THE fourth instalment in the blood-splattered slasher franchise Fear Street, based on the RL Stine novels, sees prom season in full flight at Shadyside High.
The original Netflix trilogy, saw the first three films shift between the 1660s to the 1970s and 1990s with playful aplomb, as writer-director Leigh Janiak drew us into a horror universe where teenage angst came face to face with supernatural fantasy and queer romance.
This time out, Fear Street: Prom Queen, from Scottish writer-director Matt Palmer and co-writer Donald McLeary, isn’t half as silly or as much fun as what’s come before previously. Set in 1988, this gory flop brings us once again to the ill-fated dead-end town of Shadyside, where slaughter and pandemonium awaits in the shadows of every cursed town function, especially when there’s horny teenagers involved.
The school’s “wolf-pack” of It Girls is busy with its usual sugary yet ruthless campaigns for the crown of Prom Queen but when undaunted outsider Lori (India Fowler) puts herself in the running, things quickly take a murderous turn. A good girl from the wrong side of town, Lori believes all her family money woes and her social isolation will be a thing of the past if she can only win the coveted crown.
However, queen of the school’s mean girls, Tiffany (Fina Strazza), seems like a certainty for the title, but she leaves nothing to chance, and takes perverse pleasure out of making Lori’s life a living hell.
Anyone who has ever seen Prom Night or Carrie will know where all this is going to end. It will end badly, this much is certain. Prom will be a big bloody mess. Punch will be spiked, teens will be slain, and it will all get too Scooby Doo for my liking.
Think Goosebumps crossed with Scream and you’re in the general ballpark. Unfortunately, the latest Fear Street film is way too halfhearted and aimless to keep your attention.
(2/5)
