Fear Street: Prom Queen — A Missed Coronation - Review

Laurie Granger faces her legacy and her classmates—one prom queen vote (and body) at a time.

Netflix’s return to Fear Street with Prom Queen should have been a blood-soaked celebration, a nostalgic slice of YA horror resurrected with new teeth. Instead, it arrives underdressed, undercooked, and overwhelmingly lukewarm. Based loosely on the 15th book in R.L. Stine’s legendary series, Prom Queen trades psychological thrills for surface-level 80s pastiche—and forgets the essential magic that made the original novels and Netflix’s 2021 trilogy so damn fun.

Set in 1988 Shadyside, the story centers on Laurie Granger (India Fowler), a moody teen battling grief, legacy, and a high school hierarchy ruled by a queen bee clique hilariously named “The Wolf Pack.” That title alone, cribbed from a better cultural era (and maybe a wrestling ring), says everything you need to know: this is a remix of tropes without any meaningful bite.

In the books, the McVeigh family legacy haunts the prom storyline. Here, it’s the Grangers, but the emotional depth barely registers. The rivalry between Laurie and Tiffany Falconer (Fina Strazza) is more sitcom spat than slasher showdown, with Ariana Greenblatt’s Christy offering the closest thing to gritty energy as the school’s resident edgy outcast.

We’re locked into Shadyside for this installment, sidelining the usual Sunnyvale vs. Shadyside tension that gave earlier entries their pulse. Without that class war backdrop, the film becomes a mid-tier teen drama with occasional blood splatter. It’s Pretty in Pink with a kitchen knife—and none of the edge.

Director Matt Palmer steps in while Leigh Janiak sits back in a producer role, and unfortunately, it shows. Prom Queen feels like a placeholder. The kills lack creativity. The characters are cardboard. The 80s setting is hollow nostalgia, filled with prom playlists and neon lights, but no new ideas. This isn’t It Follows. It’s It Meanders.

Sure, it nods to John Hughes prom scenes, Napoleon Dynamite weirdness, and even leans into Stranger Things-style remix culture—but all of it feels forced, trying to cash in on formulas that worked better elsewhere. At times, you wonder if Prom Queen even wants to be horror or if it’s content being a mildly spooky CW pilot.

The problem isn’t the cast (who do their best), or the potential of the source material (which is rich and flexible). The problem is the script’s refusal to engage. There’s no reason to care about these kids, their secrets, or their survival. And when Fear Street stops giving you characters worth rooting for—or hating—what’s left? Just aesthetic and screams. And that’s not enough.

Fear Street always stood apart because it dared to kill teens when others wouldn’t. But now it’s starting to feel like it’s doing it because it can—not because it means anything. If this franchise wants to stay alive, it has to tap back into its heart, not just its arteries.

2 out of 5 stars. 

A disappointing entry in a franchise that once knew how to make teenage death feel meaningful. Bring back the fear—or bring in the Battle Royale playbook and burn it all down.

Matt Palmer

director (directed by)

Matt Palmer

written by &

Donald McLeary

written by

R.L. Stine

based upon The Fear Street books by