I’ve been meaning to type this up from some notes I made a while back and finally got to it. Last year, I read R.L. Stine’s Fear Street novel Prom Queen twice and also saw the Netflix adaptation twice as well, and the difference between both was kind of like what you would find in a funhouse mirror.
Prom Queen was published in March 1992 when R.L. Stine began his horror writing career in earnest with the Fear Street series; YA horror novels that had a more mature feel compared to his more famous books in the Goosebumps series that would make him the toast of Scholastic after this novel was published (which started to be released in July 1992). A couple of years ago, I read another Fear Street book, The Perfect Date, and was struck by its dark and downbeat tone. When I heard that Netflix was doing another Fear Street movie, based on Prom Queen, I knew I had to try it out.
Prom Queen is about Lizzie Murray and her group of friends and acquaintances who have become nominees for prom queen at their high school. One by one, the nominees either disappear or are murdered, leaving Lizzie with the inescapable feeling that she’ll be next. This story is a whodunnit that reminds me of something that Lois Duncan would write. Stine gave us a taut psychological horror story with plenty of jump scares, red herrings, and a satisfying climax. Fear Street is more cold-blooded than Goosebumps and plays for higher stakes, so I have to admit that I’m really liking these books, and I wish I tried them when I was younger.
The movie is a different beast. The only serious similarity between the book and movie is the concept of prom queen nominees being eliminated by a killer, but the movie is more of a gory slasher. You could swear that Netflix bought the rights to have the Fear Street name then passed a one-note memo to the director. Maybe that was an exaggeration, but there was very little thought put into adapting this story, even to the point that the characters are completely different.
In the movie, it is the late 80s and Lori Granger is trying to live down the lifelong stigma of having a mother who had supposedly killed her father, at least as rumor has it. Lori hopes to shake things up by running for prom queen, but she’s up against stiff competition, particularly against Tiffany, the queen bee and her friends Debbie and Melissa. The events of the movie take place over a couple of days as opposed to the couple of months in the book. The story follows that one prom queen nominee is killed after another. There are some inventive kill scenes and no shortage of splatter for the gore fan.
There is a human element of Lori as a sympathetic character trying to put something positive into her life and you hope that she survives in the end. I won’t give the ending away, but let’s say that it’s twisty and intense. As an adaptation, this movie falls flat, but on the other hand it is a good slasher that beats the hell out of the Prom Night movies. There is some suspense, but it is curtailed by a relatively high body count as least for a non-supernatural killer. This one doesn't break any new or unusual ground as opposed to the Fear Street Netflix trilogy that was released back in 2021, but it doesn't have to be original to be entertaining. I recommend watching this one. B-
Written by Nick Montelongo
Prom Queen was published in March 1992 when R.L. Stine began his horror writing career in earnest with the Fear Street series; YA horror novels that had a more mature feel compared to his more famous books in the Goosebumps series that would make him the toast of Scholastic after this novel was published (which started to be released in July 1992). A couple of years ago, I read another Fear Street book, The Perfect Date, and was struck by its dark and downbeat tone. When I heard that Netflix was doing another Fear Street movie, based on Prom Queen, I knew I had to try it out.
Prom Queen is about Lizzie Murray and her group of friends and acquaintances who have become nominees for prom queen at their high school. One by one, the nominees either disappear or are murdered, leaving Lizzie with the inescapable feeling that she’ll be next. This story is a whodunnit that reminds me of something that Lois Duncan would write. Stine gave us a taut psychological horror story with plenty of jump scares, red herrings, and a satisfying climax. Fear Street is more cold-blooded than Goosebumps and plays for higher stakes, so I have to admit that I’m really liking these books, and I wish I tried them when I was younger.The movie is a different beast. The only serious similarity between the book and movie is the concept of prom queen nominees being eliminated by a killer, but the movie is more of a gory slasher. You could swear that Netflix bought the rights to have the Fear Street name then passed a one-note memo to the director. Maybe that was an exaggeration, but there was very little thought put into adapting this story, even to the point that the characters are completely different.
In the movie, it is the late 80s and Lori Granger is trying to live down the lifelong stigma of having a mother who had supposedly killed her father, at least as rumor has it. Lori hopes to shake things up by running for prom queen, but she’s up against stiff competition, particularly against Tiffany, the queen bee and her friends Debbie and Melissa. The events of the movie take place over a couple of days as opposed to the couple of months in the book. The story follows that one prom queen nominee is killed after another. There are some inventive kill scenes and no shortage of splatter for the gore fan.
There is a human element of Lori as a sympathetic character trying to put something positive into her life and you hope that she survives in the end. I won’t give the ending away, but let’s say that it’s twisty and intense. As an adaptation, this movie falls flat, but on the other hand it is a good slasher that beats the hell out of the Prom Night movies. There is some suspense, but it is curtailed by a relatively high body count as least for a non-supernatural killer. This one doesn't break any new or unusual ground as opposed to the Fear Street Netflix trilogy that was released back in 2021, but it doesn't have to be original to be entertaining. I recommend watching this one. B-
Written by Nick Montelongo
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