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Tom's Guide
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
5 best 1980s slasher movies to watch after 'Fear Street: Prom Queen'
The 1980s were the heyday of the slasher movie, when dozens of films about masked killers slashing their way through unsuspecting, often teenage, victims made their way into theaters and onto video store shelves. That's exactly the vibe that director and co-writer Matt Palmer aims to capture in Netflix's new hit horror movie 'Fear Street: Prom Queen,' the latest installment in the 'Fear Street' franchise. 'Prom Queen' is set in 1988, and its story of a killer stalking the prom queen finalists at Shadyside High could be lifted wholesale from a 1980s slasher movie. I found 'Prom Queen' to be a fun, if disposable viewing experience, but as a longtime slasher-movie fan, I mainly felt inspired to go back and watch more of the real thing. If you're interested in checking out the origins of 'Fear Street: Prom Queen's" style, here are five of my favorite 1980s slasher movies to stream now. Easily the best '80s slasher movie (and one of the best horror movies ever made), writer-director Wes Craven's haunting, hallucinatory suburban nightmare introduces Robert Englund as supernatural serial killer Freddy Krueger, a deceased child murderer who now has the ability to attack people in their dreams. Freddy is a horror icon, and Englund makes him instantly unforgettable as he terrorizes the teens of seemingly placid Springwood, Ohio. Freddy is matched by determined teenager Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp), who is convinced that her classmates are being killed in their sleep, even if no one else believes her. Nancy is a fierce but vulnerable hero, and her inner strength in standing up to Freddy is what gives 'Nightmare' its emotional power. The subsequent franchise is uneven, but Craven's original film is a masterpiece. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Rent/buy at Amazon or Apple The first 'Prom Night' is a lesser Jamie Lee Curtis horror entry, but this quasi-sequel — which was originally produced as a wholly unrelated movie — is much more entertaining, with a campy sense of humor and a welcome oddball tone. It's the best prom-related slasher movie, featuring the ghost of a murdered prom queen taking her revenge 30 years later. Mary Lou Maloney (Lisa Shrage) possesses the body of a current student and embarks on a reign of terror, all with the goal of being crowned prom queen once again. As in 'Fear Street: Prom Queen,' the title is worth killing for, and director Bruce Pittman stages some inventive deaths as Mary Lou murders her way back to the top of the social hierarchy. Watch on Prime Video Summer camps are a common setting for slasher movies (including 'Fear Street: 1978'), and 'Sleepaway Camp' is one of the most memorable, not just for its notorious shock ending. It's appealingly off-kilter even before then, starting with Desiree Gould's unhinged performance as the controlling aunt who sends introverted main character Angela Baker (Felissa Rose) off to sleepaway camp, where she's relentlessly bullied by the other campers. As Angela's tormentors start dying one by one, often in creatively gruesome ways, writer-director Robert Hiltzik keeps the audience on edge, questioning Angela's mental state and her status as both a victim and possible perpetrator. The movie's handling of queer identity is both bold and potentially problematic, but it looks more groundbreaking as time has gone on. The mix of sexuality, trauma and vengeance makes 'Sleepaway Camp' into a stark, brutal experience. Watch on Prime Video Noted mystery novelist Rita Mae Brown originally wrote the script for this clever film as a slasher-movie parody, and while director Amy Holden Jones presents it in a more straightforward manner, it's still full of sly humor. It might be a stretch to call 'The Slumber Party Massacre' feminist, but the filmmakers shift the perspective of the typically male-dominated genre, and there are plenty of opportunities to poke fun at the killer's very phallic weapon, a giant drill. There are also plenty of opportunities for the teen-girl characters to take their clothes off, as they get together for a sleepover at one girl's house while her parents are away. A massacre ensues, courtesy of an escaped murderer, but there are at least as many fake-outs as actual murders, and Jones maintains a playful visual style even as things get nasty. Watch on Prime Video The high point of the mostly glum 'Friday the 13th' franchise is this goofy sixth installment, which brings in self-aware humor to liven up yet another story about hockey-masked murderer Jason Voorhees taking out a series of interchangeable victims. The series has been around long enough at this point to have its own recognizable formula, and writer-director Tom McLoughlin toys with audience expectations, making cheeky references to the movie's own absurdity. McLoughlin also makes Jason (played this time by C.J. Graham) into a completely supernatural force, bypassing any need to explain his frequent resurrections. While past installments could be salacious and sexualized, 'Jason Lives' captures more of a throwback monster-movie vibe, making it almost wholesome in comparison to the frequently sleazy slasher genre. It's a lively, bright spot in a franchise that is more often grim and repetitive. Watch on Pluto TV
