Brief Story Line
Story was set in the year 1988 in Shadyside where the high school was preparing itself for a senior Prom night initiated by Vice Principal Brekenridge (Lili Taylor - Perry Mason TV series etc). Overall there were 6 girls who were competing for the Prom queen with the notable ones, the outcast Lori Granger (India Fowler - Insomnia TV series etc) and the mean girl Tiffany Falconer (Fina Strazza - Paper Girls TV series etc).
While Lori's best friend Megan Rogers (Suzanna Son - The Idol TV series etc) was not too approving of Lori's intention, she still supported her decision. However things become horrifying for the school when a mysterious person dressed in red rain coat started killing the prom queen candidates and anyone close to them.
So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
I remember having great time watching the original Fear Street trilogy back in 2021 (though I did not realize it was 4 years ago). So when I found out there was going to be a new film in the series, I wanted to give it a try. At first glance, this movie looked quite convincing in giving the strong 1980s feel with the hair style and clothes, plus the use of large video camera and mini compo. As the story continued, the theme felt pretty standard with the outcast girl fighting against the dominant mean girls, except with the slasher part.
The story moved in a steady pace with the intro of the characters to provide context. But obviously thing only became interesting when the first victim was killed. Subsequently the murders became more frequent with one thing set in my mind to try figuring out who the killer would be. To my surprise, all my guesses were incorrect which was a good quality for me cause that meant the movie makers were successful in deceiving my mind. And another great thing was the presence of a twist that I did not see coming. Btw, there was a brief scene before the very end that was quite intriguing. Not sure if it was a hint for a sequel or just something added for fun by the director Matt Palmer in what seemed to be his feature film directorial debut. He was also credited here as co-writer with Donald McCleary.
For a slasher film, this one did not have anything new to give and was rather formulaic. The killings were quite gore but somehow did not provide a terrifying effect. There was no jump scare scenes and the sound effect was below standard to me. It also had short duration of around 90 minutes without any mid or post end credit scene. The only good thing for me aside from the decent slashing and twist was the 80s feel, particularly the songs that I enjoyed. I think I recognized almost all of them which brought some nostalgic feeling of that period.
The cast were quite OK for me with majority of the young cast rather unknown (at least to me). However I did recognize Chris Klein (American Pie films etc) and Katherine Waterston (Alien: Covenant etc) as Tiffany's parents Dan & Nancy respectively. In addition, there were several support characters like Tiffany's boyfriend Tyler (David Iacono - The Summer I Turn Pretty TV series etc), one of Tiffany's wolfpack Melissa (Ella Rubin - Until Dawn etc), another prom queen candidate Christy (Ariana Greenblatt - Borderlands etc) and few others.
Before I forgot, this movie was based on 1992 Fear Street's novel titled The Prom Queen by R. L. Stine although I am not too sure how loyal it was to the original works. So if you are interested in watching another unoriginal slasher film with standard quality but having wonderful 80s songs based on one of popular novel series, then you are welcome to give this a try. But do not expect this to be at the level of more established movies like Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer. And compared to the previous Fear Street trilogy, this was definitely not a better quality.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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