Netflix‘s long-awaited Fear Street: Prom Queen is among the latest horror movies to premiere in the past few weeks, being released on the streaming service on May 23, 2025. Sadly, the fourth installment in the Fear Street film series isn’t garnering the positive reviews many hoped for, and has seriously failed to live up to the trilogy that so impressed genre fans and critics back in 2021.
Fear Street: Prom Queen stars India Fowler, Suzanna Son, Fina Strazza, David Iacono, Ella Rubin, Chris Klein, Ariana Greenblatt, Lili Taylor, and Katherine Waterston. It is based on the novel “The Prom Queen,” written by R. L. Stine from the teenage horror fiction series “Fear Street.” The plot follows a masked killer who targets candidates at Shadyside High on the night of their senior dance in 1988. Although it had the potential to be a modern prom horror hit, possibly drawing inspiration from Carrie or Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II, something is clearly amiss, as critics have largely torn the movie to pieces, resulting in a “rotten” rating of 31% on Rotten Tomatoes. Similarly, audiences too have been left disappointed, with the horror outing landing a score of just 30% on the Popcornmeter.
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Tim Stevens of The Spool wrote, “‘Fear Street: Prom Queen’s shortcomings…run deep. All the problems add up to a movie that’s nothing more than just below mediocre.” Katie Rife of IGN Movies described the film as “stiffly” made and failing to offer sufficient scares, which is something a lot of horror films forget is very crucial in the genre. “‘Fear Street: Prom Queen’ comes to Netflix laden with lore, but the movie itself is an indifferently made and stiffly acted YA exercise that struggles to sustain even a halfhearted level of engagement.”
‘Fear Street: Prom Queen’ Falters Despite a Promising Plot
Netflix
Many of the reviews are similar to the tone of Stevens and Rife, but there are a handful that believe Netflix did exactly what it was supposed to with the film. Luna Guthrie of Collider gave Fear Street: Prom Queen an original score of seven out of ten, saying, “It’s not breaking any new ground, but Prom Queen is a solid enough teen slasher that does a nice job of continuing the ever-expanding universe of R.L. Stine…Like any respectable slasher, Prom Queen plays its cards well when it comes to casting suspicion…As the original trilogy did, the movie isn’t afraid to get gory, and does a good job of giving the audience what it wants, never skimping on the blood or fun effects.”
Of course, whatever critics (and, in this case, fellow audience members) may think, it’s always best to form your own opinion and check out the movie yourself. The Fear Street series hasn’t promoted itself as a “you can’t watch this alone” type of horror series. Just by reading the plot, or even if you’ve read the books, you can tell the goal wasn’t to make an unbearably terrifying horror outing, but instead a somewhat spooky, fun movie that harks back to beloved genre clichés. You can read the official synopsis for Fear Street: Prom Queen below:
Welcome back to Shadyside. In this next installment of the blood-soaked Fear Street franchise, prom season at Shadyside High is underway and the school’s wolfpack of It Girls is busy with its usual sweet and vicious campaigns for the crown. But when a gutsy outsider puts herself in the running, and the other girls start mysteriously disappearing, the class of ’88 is suddenly in for one h*ll of a prom night.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes
Release Date
May 23, 2025
Director
Matt Palmer
Writers
Matt Palmer, Donald McLeary
Producers
Jenno Topping, Peter Chernin, Kori Adelson
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India Fowler
Lori Granger
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Fina Strazza
Tiffany Falconer
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Ella Rubin
Melissa McKendrick
You can view the original article HERE.
