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Fear Street: Prom Queen | Review by: Benjamin Garrett


 There’s something to be said about a bad 80s horror movie. For how corny, poorly written and incredibly dated they are, they’re truly a product of their time, with a sort of undeniable charm. Fear Street: Prom Queen competently replicates bad 80s horror. It feels like something I’d rent from the video store as a kid because it had cool cover art. A bad movie is still a bad movie, though, and a 2025 release can’t fall back on the “product of its time” excuse. 


Let’s start with what works - This really brought me back to a lot of the slasher flicks I watched growing up, and that much was clearly intentional. The camera work, lighting, editing and a lot of the dialogue are ripped right out of your favourite 80s guilty pleasure horror. It feels stiff, and low budget, avoiding modern filmmaking flourishes for the most part. Apart from a plethora of iconic needle drops (which would’ve been far too expensive to license at the time), and some lousy CGI blood, this emulates the genre pretty well. 


And now for everything else…


For a modern slasher flick, this plays everything far too safely. We are in a resurgence of the horror genre right now, and if you want to stand out, you need to innovate, rather than just imitate. Yes, it made me nostalgic for a bygone era of horror, but I can easily access many of those movies across various streaming platforms. This movie does nothing to differentiate itself from the older movies it’s replicating, or the modern movies it’s competing against. The plot is relatively predictable, most of the kills lack innovation, and it’s just missing a sense of creativity. It’s not so bad it’s good, and it’s a nowhere close to being legitimately good either. 


The Fear Street Trilogy was a fun summer event a couple years back. Far from perfect, but the connecting threads between the three instalments gave them a unique hook. Prom Queen is a Fear Street movie in name only - a forgettable addition to the franchise hoping to cash in on brand recognition. Do yourself a favour, and go watch an actual 80s Slasher instead. 


1.5/5 


Review by: Benjamin Garrett 

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