393: Fear Street: Prom Queen (2025)

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This is just a message and a PSA to women. Love yourself more than this.

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Don't put those bros before your hose.

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Never. Never. And if he wants to take you backstage, you know what I'm saying? Don't let him.

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Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hack or Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. It's showtime. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack.

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A total joke? A waste of time.

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Or a slash.

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Totally killer. Unintended.

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We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with the perspective we've gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the classic horror connoisseur Sean.

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Mom! Not in front of everyone!

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And the paranormal paramour, Binx. I dick lefe. This week we're packing our bags and heading back to Shady Side to see the latest entry in a franchise adapted from R. L. Stein novels.

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And if you're a frequent slasher and support the show, you'll also get to hear our B side at the end of this episode where we talk about our PPTSD, post-prom traumatic stress disorder, and somehow find ourselves getting into the Disney Channel Kids to Horror Pipeline.

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In 2021, Netflix brought Shady Side to life with a trilogy that spans centuries, blending Slasher Mayhem with supernatural folklore. It reimagined R. Lin's world for a new era of horror fans and left the door open for more stories to follow. This next installment steps into 1988, where a small town high school was desperate to clean up its image, and a fierce competition draws sharp lines between popularity, reputation, and survival. A storied high school tradition, one that's supposed to be the biggest night of the school year, suddenly becomes the backdrop of a night marred by murder. And as the school's social elite compete for the crown, a student haunted by her family's past finds herself at the center of a night that's unraveling quickly. This week we're talking about Fear Street Prom Queen. Now, Sean Binks, you weren't on the show when we covered the original trilogy. What did you think? What were your thoughts?

SPEAKER_00 2:12

I mean, I loved R.L. Stein back in the day as a kid, right? So like I think I almost had every goosebump book there was at the time. But I think it's also strange that I never really got into Fear Street. Or at least I don't remember getting into them. But I absolutely love this franchise and what they've done with it so far. I feel like how everything is in a different time period, but the story is connected through all of it. It's pretty cool, right? Like to see it's almost like you're watching the entire story unravel backwards, back to where it all began. And that's something that I really loved is like the continuity of the franchise and how it also like really depicted the time that it was in to a really fun level, like very nostalgic for some of like 1994, for some, probably 1978. I don't know anybody around from 1666, so we will never know, but it still felt fun.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Yeah, I actually didn't really know about Fear Street specifically. I read maybe a few Goosebumps books, but that was more like my brother's thing. So when the movies had come out, I mean, that was 2021, you know, we were still kind of in the thick of COVID and such. So I felt like it was the perfect time to just get dealt one great film after another after another. I mean, it was incredible how they just dished all three of those out within the same year. And I was eating it up because of that like connectivity between each film. It reminded me a little bit of Ginger Snaps in the way that Ginger Snaps also, I mean, there's three films in that one, but they also go back in time in the third film. So it I mean, that kind of like energy, that female protagonist, like energy and the kills were amazing. I loved those films a lot. I thought they were super, super fun. And who doesn't love like little bits and pieces left in each film that just tell a bigger part of a story? So I definitely thought that those movies were really, really great and obviously made me excited to watch this one.

SPEAKER_03 4:13

Yeah, this was such a moment in 2021. This felt like as close as you could get to a summer blockbuster when theaters weren't really operating to their full capacity or potential. Thinking yeah, thinking about what that experience was like, just week after week, those movies coming out, I absolutely was so stoked to see them. And I remember having a significant feeling when we wrapped up the trilogy and we did the last episode. I remember feeling a little bit of a different kind of way about that movie. And not that I didn't like it, but there were some things that stood out to me that left a bad taste in my mouth. But in the years since that episode, I have re-watched this franchise so many times over and it tells such a for me a perfect and complete story that I now love all three parts of the move of the story equally. I can't imagine just going in and only watching one. I need to like sit down and trilogy that shit. And really the depths of that story, right? There's a lot of heart there, there are a lot of layers there. But part of what made the Fear Street trilogy so great was the way it built on its story across those three movies to make them feel like complete productions in and of themselves, but to also just work so beautifully and cohesively together. It just feels like what I expect anytime these major franchises are like, yeah, we signed a three-movie deal.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Yeah, for sure. And yeah, I can't really imagine watching just like one of those three either, but I am curious, like, what's your ranking for those three? Because for me, I feel like it's tough. I actually I want to say probably 1994 is probably my top out of the three, and then odd it. I actually really liked 1666 a lot. I really liked it because it brought like everything together. So it actually is kind of tough for me to pick which one would be my first. But it's definitely, you know, if I had to 1994, 1666, 1978.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

