Netflix‘s Fear Street: Prom Queen has allowed fans to immerse themselves in high school nostalgia — onscreen and in real life.
Based on author R.L. Stine’s books, the fourth film in the streamer’s slasher series began streaming Friday. Writer-director Matt Palmer’s feature stars India Fowler, Suzanna Son, David Iacono, Ella Rubin, Ariana Greenblatt and Rebecca Ablack. Set in 1988, the movie centers on teen girls disappearing from a popular clique at Shadyside High.
During an interactive event that ran May 17-19, Netflix created a terrifying prom experience for visitors to the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. On May 18, Palmer and the cast attended the Shadyside High Senior Prom ’88 experience as guests explored versions of the gymnasium, lockers, girls’ bathroom and more locations designed to frighten fans.
“Fear Street is a beloved franchise, so our main goal was for the experience to mirror everything the fandom loves about the films in real life — terrifying jump scares, solving a mystery and wall-to-wall fun,” says Netflix vp of films marketing Jonathan Helfgot.
Ella Rubin, Ariana Greenblatt, Rebecca Ablack, India Fowler, Cecilia Lee, Ilan O’Driscoll and Suzanna Son attend Netflix’s Fear Street: Prom Queen Shadyside High Senior Prom ’88 experience.
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images
Netflix’s previous Fear Street movies were each set in a different decade, and Prom Queen’s 1980s milieu serves as an appropriate fit for this throwback event. The film series started with Fear Street Part One: 1994, released in July 2021.
“Each film is set in a distinctive year, so we meticulously recreated Shadyside High circa 1988 so that fans could fully immerse themselves in the world of the story,” Helfgot continues. “The payoff was magic. 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 for a night — even the fans who got chased out of the janitor’s closet by an axe-wielding murderer.”
For The Hollywood Reporter’s review of Fear Street Part One: 1994, critic Lovia Gyarkye wrote that the project “plays it relatively straight with its source material’s tone and mood, honoring the delicate balance between horror and humor that continues to draw generations of young readers to Stine’s work, while also paying homage to modern horror classics like Scream.”