Netflix’s Fear Street: Prom Queen is a reminder to watch an underrated 1980 movie starring Jamie Lee Curtis. As the fourth installment in Netflix’s film series based on the books by R.L. Stine, the slasher is set in 1988, centering on a masked murderer who hunts down the prom queen contenders at Shadyside High during their senior prom night. Fear Street: Prom Queen‘s cast includes India Fowler, Suzanna Son, Fina Strazza, David Iacono, Ella Rubin, Chris Klein, Ariana Greenblatt, Lili Taylor, and Katherine Waterston.
As opposed to the original Fear Street trilogy, which received mostly positive reviews from critics, Fear Street: Prom Queen‘s reviews have been largely negative, indicated by its 30% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Nevertheless, Netflix’s new Fear Street movie has reignited interest in prom-based horror films, a subgenre that dates back to Brian De Palma’s Carrie from 1976, based on Stephen King’s debut novel from 1974. While Carrie is the foundational prom horror film, there are many other examples that significantly shaped the subgenre as it is known today.
Netflix’s Fear Street: Prom Queen Is A Reminder To Revisit Jamie Lee Curtis In Prom Night
It’s A Cult Classic Horror Movie
Netflix’s Fear Street: Prom Queen serves as a reminder to revisit Jamie Lee Curtis in Prom Night. Directed by Paul Lynch, with a script written by William Gray and a story by Robert Guza Jr. (General Hospital), the 1980 slasher follows a group of high school seniors who, during their prom night, become the targets of a masked murderer, driven by a desire for revenge over the accidental death of a young girl from six years prior. In addition to Curtis, the cast includes Leslie Nielsen, Casey Stevens, Eddie Benton, Mary Beth Rubens, and Michael Tough.
Like Fear Street: Prom Queen, when Prom Night was released in 1980, it received mostly negative reviews from critics who drew unfavorable comparisons to the previous prom-based horror movie, Carrie, and a previous Jamie Lee Curtis slasher, Halloween. Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert were among the film’s most famous critics, with the former calling it a “watered-down cross” between Carrie and Halloween, while both were vocal critics of the film’s depiction of violence against young women. Others criticized its predictable plot and underused dance hall setting, resulting in a rather standard and uninspired thriller.
Despite debuting to dismal reviews, Prom Night has undergone a modern reᴀssessment and is now considered a cult classic horror movie.
However, despite debuting to dismal reviews, Prom Night has undergone a modern reᴀssessment and is now considered a cult classic horror movie. Over the years, Prom Night has developed a strong cult following, appreciated both for its horror elements and its disco soundtrack. Several film scholars have also recognized it as one of the most influential slasher films of its era. While Carrie came first, it was a supernatural horror film, and it was Prom Night that laid the groundwork for all prom slashers to follow, involving a masked killer seeking revenge.
Why Prom Night Is Still An Underrated Horror Movie
Jamie Lee Curtis Delivers A Superb Performance
Because Prom Night debuted to dismal reviews and only garnered a cult following years later, it remains an underrated horror movie to this day. Overshadowed by Halloween from a few years earlier, Jamie Lee Curtis delivers a superb performance in Prom Night as the naturally popular Kim Hammond, confident yet vulnerable, who becomes isolated in the cavernous and echoing corridors of her high school. Her performance as the final girl isn’t just about survival, as it also conveys a quiet underlying grief.
What also makes Prom Night underrated is its unexpected embrace of horror comedy, slipping in sly humor between its moments of dread. The disco-heavy dance sequences, the bizarrely earnest teenage drama, and a few oddly funny deaths show that the film never took itself too seriously. While everyone might not like it, true horror aficionados should enjoy, or at least appreciate, what makes Prom Night one of the most influential slasher films of its era.