You know, ooh, wow. I remember really liking the 78 or 74, the the 70s one. And I gotta say, I mean, sure, maybe Sadie Sink plays a part in that, right? But let's be honest. But I'll be very, very, very honest and say that I haven't rewatched it since. Like I really love those movies, but I just haven't, I don't know, it just hasn't shown up. I've ri actually really wanted to see at least one of them as a part of like my Halloween season, you know, binge, but there's so many fucking movies out, you know, like so many movies to see. It's I don't know if for some reason it just never makes the cut. So I want to revisit these. And I wanted to actually revisit them before watching this. You know, the schedule didn't add up for me, but I remember I remember the 70s one definitely being my favorite. I did like the 1666, and then the first one, the 90s one, right? Like, I don't know, it was good. Some kills were fantastic, seared in the brain, but I kind of really like a period piece when it comes to horror. It's not usually my gem outside of the genre, but 1666 I thought was really, really fun.

SPEAKER_03 7:16

Man, see, my struggle is that I used to have a very specific ranking for these films, but now genuinely I see them all as one cohesive story. Therefore, they're all tied for first for me. Back in the day, so when this movie first came out, seven 1978 was incredible. Just the way it leveled up the gore. Obviously, we had some incredible kills in the 1994 film, but 1666 stood out to me in a very strange way because I thought the accent work was just really challenging to listen to, but it's actually grown on me over the years and I no longer have an issue with it. But if I like gun to my head right now, had to pick one, I legitimately think 1666 would be my emotionally my favorite one because of how it wraps everything up. Right. And just like what it makes you confront. I I put together this like article before the Prom Queen episode came out, and it was really like just looking back on the Fear Street trilogy and just thinking about why these movies still work, and it's one specific promise. And folks, if you haven't watched those movies, I'm gonna say one sentence that is said in the 1666 film. It's not a spoiler for anything, but it's these two characters talking about one day they're gonna kiss in broad daylight, and the fact that we then get that towards the end of the movie generations later, it just gives me chills every time. So I absolutely love the trilogy. I think going into this movie, I looked back on that quality and thought, okay, it's gonna be hard to top that because this is a standalone story. So this should be fun, it should be polished, it should be well executed, but I also know it's not coming from the same director. So there's a creative team and there's like a property, and there's the spirit of that, and Netflix is still involved, but it's not the exact same storytelling, and maybe it needs a different hand. I'm not sure, but I think a lot of why I loved Fear Street came from the director's vision. So I went into this thinking, okay, at least it's gonna be gory, at least it's gonna be fun, and it should be pretty to look at.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

I I think it's such a good point that you bring up because I gotta admit, I was also a bit worried because we were getting a new director, right? Because the feeling of the first three in the franchise and the look of them, the feeling, the just the vibes of those movies, the way they were shot, the story, everything. So a little bit worried when you switch directors just because you've done three that you're familiar with, and then you switch it up. So I don't know, but I do know that this franchise up until this point, right? What we do know is that it's really good at blending elements of slashers, supernatural, folk horror, right? And across all of the previous three films, I'm expecting this one to hopefully fall in line with that. So hopefully they still kind of fall in line with what those first three films are doing. I'm expecting this one to hopefully dive into the next chapter of this cursed town of Shady Side or something like that, get some solid kills, some nostalgia from the 80s, right? We know it's 1988, it's prom queen. So I'm hoping for some high school nostalgic shit going on here too. So we'll see.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