Forbes
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Don't Netflix's ‘Fear Street: Prom Queen' Steal 90 Minutes From You
Fear Street: Prom Queen Netflix We are nowhere near Halloween, but that didn't stop the original trilogy of Fear Street movies which Netflix released in July of 2021. Now, with Fear Street: Prom Queen, there's only one new one and unfortunately, it's very, very bad. The original Fear Street trilogy, 1994, 1978 and 1666 were well-received by fans but especially critics. Now? Fear Street: Prom Queen is getting trashed by both. Here's the breakdown: Fear Street: Prom Queen Rotten Tomatoes What changed here? Well, the answer appears to be not just the cast, but perhaps more importantly, the director and writers. The first three Fear Street films were all directed by Leigh Janiak who also co-wrote two of them. Prom Queen is directed by Matt Palmer who also co-wrote the film with Donald McLeary, neither of them having worked on the original trilogy. So, you change everything, the cast, writer and director, and that's how things can go disastrously wrong. Here's the synopsis for Prom Queen, which seems to be channeling something like I Know What You Did Last Summer more than other offerings that perhaps came across as somewhat more original. Here's the synopsis: Netflix, of course, does not show reviews at all on its app, so Fear Street: Prom Queen has debuted at #1 as people just wanted to see a new film in the franchise. But neither critics nor audiences are on board. Here's a critic sample: And an audience review: Even if you liked the original, it does not seem like Prom Queen is going to be worth your time, even at just 90 minutes. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Express Tribune
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Fear Street: Prom Queen takes over LA's Fonda Theatre as Netflix turns to immersive experience
Netflix marked the release of Fear Street: Prom Queen with an immersive 1980s-themed prom event in Los Angeles, transforming a local theatre into the haunted halls of Shadyside High as cast members joined fans in celebrating the latest instalment in the slasher franchise. The fourth film in Netflix's Fear Street series, Prom Queen, began streaming on Friday. The horror film, directed by Matt Palmer and based on R.L. Stine's novels, follows a series of disappearances from a popular clique at Shadyside High in 1988. To promote the release, Netflix hosted a live experience from 17 to 19 May at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. The event recreated locations from the film — including the gymnasium, lockers, and girls' bathroom — to immerse attendees in the slasher setting. On 18 May, Palmer and cast members India Fowler, Suzanna Son, David Iacono, Ella Rubin, Ariana Greenblatt, and Rebecca Ablack attended the 'Shadyside High Senior Prom '88.' The actors mingled with fans exploring the interactive venue, which included staged jump scares and theatrical interactions with costumed performers. 'Fear Street is a beloved franchise, so our main goal was for the experience to mirror everything the fandom loves about the films — terrifying jump scares, solving a mystery and wall-to-wall fun,' said Jonathan Helfgot, vice president of film marketing at Netflix. The franchise began with Fear Street Part One: 1994 in July 2021, and each instalment is set in a different decade. For the new film, the team leaned into 1980s nostalgia, with decor and music from the era as fans encountered horror scenes, including an axe-wielding character emerging from a janitor's closet. Helfgot added: 'We meticulously recreated Shadyside High circa 1988 so that fans could fully immerse themselves in the world of the story. Whether it was cheering along to an impromptu dance-off or getting reprimanded by a strict teacher, everyone loved being at high school in the '80s — even those chased through it.' The film continues Netflix's attempt to build on the cult following of the Fear Street series, which blends horror, humour and teen drama. Critics of previous entries praised the series' balance of genre elements and nods to both the source material and modern classics like Scream. Fear Street: Prom Queen is now streaming on Netflix.
