Fear Street: Prom Queen Review

review

✦

review ✦

Netflix’s Fear Street series has found a loyal following by tapping into nostalgia while putting a modern twist on the teen horror genre. With Fear Street: Prom Queen, the franchise dips back into R.L. Stine’s twisted imagination for another blood-soaked high school tale. Unfortunately, while the setup has all the trappings of a fun, campy slasher, the execution fails to stick the landing. Instead of a sharp, thrilling throwback, Prom Queen mostly stumbles through its 90-minute runtime with uneven pacing, forgettable characters, and horror sequences that lack the kinetic energy fans expect.

Fear Street: Prom Queen (2025) | Netflix

A Familiar Setup With Diminishing Returns

Set in the cursed town of Shadyside, Prom Queen centers around a group of teens preparing for prom at the local high school—until one by one, the prom queen candidates start turning up dead. On paper, it’s a recipe for classic slasher fun: a killer targeting the glitterati of the student body while secrets slowly unravel. There's even a whiff of Carrie and I Know What You Did Last Summer in its DNA.

The problem? Everything plays out exactly as expected, and not in a satisfying, meta-horror way like Scream, but in a disappointingly straightforward one. The identity of the killer(s) ends up feeling less like a twist and more like a formality; genre-savvy viewers will likely have it pegged halfway through. Still, credit where it's due—the filmmakers resist the urge to reveal too early and manage to keep the mystery going until the final act, which offers at least a mild payoff for the guessing game.

Slasher Roots With No Teeth

As a fan of slashers, it’s hard not to feel let down by Prom Queen’s commitment to mediocrity. While the kills are serviceably gory, they lack imagination and suspense. More damning is the film’s over-reliance on what could be called “stand-and-die” moments—characters are confronted by the killer and do little more than scream before being dispatched. Gone are the adrenaline-fueled chase scenes that define the best of the genre.

Here, we mostly get characters waiting around to die or making boneheaded decisions. It's frustrating because the film flirts with the aesthetics and tone of the ‘80s and ‘90s slashers, but it never fully commits to their bold energy.

Campy or Cool? Neither, Really

Tonally, Prom Queen aims for that sweet spot between camp and dread—a balancing act that, when done right, can elevate a slasher into cult-classic territory. Sadly, the film never really satisfies either audience. It’s not self-aware enough to be fun, and it’s not serious or stylish enough to be scary.

Some of the dialogue hints at an attempt to be cheeky or ironic, but it’s often undercut by wooden performances and flat delivery. The set design and costume choices evoke prom-themed kitsch, but there's little visual flair to carry the mood. The whole production feels caught in limbo: too self-conscious to be earnest, too restrained to be trashy fun. The end result is a tonal muddle.

Lackluster Characters and Shallow Stakes

A good slasher doesn’t necessarily need Oscar-worthy writing, but strong characters help viewers care when the blood starts flowing. Unfortunately, Prom Queen offers a lineup of paper-thin archetypes—mean girl, jock, quiet outcast, you know the drill—with very few surprises or emotional hooks.

Because of that, we get the standard murder-mystery framework layered over by over-the-top kills and teen drama. The lack of nuance or psychological tension means there's little to latch onto once the novelty wears off. And while the core cast does their best with what they’re given, none of the performances truly stand out. When the bodies hit the floor, it’s hard to feel much beyond mild curiosity about who's next.

Score: 5/10

Though it aims to establish itself as prom royalty, Fear Street: Prom Queen ultimately feels like it should’ve sat this one out.

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