You know, it's interesting because I feel like I come from a place where I didn't do too much prep work or didn't really look into the film enough to realize what you guys are talking about in terms of the change of director. You're talking about it now, and I'm thinking, damn, I guess I hadn't even really noticed, didn't therefore expect that this was going to be a standalone story. That also could be in part for my lack of goosebumps and Alstein knowledge and Fear Street knowledge. I just really didn't know. So going into this, I actually thought that it was going to be connected somehow to the other three, you know, and it doesn't really have to be that it ha that it needs to be the same director, but I feel like the bar was set, right? So I am expecting, like you guys said, you know, like those kills, the involvement of like the supernatural, again, more of those little Easter eggs connecting and weaving each one of these stories. I mean, the timeline is not far off from the one from the 70s. So I thought, okay, I mean, it's not too far off in between two of those films that we watched earlier, like maybe there's gonna be some fun little family ties, or I don't know. It could be anything, but one thing that I can always expect is that these kills are gonna be ridiculous and that there's gonna be some kind of major supernatural shit going on. And in the setting of prom night, where I feel like we do have a couple great prom horror films that are a little supernatural, aka I'm looking at you, Carrie, obviously. You know, I thought, okay, this is gonna be fun. I'm interested to see how they have the fear street spin to a setting and a subgenre almost, right? That is prom horror.

SPEAKER_03 12:05

Yeah. There's a lot to consider there because of how dense the prom subgenre of the sub-genre is. We have prom night, we have prom night again, we have Hello Mary Lou, Prom Night 2, we have another prom night movie within that franchise, then we have all the different takes that we've gotten on Carrie, plus then prom just being a backdrop of so many other horror movies. And yeah, people like prom. I think it's overrated, but that's that's fine. I was never like a dance kid in school. But I think something that's important to consider is that the original Fear Street trilogy does not adapt one particular novel, it's just a trilogy set in the world of set in the universe of inspired.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

It's like loosely inspired. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:50

So that gives them a lot of runway. I think they were able to come up with a absolutely incredible story based on that premise. So then when you shift and you have this movie being the first in the Fear Street franchise now to officially adapt an RL sign novel, The Prom Queen, it's there's some room there. There's some room to either do really well or there's some room to really miss the mark. But either way, it's gonna be totally different. And I think that really shakes out into me just having so many mixed feelings when I watch this one. Uh on the one hand, right? Let's just break this down. It's like, it's playful, it brings teen slasher energy front and center, which is great. I eat that shit up. I eat it for breakfast. I enjoyed the humor. I liked the way that it leaned into cattiness and camp, and then we get into the 80s mean girl of it all. It's the mean girl set in 80s and make it a little bit more bloody. But the pacing for me is a double-edged sword. See, the struggle is that on one hand, it moves quick enough to keep things interesting, but on the other, it doesn't let anything breathe. And that's where I'm really struggling here because oh my gosh, it feels like it flies by and then it also feels like it drags at the same time. And that's not a feeling I want when I'm watching a Fear Street movie. It makes me feel like this would have worked better as a limited series, or if they had made this one part of again another three movie deal.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

That would be interesting. Yeah, the pacing is an interesting thing to say. I think, yeah, pacing, and then there's some editing too, some things that happen throughout the movie where I feel like you lose maybe the impactfulness that certain things could have in the film, and so I was missing that feeling in this one. But if there's one thing that I feel like this franchise has across all its films, again, you can't really say it about 1666 because we weren't there, but it has that nostalgic piece to it, and I think that these movies do such a good job at giving us the vibes of the era all the way down to the way they look and the way the film looks and the way the film was shot and the techniques that they use, right? Because it's one of the things that I really liked about this whole franchise is they're very intentional about the filmmaking techniques to depict the era uh the film took place in, and you can feel that in this one still, even with a different director, you still kind of feel the 80s vibes there, the graininess of the way it's shot and things like that, and the cinematography. So I think that was really cool. One of the big feelings I took away from this, but I gotta ask, like, why was this movie so fucking red? There was so much red in this fucking movie. Is that just a carry reference, or what like what's happening here with the red?

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Listen, I'm right there with you.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

So red, I'm wearing red tonight. Do you see talking about it?

SPEAKER_03 15:37

Wow. It's completely lost on me. I was eating it up. I loved everything aesthetically in this movie. Actually, I take that back. There's one small thing that I hated.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Oh, I'm sure. I mean, also favorite colors red. So, like, we'll we'll take it to an extent. But yeah, the color grading at some point got a little too warm there. But I will agree that the production overall, cinematography, everyone in that team, I think is really, really good. And that's consistent throughout all of Fear Street for sure. You bring up such an interesting point. I love this because I'm like, light bulbs are going off, right? In terms of I had no idea that this was a particular story, you know? So it it makes sense. It makes sense. Whereas the others were just like wider adaptations to the world. Because for me, watching this, again, lacking that context, it all felt honestly really safe and generic. I felt like I wasn't very impressed by much on screen, not story-wise, the kills, even, right? It was like only like two kills in that I was like, all right, here we go. Now this is what I'm talking about. But it takes us a while to get there. And the cast is pretty fun. There's some people in it that I'm like, oh, I'm surprised that you're here. Lily Taylor being one of them, my queen. But she felt severely underutilized, in my opinion. So that's a little preface here, like warning, you know, there's gonna be some characters that I don't think you get enough time with. And overall, it felt like every other Netflix movie that I've seen in recent years in terms of horror, right? Like they've come out with a couple horror movies lately that seem extremely safe, bland, almost like Timu versions of better stories.

