PLOT: When the “it” women competing for promenade queen at Shadyside Excessive begin to disappear, a gutsy outsider discovers she’s in for one hell of a promenade night time.
REVIEW: It’s been almost 4 years since Netflix’s Worry Avenue trilogy launched to the streaming service. And regardless of a good quantity of buzz, it took a while for us to get one other entry. Now, Worry Avenue takes intention on the Promenade, adapting the fourth novel within the sequence, The Promenade Queen. And if there’s one setting that’s prime for a slasher film, it’s the promenade.
Worry Avenue: Promenade Queen follows a bunch of scholars at Shadyside Excessive, as they prepare for the 1988 promenade. The “It Girls” are doing last-ditch efforts to get the vote for Promenade Queen. There’s Tiffany Falconer and her group of imply women, drug seller Christy, and our last woman, Lori Granger. However somebody is taking issues a little bit too far and is killing off the potential winners. From a slasher standpoint, the characters simply type of settle for their destiny and die in foolish methods. It is a far cry from the extra meta, slasher-savvy leads we noticed within the trilogy. And it makes the entire solid of characters tough to root for.
A slasher film is actually predicated on two issues: both eager to see our hero escape the killer or to see the killer take out a bunch of deserving victims. You actually need one or the opposite to search out success inside the subgenre, and I feel it’s Worry Avenue: Promenade Queen‘s biggest hurdle that it can never overcome. India Fowler‘s Lori is basic, with very little drive or likability. Trauma is not an adequate character trait; you have to actually do something interesting with it. And it doesn’t assist that they gave her the identical title as one of many best slasher heroines to ever reside (even when it’s spelled in another way). After which the villain is only a dangerous man in a satan costume whose complete motivation is killing teen women in order that promenade will get a sure end result? Actually arduous for me to care.
The one little bit of intrigue got here from Ella Rubin‘s Melissa, who was trying to break out of her mean girl clique. Otherwise, everyone falls into such overused clichés, with no one subverting them. Even Megan, who is an apparent horror junkie, constantly makes the same mistakes of a standard horror victim. So what was even the point of having her be obsessed with horror movies outside of a couple of lines of dialogue? But there’s nobody this does a disservice to greater than Ariana Greenblatt. Who, regardless of being one of many solely characters that’s simply distinguishable from each other, is severely missing in display screen time.
I’m a giant slasher fan, so I actually needed to love Worry Avenue: Promenade Queen, however I discovered myself consistently being let down. Every thing is so generic and looks like a relic of the mid-2000s. It was proper across the time that two of the characters participated in a dance-off that I noticed this actually simply wasn’t for me. And I’m unsure who it’s for. Regardless of going down in 1988, this doesn’t actually really feel like its potential date. These children act like fashionable teenagers a bit an excessive amount of and I used to be half-expecting them to tug out cellphones and begin scrolling by way of TikTok.
I’ve all the time appreciated how the Worry Avenue sequence makes use of its setting, the city of Shadyside. This city is cursed to the purpose the place dangerous issues simply repeatedly occur right here. But, I by no means actually get that vibe. There are a few mentions, however in any other case, this simply looks like generic New England City #3. It’s like a complete villainous character that they’re simply neglecting! At the very least there are references to the Trilogy, making it clear that this exists in the identical world.
The manufacturing worth of Worry Avenue: Promenade Queen feels surprisingly low-cost. The promenade itself is way from the residing and respiratory entity that we’re used to seeing on movie. They simply aren’t capable of seize it, and even fill out the gymnasium to a satisfying diploma. I’m truly type of shocked that this was produced by Netflix. I suppose all the cash needed to be spent on getting Katherine Waterston.
When it comes to the kills, it begins off fairly gentle, however it goes fairly excessive at factors. It’s not very constant and positively loves a extra simplistic, shock dying over one thing drawn out. I appreciated how sensible they obtained with issues, even when there’s not a lot creativity of their execution. It is a slasher and it’s arduous to have one with out some type of whodunnit angle today. Sadly, the id of the killer feels fairly apparent from the onset, they usually don’t actually attempt to make anybody else a pink herring. Odd selection for a whodunnit however okay. The twist itself works as a result of it’s not random and is clearly arrange. However I want it had simply been extra direct, because it’s the one time the narrative involves life.
I’m all the time rooting on slashers so it disappoints me to say that Worry Avenue: Promenade Queen just isn’t good. This looks like a step again by way of the meanness we noticed from the Trilogy and an absolute disservice to anybody who merely likes slashers. As a result of this appears directed at those that don’t and easily wish to dip their toes.
FEAR STREET: PROM QUEEN IS STREAMING ON NETFLIX ON MAY 23RD, 2025.
