Movie Review: Fear Street: Prom Queen

I keep holding on to my Netflix subscription in the hopes that one of the movies in their upcoming slate will turn out to be as good as its trailer implies, and I keep getting disappointed. In their effort to replace cable TV, the service has become plagued with many of the same issues that led to cable’s decline. Sure, there is an ever-growing library of content, but the price has also proven to be ever-growing, sometimes increasing multiple times in the same year. And said content is generally so simple and bland that it rarely leaves the viewer feeling fulfilled. The fourth entry in the streamer’s R.L. Stine-inspired horror franchise Fear Street sadly proves to be more of the same, unable to even live up to the flawed but interesting trilogy that precedes it.

Lori Granger (India Fowler) is a very unpopular student at Shadyside High School. Despite that, she decides to run for prom queen against four of her class’s far more popular peers. In a case of seriously bad timing however, this year it seems that someone has it out for the candidates and they begin disappearing, leading up to a chaotic and bloody prom that no one will ever forget.

There’s really no need to say anything more about the plot as it really doesn’t matter. The characters all exist to be fodder for a masked killer and are as underdeveloped as a housing tract in late 2008. There are some creatively grisly kills, with one in particular calling to mind a fear of office equipment that many have probably felt at least once, but it isn’t enough to generate any real fear or suspense. Between the uninteresting characters and the largely bland staging, it becomes difficult to muster much excitement for any of what happens.

Fear Street: Prom Queen seems to be targeted at those who have never seen a slasher movie before, and those who haven’t might get some enjoyment out of this. For everyone else though, it should prove too derivative and uninspired to provide more than some passing entertainment. This is the horror movie as reduced to mere content to put on in the background while simultaneously engaging in another more useful or entertaining activity, which is unfortunately all that Netflix seems to aspire to be these days. ★½