SPEAKER_03 17:22

Not to be so brutal.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Yes. And the 90s one, yep. Exactly. It all really to me felt like a big disappointment. And the biggest disappointment for me ultimately comes down to the specifics of the plot, because again, sure, I lack the context that it's a story. So this is not a job to Arl Stein, then I guess, but it's like there are so many horror movies that are adapted by a book. Okay. Haunting of Hill House, you know, we we've got so many carry, like so many, ironically. And I just feel like even with that, you're able to take a little bit of liberties to tell a bigger story and portray that on screen. And this didn't feel like it really did that. This almost feels like the book is gonna be way better than the movie, that typical thing that people say, because the movie didn't really give me much. It felt like, all right, it's prom, the same beats, the same blueprint for every single thing. And it doesn't connect to the bigger story that I felt really made Fear Street Fear Street. I think that if they had connected it just a little bit more with purpose, and I'm not talking like the throwaway Easter eggs that I'm sure are in this film, and I've maybe caught a few here and there, but it was like I'm I'm talking like real, like weaving in something very underlying, very subtle. It doesn't really exist unless I'm missing something, unless I didn't catch it. Yeah, not a lot.

SPEAKER_03 18:46

Yeah, part of this movie is it comes out with the intention of saying this isn't directly connected to everything Sarah Fear, but it shows a different side of Shady side, but then the movie loses its own plot, and that's again, I I agree with you, Bing. I think the biggest thing that surprised me in this movie was how disappointed I was. And I think maybe I let myself be disappointed in a way that I shouldn't blame the movie for, but also they had this great marketing campaign where they came out with fucking sick posters for this movie inspired by classic horror films that I love, including Halloween, including prom night. It was just so good, and I thought, wow, I'm really gonna get it. Yeah, I'm gonna get an 80 slasher.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:35

And then I got like part of an 80 slasher, and ah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

I I think that's it's gonna be one of the most disappointing things for a lot of people, probably going into this movie, honestly.

SPEAKER_03 19:47

It is, and I I think it's the the even sadder thing there is I feel like it just doesn't live up to the Fear Street brand. I feel like this could have been another 80s slasher, and I mean I think it it misses something in the spirit of its characters to really like own being an 80s slasher, and I think that's something that's missing for me. I mean, there's just a lot more people in here that I wanted more time with, being cute mentioned that, but like even a key character is the first to go, and I was like, what the fuck? I was really looking forward to getting to know that particular person more later on in this movie, and I mean I guess good for them for keeping me guessing with who might be.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Yeah, you're like, Oh, you like this person? Bam! Fuck it. See you later.

SPEAKER_03 20:33

Yeah, okay, guys, calm down. You didn't have to drew bury more of this shit. It's it's it wasn't necessary, but it sucks. Not that the movie sucks, but it sucks that I felt let down. I feel maybe more hurt about this. And wow, that sounds so dumb. I sound I feel like I'm hurt. I feel more disappointed by this movie than I did about Clown in a Cornfield. And I think it's just because I love Fear Street so much. It's like you really had this right there, and then this is what you give us.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Yeah, it's tough. It is, and I think it's also interesting that I think one of the most surprising things for me in this movie had nothing to really do with the storyline of this movie. It was literally just all of the little Easter eggs and nods and things that they somehow fit a movie in between all of the references and all the shit they were throwing at you. Because for me, I was just paying attention every time I saw like I saw like memorabilia, like Lost Boys. We had people wearing the cramp shirts, the Ramones, we had Easter eggs, like the zombie poster in the background, all the way to the like Phantasm 2 playing in the local theater, you know what I mean? And so, like, I feel like I had surprisingly more fun with just piecing out some of the nostalgia that they threw in there for that time period than I did actually paying attention to the story. And I think that's a disappointing part, right? The overall Story in this one, I just wasn't really feeling it too much. And on top of that, maybe, maybe I missed a turn somewhere back there because I thought I thought we were on Fear Street, but there wasn't a whole lot of fear here. There just wasn't a whole lot of fear. There were a handful of scenes that tried to build suspense, but instead it felt like they were just trying to find a way to throw those moments in there, right? Like they were just throwing, like, here you go, here's some like fan service slasher type shit. Here's a here's like a quick thing, but it it just seriously lacked any real tension, any real suspense. There weren't really any jump scares or anything like that either. So it was just it just felt like we were getting fed kills that just didn't feel like we were building up to those kills.

