of acolytes, often bullied because of the fact that everyone suspects her mother murdered her father. Thankfully, she has a very good friend in Megan Rogers (Suzanna Son). And she has the courage to nominate herself as a prom queen candidate, although there's a masked killer who decides to seriously affect the outcome by killing off a number of the candidates.

Another film making use of source material by R. L. Stine, this is co-written by Donald McLeary and director Matt Palmer, who made his feature debut with the superbly tense Calibre. I have known of Palmer for many years, and always had confident in his ability to deliver great moments for horror fans, but it's good to see him able to step from his more complex and nuanced debut work to this bright, nostalgia-infused, outrageous slice of gory fun.

The cast all do well in their main roles, with Fowler and Rogers particularly easy to root for as the kills start occurring, Strazza an entertainingly loathsome "mean girl", and Ella Rubin, Rebecca Ablack, Ilan O'Driscoll, David Iacono, and Ariana Greenblatt all doing enough to make their characters identifiable enough, yet also just as prone to be killed off as anyone else unwittingly dancing their way to a Prom Night massacre. The older cast members also have some fun, and you get good turns from Lili Taylor, Chris Klein, Katherine Waterston, and Darrin Baker, who are all given enough time and space to mark themselves out as suspects while the bodycount grows.

The main star here is the production design though. This film isn't just set in Shadyside High in the 1980s. It's set in the school that you picture when you think of every classic school-set moment from the decade, whether that's due to other films being set firmly in that time and place (The Breakfast Club, A Nightmare On Elm Street) or allowing viewers to put on nostalgia-goggles to see something akin to that time and place as other characters seem to literally or mentally move back into the past (e.g. Grosse Point Blank, Hot Tub Time Machine, The Guest, etc). The soundtrack also helps, tickling your ears with hits from Billy Idol, Rick Astley, Roxette, Bananarama, Tiffany, Laura Branigan, Duran Duran, and many more, as well as a couple of superb tunes from Power Glove, and the whole package feels as if it could have been made and released forty years ago. That will be a major plus point for many, but some will view it as a reason to avoid the film forever. As I'm sure you can tell, I am firmly in the former camp.

I don't think there's anything more I can say to those who are still on the fence. Things may feel a bit tame in the first act, but you can rest assured that things get bloodier and nastier on the way to the fun-filled, if slightly predictable, conclusion. Palmer and co. really know what they're doing, and slasher fans should trust them to take them on a fun ride back into 1980s glitter and gore.

7/10

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Prime Time: A Christmas Melody (2015)

Lacey Chabert is as much a part of my Christmas preparations nowadays as multiple half-used rolls of wrapping paper and a building sense of frustration every time I lose the end of the sellotape (no, I don't have a tape dispenser, we're not all living in some kind of organised state of bliss). Mariah Carey is also now very much part of the Christmas celebrations. And that goes double ever since I heard a large group of drunken men leave the Christmas Market in Hyde Park while they sang "All I Want For Christmas Is You" at the top of their lungs. So when I found a Christmas TV movie starring both Chabert and Carey I knew that I had to see it. And then I found out that Mariah Carey also directed the thing. Well . . . cover me in brandy and call me pudding.

The story is fairly simple, as these things so often are. Chabert plays Kristin Parson, a young woman who can design and make clothes, and who we first see sadly closing the doors of her little boutique clothing store for the last time. She has to head home again, with her daughter Emily (Fina Strazza) by her side. Emily has to adjust to a new life, and new school, while Kristin figures out what to do next. There's a lovely Aunt (Kathy Najimy), a music teacher who used to be a school friend (Danny, played by Brennan Elliott), and a woman who does her utmost to keep everyone in their place, as long as that place is just below her own social standing (Melissa, played by Carey). Oh, and there's a janitor named Thomas (Kevin Chamberlin) who seems to have a bit of magic about him, especially after we saw the same actor playing a homeless man given some money by Kristin.

This is a slightly odd Christmas movie, in that most of the things we know and love about them are present and correct, yet it lacks a certain something. Perhaps director Carey hoped to use the format to do something a bit different, or perhaps writer Jennifer Notas Shapiro (who did a good job with both The 12 Gifts Of Christmas and The Flight Before Christmas) lost focus while working on this one.

It's hard to pin-point exactly why it doesn't work, but a few contributing factors are: Chabert playing someone who is even more bland and passive than usual, Carey wanting to play a "mean girl" without ever leaning far enough into it, and a carelessness with the material that makes it all feel a bit more stilted than usual, especially during the product placement moment that is even more egregious than most you will see in these movies.

Strazza does perfectly fine in her role, despite her struggle never feeling enough like something to really be invested in, while Chabert and Elliott work well together, all smiles as they bond together while remembering sweet high school memories. Carey is alright, but should have been meaner (as mentioned), Najimy is as fun as she so often is, and Chamberlin does very well as the sort of person who can give children odd messages with a twinkle in their eye in a way that these movies maintain is completely charming and innocent, instead of worrying and creepy.

3/10

The movie can be bought here.