Digital Trends
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Fear Street: Prom Queen director on slashers & executing the perfect kill
Matt Palmer is unapologetic about how to kill someone in his new movie, Fear Street: Prom Queen. 'We spent a lot of time working out how to kill people,' Palmer tells Digital Trends in an exclusive interview. Palmer is the co-writer and director of Prom Queen, the fourth film in Netflix's Fear Street franchise. While the first three Fear Street movies are considered a trilogy, Prom Queen is a standalone movie with new characters and stories. However, the common denominator is the setting, the town of Shadyside. Based on R.L. Stine's novel, Fear Street: Prom Queen transports audiences to 1988. Senior prom is two days away, and six girls are running for prom queen. Two of them — the kind outcast, Lori Granger (India Fowler), and the popular bully, Tiffany Falconer (Fina Strazza) — are bitter rivals. Executing political maneuvers to win votes for a popularity contest is difficult enough. Yet the toughest challenge on prom night will be avoiding a masked murderer stalking the candidates. Recommended Videos Ahead, Palmer talks about the importance of needle drops, the key changes from book to screen, and how to execute the perfect kill. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Digital Trends: I wanted to start with the needle drops. They stood out right away. What was the one '80s song you knew had to be in Prom Queen? Matt Palmer: I'm Not Scared by Eighth Wonder. Why is that? I think there are bigger needle drops in terms of known songs, but that song, there's something special about it. It was actually written by the Pet Shop Boys, which is why it's such a good tune. But it's a slightly lesser-known tune. It has this throbbing and pulsing. Very early on, I was like, this is what the prom looks like from the sounds. That pulsing and blaring thing. I feel like the whole tone of prom came from that song. Also, the lyrics as well. It's a kind of Lori Granger story. That was the one. We switched things up during the edit. There were different tracks pulled out and changed to get the right energy. That was the one right from the beginning. That's going right there after that kill, and it's not going anywhere. With your musical process, are you a director and writer who builds a scene and knows exactly what song to put in? Is it more about getting a playlist from your music supervisor, running through things, and seeing what works? Take me through that musical element. It's funny because, in the first movie I made, there is a lot of music in it, but it's composed music. It goes under the radar. A lot of people with Calibre are like, 'Oh, that's great. There's no music in it.' I'm like, 'Eh, it's kind of there. You're just not noticing it.' But this one [Prom Queen] was a completely different assignment. You hear [Quentin] Tarantino talk quite a lot about how he'll pull out a record and that'll start the movie in his head. It was a lot more like that with this one, which was really fun. Like the Billy Idol one, you start to assemble montages around the music. It's a very different way of working, but a really fun one. It's quite addictive. I'd like to do it again. It's like building a long playlist. Yeah, I spent two months at the very beginning, when we were just starting to write the movie, agonizing over this playlist. There were tunes that were key like You're the Inspiration by Chicago. I had a whole scene where the Devil character dances with Lori. Then, we were like, we don't need this scene. The scene isn't helping the character or the film. And I was like, 'But the music!' [Laughs] It was so hard to cut because I was so in love with the idea of setting a scene to that music, but it had to go. Sometimes, the images come from the music. Sometimes, it completely switches, like Sweet Dreams. The dance-off was going to be Prince, but Prince tunes are incredibly hard to license. Once Gloria was in, this wasn't going anywhere. Even if we get Prince at the last minute, this [Gloria] is the tune. It's funny how it happens. The morning I found Gloria, I was walking through the pre-production office, and a couple of hours later, it was playing in every room. I heard people singing Gloria, and I was like, OK. This is the tune. The spirit of the book is alive in the movie. I know some changes were made. Obviously, the name of the character Lizzie* is Lori. Why did you change her backstory? In the book, the girls are mean to each other in Prom Queen. … There's a lot in the book, and it's obviously from a different time. There are a lot of girls talking about boys. It was interesting as a man writing a female character. Not just one, but five girls lead the movie. It was really important to have great female producers. They were guiding me on that. If all the girls in the movie were just talking about guys, it would just feel like it was from a different time. You have to make it connect with a modern audience. I don't think those kinds of interactions would really play today. The other thing is it's a whodunit. If you're working from source material where a whole lot of people in the world know who did it, you have to change the story so that people don't know who did it because that's the lifeblood of mystery. R.L. Stine is great. If you like stuff, take it. If you want to go in a different direction, take it. He's very flexible. It gave us the freedom to launch off from a great premise and take it into some new characters and interesting directions. *In R.L. Stine's book, the main character is named Lizzie McVay. In the movie, it's Lori Granger. A lot of these kills are showcases for practical effects. Take me through building a kill. Do you want it to happen one way and then see if you can do it practically? Well, we