SPEAKER_03 22:43

Yeah, it's giving less fear street, more jeer street, and that's not the direction that you want to be in this franchise. I will say this this movie is not trying to scare you, it's not trying to scare anybody. Most of the 80s slashers don't scare anybody either. So I'm okay not having jump scares. I'm okay not being afraid of this. I also wasn't afraid of the original Fear Street trilogy. In that franchise, the only thing that was really scary were the townspeople of Union in 1666. Beyond that, I don't need to have a lot of like suspense and tension and terror to still have a good time. I think what does work in this movie is its humor. I think it strikes a great balance between horror and comedy without tipping too far into parody. I felt like some of the dialogue is sharp, some of the characters are fun, and I think it leans into 80s drama in a way that feels like it's right at home with itself. Now, one thing I think a lot of people are buzzing about is that it feels generically 80s instead of more nuanced representation of the time period, it's like the greatest hits are playing at prom. Listen, I don't really care. It's fine for me. I'm not I was born in the last eight minutes of the 80s, so no skin off my back.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

Yeah, I feel like usually when I speak to the crowd of, you know, the more inclined to be scared group, you know. I I'm kind of on the fence on where Fear Street, as a franchise, I suppose, lands. Because I would say that there are maybe some moments for sure that are really great and extremely suspenseful in the first three. This one, nah, y'all be all right. To be very honest, the antagonist is not scary at all. I couldn't even tell if that he had a mask on in the first 15 minutes. So that just goes to show you that I don't even think that the antagonist himself or themselves is uh frightening at all. So to your point, I suppose like Fear Street technically isn't a scary movie, nor is it trying to be. It's more of a thriller and 80s slashers aren't typically like jump scares, you can't sleep at night type deal. But it can for some. For those that are very, very, you know, susceptible to that. Certainly, I can think of it, but you're gonna be alright watching this. You're gonna be just f you're gonna be just just fine.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

Yeah, I find it hard to not be fine when this movie is a regurgitation of the genre. Now, oh yeah, it's not trying to reinvent it, so let's not pretend this movie is trying to be anything other than it is. It's not original because it doesn't have to be. It's familiar in a way that is absolutely intentional. And where I think this movie gets credit for me is it feels like a love letter to the genre, but more like a I like you a lot letter. Like I don't know what true love is, but I'm feeling a lot of big feelings, and I want to honor you in some way. Because I think where this lands is this is a really great movie for people who are newer to horror or kids who are growing up and you want to get them into slashers, maybe something a little bit more intense, a little bit more brutal in terms of violence and what you see on screen. I think if you're deep in the slasher trenches, this isn't for you, and that's okay. It doesn't have to be. Not everything has to be for everybody. That's the beauty of the horror genre, but I think you can still find a way to have a good time with it.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Yeah, for sure. I think a love let love letter is a great way to put it. I it feels like a lot of other movies, and I think that's what it's pulling from, but I don't even know that it's just pulling from you know 80s horror or horror in general. Like I feel like, you know, they can be pulling from movies anywhere from carry to mean girls to piece this fucking movie together because it kind of really did kind of give vibes on both ends of the spectrum there. But yeah, it does kind of feel like a love letter to the genre. I don't think it's trying to reinvent the wheel, it's definitely trying to give you that nostalgic piece very much on purpose, give you some fun stuff to look at, listen to, and try to give you the best type of like 80 slashers, 80 slasher kills that it can give you. Whether or not they actually were able to pull that off, it's another story.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

