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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Netflix And Chill: Fear Street Part 1: 1994 (2021)

Based on the books by R. L. Stine, and directed by Leigh Janiak (who co-wrote the screenplay with Phil Graziadei), Fear Street Part 1: 1994 (which I will just be referring to from here on out as Fear Street) is an unsophisticated slasher movie that is happy to wallow in the familiar tropes of the subgenre until a supernatural element comes to the fore, providing a mystery that needs to be solved by some plucky leads.

Kiana Madeira is Deena, a young woman who is upset after recently separating from her partner. Her friends, Kate (Julia Rehwad) and Simon (Fred Hechinger), want to help her through the grieving process by helping her direct her rage towards Sunnyvale, the neighbouring town that her ex has moved to. Sunnyvale seems nice and prosperous, which is the exact opposite of Shadyside, where Deena and her friends reside. Shadyside seems to be cursed, deranged killers cropping up every few years, creating a bloody and murderous timeline that intrigues many who try to connect the dots, with one of those people being Deena's young brother, Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr.). Anyway, in typical slasher movie tradition, a prank gone awry sets off a chain of events that leaves Deena and friends on the run from a killer who seems unstoppable. And that killer isn't alone. 

Although I was in the minority with my lack of love for the debut feature film, Honeymoon, from Janiak and Graziadei, there was something there that makes it surprising that it took so long for them to land another chance to show what they're capable of. Fear Street is a much easier sell for them, superficially. It's got the Netflix push, it has many moments that play out as a simple throwback to the many post-Scream slashers of the late '90s and early 2000s, and it's obvious that the budget is a nice chunk of change (judging from the soundtrack choices alone). But it's clear why Janiak and Graziadei were good choices for this material when twists and turns start to occur, and one or two tropes are subverted on the way to a third act that keeps moving further and further away from the slasher movie template viewers were given in the opening sequence.

The youthful cast all do a pretty good job. Madeira may not be a great lead, but that's easier to put up with in the second half of the movie, when Flores Jr. gets more screentime. Rehwald and Hechinger are both entertaining enough, and Olivia Scott Welch isn't too bad in the role of Samantha Fraser, the young woman who unwittingly becomes the target of killers out for blood, literally. Ashley Zukerman is the local Sheriff, and there's a small voice cameo for Gillian Jacobs, who I assume will be onscreen for a while in the next instalment(s).

It may be a bit dim throughout, but you also get a good share of neon here and there and it's never too dark to stop you from seeing everything that's happening onscreen. The score is decent, the soundtrack is a busy clash of tunes from "Now That's What I Call 1990s" throughout the first half, and the pacing picks up in the second half to ensure that viewers should be looking forward to the next part of the story. 

It's just a shame that some may be put off by the first half, with that opening homage to Scream feeling a bit too slavishly close to something that was already quite perfect and the lead character lacking much warmth or charisma. Sticking with it proves ultimately worthwhile though, and it's still a decent bit of bloody fun, overall.

6/10

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