would write what we wanted and then try and work out how we could do it. We'll try and do this until someone says it's kind of impossible. One of the things I'm pleased with the movie is it does feel like all of the kills are quite different. Quite early on, someone was like, 'What's the killer's signature weapon?' I remember going to see the remake of My Bloody Valentine. He has his ax. It's like every single kill is an ax. After four of them, I'm craving a chainsaw. This killer in Prom Queen will just grab things and have a few things handy. It opens the possibility of different kills. Even tonally, there's one kill that I feel is much darker and scarier. There's one that's comedic and drawn out. There's one that's very abrupt and sudden and probably the goriest thing in it. It's quite satisfying. I've watched a lot of slasher movies, and I'm unapologetically rabid about it. I like [Dario] Argento. What I like about Argento is you can feel when a kill is coming. There's almost a ritual to it with Arengto and a contract with the audience. It's like, 'OK, it's coming. It's going to look cool, and I'm going to focus on my directorial skills. It's going to be gory as f***.' Just bring it. I guess I come from that school of when a kill is coming, it's like a sacred and special moment. You need to do something that's going to satisfy the audience and maybe surprise them as well. Put elements in it and mix it all up. We spent a lot of time working out how to kill people. I would hope a director of a slasher thinks about it a lot, so that's good. [Laughs] Probably too much. I was reading an interview about how you programmed a film festival and picked out movies to run all night. I'll give you the choice here. You have Prom Queen as your first one. What are the next four movies to pair it with? So I wouldn't play Prom Queen first. [Laughs] I'd play Prom Queen either third or fourth. I spent 15 years doing this, and honestly, it's insane. OK, the things I learned. If you're going to play a slow movie, play it second. The third spot should always be the most insane, crazy, mind-bending, psychotronic, f***** up thing. That creates an energy in the middle of the night. People feel like, 'I've seen the craziest thing ever, so anything after this is a bonus. In the fourth slot, play something with a plot. People need something to grab onto at five in the morning. At one event, I played Child's Play fourth. Child's Play has a really good narrative and plot. The manager of the cinema was like, 'My god. They've all woken up. They all look way more awake than they did after the third movie, and they're all ready for the fifth one.' It took me a while to realize, but don't play something long or too abstract at number four. Otherwise, people will fall asleep. It's crazy. You don't always get it right. I played Black Christmas second at the first one. It's a great movie, but I got away with it. That's the other thing. Anything that goes over an hour and a half, and you're really dicing with death. That's why Prom Queen is 87 minutes. I found with 87-minute movies, people tend to feel they were short and sharp. I liked it, and I didn't get sleepy. I was like, can I make a movie that, if it was playing at four in the morning, wouldn't get people bored? I'd probably play Prom Queen third or fourth. Fear Street: Prom Queen is now streaming on Netflix.
Forbes
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Critics Hacking Up Netflix Horror Thriller ‘Fear Street: Prom Queen'
A scene from "Fear Street: Prom Queen." Netflix/Alan Markfield The new Netflix horror thriller Fear Street: Prom Queen from Goosebumps writer R.L. Stine is scaring away critics. Rated R, Fear Street: Prom Queen debuted on the streaming platform on Friday. The logline for the film reads, 'Welcome back to Shadyside. In this next 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 puts herself in the running, and the other girls start mysteriously disappearing, the class of '88 is suddenly in for one hell of a prom night.' Directed by Matt Palmer, Fear Street: Prom Queen stars India Fowler, Suzanna Son, Fina Strazza, Ariana Greenblatt, Katherine Waterston, Lili Taylor and Chris Klein. Palmer and Donald McLeary wrote the screenplay for Fear Street: Prom Queen, which is based on Stine's 1992 book The Prom Queen. Fear Street: Prom Queen is the fourth movie in Netflix's Fear Street series, following three-part release of Fear Street: 1994, Fear Street: 1978 and Fear Street: 1666 in 2021. As of Friday, Fear Street: Prom Queen has earned a 35% 'rotten' rating from Rotten Tomatoes critics based on 31 reviews. The film is still awaiting an RT Critics Consensus. Audiences gave Fear Street: Prom Queen a 46% 'rotten' Popcornmeter score based on 50-plus reviews. Nick Schager of The Daily Beast is among the top critics on RT who gives Fear Street: Prom Queen a 'rotten' review, writing, 'Cartoonishly gory and drearily unoriginal and predictable, it's a collection of tired devices and shout-outs that plays like training wheels slasher cinema.' The film also received a 'rotten' rating on RT from Clint Worthington of who writes, 'Fear Street started as a series that tried to reinvent the wheel, even just by dint of its structure and nods to the innate curse of marginalization; this is empty-headed, straightforward slasher schlock on purpose.' Derek Smith of Slant Magazine also gives Fear Street: Prom Queen a 'rotten' review on RT, writing, 'Like its predecessors, the film is an often awkward mix of YA drama and R-rated gore.' William Bibbiani of The Wrap is the only top critic who has given the film a 'fresh' review on RT to date, writing, Fear Street: Prom Queen is not the best Fear Street movie. But to be fair, it's probably the third-best Prom Night.' Rated R, Fear Street: Prom Queen is new on Netflix.