And I agree with all of you. I mean, to expect this kind of film to be, you know, mind-blowing original is just not it, folks, but and not to jab at Netflix, but certainly not if that's the studio. No offense, Beleley even struggling. However, here's my thing about this conversation. I remember it was like Saturday, it was like right after the movie had come out. And I went on good old letterboxed, we know my tried and true, and Matt Palmer did a list with Letterboxed of all of the films that inspired him to make this movie. And if I may, I'm gonna read a few because oh Matt, Matty Matt, Matt, you you reached. I think you reached. Don't hate me. If of course, Matt Palmer's gonna listen to this episode and then I'm gonna cry about it. But like, sir, there is no way that Dario Argento's tenebre is your biggest Argento influence on prom Queen. I'm reading his notes currently. He says that that was his biggest inspiration for the murder set pieces. Okay, bud, let's chill out here. All right, let's relax. Another one. Black Christmas for the atmospherics and cinematography. Some moments, not all, that's a reach. Another one. Which this one I will agree is Sleepaway Camp. He says the heightened atmosphere of obsession and ultra catty dialogue were definite influences on Prom Queen. What do we think? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Okay, I can see it for sure.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

Okay. Because that one I alright, I'll give it to you. I'll give it to you. Next of Kin, I haven't seen this one, but he says is he's totally obsessed with it. It's a fevered dream intensity and gnawing darkness that is kind of like the vibe that sweeps the climax of Prom Queen, buddy. What what climax? I'm confused.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

He's got a few other ones like Reanimator. I know we just did that one, Basket Case. One that I personally took offense to was Blue Velvet, because although not a horror movie, but it is a horror movie to me. Um that that might have been a little bit of a reach. I say all of this to say that I think that these all of these films that he listed out are great. Like he's got some really, really great films, but where is this actual tangible inspiration in this movie that seems to me so barebones and like cookie cutter, you know? I don't see the height of the 70s and 80s horror films, some of the biggest classics in the genre, like very visible in this film. I could argue that maybe some of these speak more to the earlier, ironically, to the earlier Fierstreet films, but not so much to this one.

SPEAKER_03 29:48

Well, I've only seen a couple of the movies that you just referenced, so I'm gonna withhold my judgment. But there is something to be said about just Dario Agento in the first place, and I'm thinking about the original prom night, and that was very much a Giallo style slasher and just their approach to that. So I feel like if I went and cleansed my palate and re-watched this movie and looked for some production stills against those movies, I think I'm I'd be able to find it. There is a particular kill, and we'll put a pin in this and revisit this in the spoiler zone here in a moment, where when you say Black Christmas, there's one thing that jumps into my brain instantly, and it's the glass unicorn. And that again is a moment that feels very jello.

SPEAKER_00 30:32

If you were trying to go into this one as we've been talking about, going into this one, hoping for that continuity from the first three in the franchise, obviously we've been talking about it. That's not kind of like what this vibe is. This is something that's like a separate story from that stuff's, but I do think that the end of the movie, those final scenes, you know, the final con confrontation, if you will, I think is maybe the closest that we got to having any real fear or any kind of menacing type of suspense or tension in the movie because it felt like a complete tonal shift in the film.

SPEAKER_03 31:10

Yeah. And that's because this movie is less of a slow burn, more like a firecracker. That shit is quick, loud, and it's over before you know it. That tonal shift, I have more to talk about in the spoiler zone because there's a portion of it that I really love. There's a portion of it where I'm like, oh, okay, all right. This is the identity you're carving for yourself, and then there's something that's revealed later on where I'm like, no, back it up 10 paces and let's redo that. This movie wraps up, I will say, in a way that feels satisfying, if not a little bit rushed. I think we could have baked in some of this and restructured how this movie was told. But the final stretch of this movie, oh my gosh. I watched this live with our listeners in our Discord server, and I had ordered some groceries to be delivered. Okay. I ordered some ice cream and some other stuff. It got delivered, and I was like, okay, well, it'll be fine just sitting out there for a little bit later. And I think I got to the point in the movie where I was thinking, okay, this is nearing a close here. This must be over soon. Because again, this movie had this time warp in my brain where it felt like it was moving so quickly, but then also dragging at the same time. I was like, well, it feels like we've been here for an hour, 20. I fucking sent the message in the Discord server. I was like, hey, I'm gonna step out for just a second at the end of this movie to put my groceries away before my ice cream melts. And wouldn't you know it? 20 minutes. We had 20 minutes left in this movie still when I sent that message. Now, I think this does speak highly of the fact that I didn't feel the 20 minutes once we got into it because of how quickly everything moves and the way it escalates.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

That ice cream felt that 20 minutes, though.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

I did. That's what I was gonna say. What happened to the ice cream?

