It’s time to take another walk down Fear Street. The hit trilogy of horror films started and concluded in 2021, with all three installments (1994, 1978, and 1666) landing at Netflix in consecutive weeks. Now Fear Street: Prom Queen will bring us back to the dark heart of Shadyside with a stand-alone movie. It’s streaming now — and you can check out the trailer above for a peek at all the scares ahead.
The first three films traveled further and further back into the bloody history of the aptly named town. Fear Street: Prom Queen offers a new look at the terrors of Shadyside, with a thrill ride of frights all its own as a masked killer is unleashed on the biggest high school event of the year. Evil never really dies in Shadyside.
“We’re back in Shadyside and the year is 1988,” director and co-writer Matt Palmer says. “With senior prom just two days away, the race for prom queen is already heating up, but when somebody starts slaughtering the prom queen candidates, all hell is set to break loose. Think classic ’80s slasher and all the fun that entails, but with compelling characters, needle drops, dancing, and a whole lot more!”
You can take a stab at the next chapter of the horror saga below — including the drop-dead gorgeous key art and an interview with Palmer. Make sure to watch your back since the new Fear Street is here.
Yes! Scroll up to the top of this article to see the trailer for the new film, complete with some choice fashion, a very ’80s needle drop, and lots and lots of slashing.
Welcome back to Shadyside. In this latest installment of the blood-soaked Fear Street franchise, prom season at Shadyside High is underway and the school’s wolfpack of It Girls is busy with its usual sweet and vicious campaigns for the crown. But when a gutsy outsider is unexpectedly nominated to the court, and the other girls start mysteriously disappearing, the class of ’88 is suddenly in for one hell of a prom night.
For Palmer, Prom Queen is about more than just fear — it’s also about growing up. “I love that Shadyside feels so relevant to our world now; it could really be any present day blue collar town in America,” he says. “We dig much deeper down into high school and family life in this installment and find that, again, so many of the challenges that ’80s kids faced still seem to totally resonate today.” That being said: if audiences find themselves resonating with Shadyside’s ancient curse, we recommend getting in touch with an exorcist or paranormal expert of some kind as soon as possible.
Fear Street: Prom Queen is now available on Netflix.
Fear Street: Prom Queen features a killer ensemble cast, including:
The film also stars Darrin Baker (The Man from Toronto), Damian Romeo (Ginny & Georgia), Dakota Taylor (Zero Chill), Eden Summer Gilmore (Family Law), Brennan Clost (Tiny Pretty Things), Cecilia Lee (My Dreams of You), and Ryan Rosery (Mayor of Kingstown).
For more on this killer cast, keep reading here.
Among the sprawling universe of Fear Street stories by prolific author R.L. Stine, Palmer says: “Prom Queen just really, really jumped out at me.” Below, in a condensed interview, the director reveals how he brought the bloody and brash movie to life.
How does Prom Queen fit into the wider Fear Street universe?
Fear Street: Prom Queen is a stand-alone film. The first three movies set up a very detailed and compelling lore. But the trilogy is a complete story. So much of horror depends on the threat and the question of “why?” If we already know the why of the story, it takes a huge part of the exhilaration of watching a horror movie away. So we asked, “What if we just do a stand-alone film that sets up new characters and new stories?”
The trilogy was the place to set up the big lore, and now a stand-alone movie like Fear Street: Prom Queen can intersect in a slightly different way with it.
What atmosphere did you want to build with Fear Street: Prom Queen, knowing how much you love period horror?
It’s that fun ’80s vibe. I’ve run this event in the UK for about 15 years, where I show five horror movies in a row all the way through the night. You find out very quickly at 4 a.m. if the audience finds a film boring. So: What are the elements of ’80s movies that people get excited about? There was an element where comedy was woven into the horror without taking away from the scares. Then there was an atmosphere of fun and excitement in those movies. I’ve tried to harness that creativity. If my movie was shown at 4 a.m. in the morning, what would make people happy?
People often associate the ’80s with camp. How did you approach that tone?
The problem with camp is that if your characters aren’t grounded at all, there’s nothing to root for and nothing to carry you through the story. So central female friendship — between India Fowler and Suzanna Son — ground the movie in a more lived-in, realistic world. Whereas the rest of the world is where the camp, or the heightened elements, come in. I tried to balance that as carefully as possible.
Is there a scene you’re most excited for people to see?
When I first saw some of the kill scenes edited together, that was incredibly exciting. For a slasher movie, that was a key element: making sure that the kill scenes were super exciting. I also really like some of the confrontation scenes between the characters and how far some of the characters will go and how mean they’ll be.
Did any of your own favorite horror movies influence Fear Street: Prom Queen?
I love slasher movies in general, but the ones that really hit are Happy Birthday to Me, Sleepaway Camp, and this wild Spanish American co-production called Pieces. They’re slightly more off the beaten track, which is what led to some of the humor and more intense elements of Fear Street: Prom Queen. And I think Scream is great.
Everybody likes slasher movies and they have so much going for them because one, the stakes are life and death all the time. It’s a whodunit at heart.
Yes! Take a look at the images above. You’ll catch a glimpse at the new film's cloaked killer, whom Palmer reveals "has a great sense of style" matched only by “an insatiable taste for killing people in grisly ways!”
Yes. All the Fear Street films are based on R.L. Stine’s popular series, but Fear Street: Prom Queen is the first to be drawn from a specific book, 1992’s The Prom Queen. The new key art, seen above, is inspired by the spooky novel. “The movie elevates the scares. The movie elevates the horror and brings it,” Stine says.
While some of Stine’s works feature “fake scares,” he explains, that’s not the case in the gruesome dance that is Fear Street: Prom Queen. “I would call the movie fever pitch horror. It’s so rapid-fire and so fast,” he says. “There’s not much room for fake scares here because the real scares keep coming so often.”
Palmer directed the film, and co-wrote Fear Street: Prom Queen with Donald McLeary. The film is produced by Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, and Kori Adelson for Chernin Entertainment, with Yvonne Bernard, Joan Waricha, and Jane Stine executive producing. Below is a condensed interview with Adelson.
Why did you want to collaborate with Matt Palmer on this film?
Because Matt was a huge fan of this genre and he has such a singular vision. We really bonded over the fact that we both appreciate practical effects. We wanted to keep the movie as practical as possible to evoke the ’80s aesthetic and remain true to the movies of that era. As we’ve been building out this franchise, the goal has been to give each movie to a filmmaker with a singular voice, and we found that in Matt.
Why is R.L. Stine’s Prom Queen novel so perfect for a stand-alone film?
Because it’s iconic. Prom Queen — it’s evocative of ’80s horror around prom and all these great movies that we loved. What was fun about making the movie was the opportunity to twist those tropes in a more modern fashion.
Imagine if you could have Carrie, but with the character development of John Hughes in the tradition of The Breakfast Club. We loved the possibility of merging those two tones and those two aesthetics.
How do you feel about the final product?
We feel great. We are so excited. Fear Street: Prom Queen feels so unique and fresh and like its own story. It was really exciting to see Matt’s twist on this world of Shadyside. The most thrilling part of production is that we have these strong female characters who feel like a real twist on the “final girl” archetype.
How do you want fans who loved the trilogy to feel, before they press play on Fear Street: Prom Queen?
I want them to be excited about returning to the world of Shadyside and about these great characters. Fear: Street: Prom Queen is a slightly different structure than the trilogy and that makes it interesting — we can keep playing with these horror subgenres. Each time you return to the world of Fear Street, you get a different offering and with this one, we promise a fun ride.