SPEAKER_03 32:58

I did have to join my own Chris Flicks live stream from my phone and actually go back and like watch it from my phone while I was putting groceries away.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

That's fair. You had to you had to adjust. But man, not for anything though, to realize that there's 20 minutes left of the movie and you're like, what the fuck? There's oh god, that's a that's not a fun feeling.

SPEAKER_03 33:21

It felt like it really isn't like the Bermuda Triangle. It felt like what the hell just happened in the last hour of my life that I have lost all sense of time. It feels like this is supposed to be over, not just because that's where the movie wants you to think it's over, not like that, but because the pacing was just so wild in this movie that I was just on a a time bend. It was bizarre.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

Well, it's funny because that you say the time bend, because I'm remembering, I mean, I watched this movie when I was about to hit the peak of pure like cold, really bad cold sickness. Like by the time I got out of work and I finally like settled in to watch this movie, I felt my body going through things and it's like, bitch, you're gonna get a mad cold Memorial Day weekend. And I did. So this was like the perfect test for is this movie really good to watch when you need a little cozy comfort slasher, you know, when you're not feeling well. And that ending felt kind of how this cold came upon me, you know. Like I started the day feeling, all right, I'm a little tired, but you know, I'll be all right. And by the end of the night, I felt like I got slammed with a brick in terms of like this cold that I got and and you know, feet this sickness. And the ending was somewhat like that. I felt like I've been watching this movie for what feels like an eternity, and nothing really interesting is happening, overtly interesting, you know, like aside from the basics. And then the ending hits, and sure, predictability here and there, why not? But it does get a little fun. I I will say that it gets fun. All right, I'm hooked, what's going on? And the next thing you know, I feel like I blinked and it's over. I'm like, this is the energy that I needed to get me through what I'm feeling the whole time. That's the pacing and like the fun and the like what's gonna happen next, and you know, that excitement that I felt in those last few moments. But it kind of sucks when it's like not at the proportion that you need it to be in terms of like a good story, you know, you want it to kind of like rev up slowly, but at a good pace, finish with like a good climactic ending. And I just felt like, yeah, wow, it's over now. And with like a little bit of clicheness too, like a little bit of like a one-liners that just didn't really hit the mark at the end.

SPEAKER_03 35:32

Once again, it sounds like you're describing bad sex. Damn it. You're right. Well, it sounds like this isn't going in the most optimistic direction, but I'm excited to see how this translates into some scores. Now, before we actually rate the film, Sean, how would you describe the gore score?

SPEAKER_00 35:48

I actually think the gore in this movie was pretty good. I enjoyed it. I think the predominant use of practical effects in this one is awesome to see, right? Also, like that's why the it's the approach of like how we're gonna utilize techniques to depict the time period that we're in. So this approach definitely helped to capture the essence of that classic 80s slasher vibe. Its approach with like the prosthetics, the makeup, the physical props, I think it helped to create some pretty gruesome scenes. And unfortunately, though, I think the editing, or maybe to what you were saying earlier, Chris, the pacing as well kind of took away from the impact of the gore. Because even though I feel like we did all these great things to deliver some gore, it just didn't impact in the way that it could have been and brought it into high territory. So I think because of that, it makes this film feel like it's gonna get a medium gore.

SPEAKER_03 36:42

And what about the animal report? No animals were hurt on prom night. Well, let's go ahead and get into our ratings. Fear Street Prom Queen from 2025. Was it a hack or a slash?

SPEAKER_01 36:53

I'll start us off because it's a fairly quick one. If you couldn't gather already, I feel like this movie, in summary, was all right. You know? It'll do. It's certainly not something that we should have waited this long for, I'll tell you that much, and far less is something that I feel belongs in the Fear Street franchise. I think we've all kind of, you know, expressed that sentiment in terms of it just not really standing out in the way that it should have stood out in this franchise. It feels like just another one of those Netflix horror films that they've just been dishing out lately, left and right. It's an all-right slasher, predictable, most certainly. You know, feels like you've seen one prom night horror film, you've seen them all, but I feel like there's other options that still would stand out in terms of excitement and thrills, despite what feels like a regurgitated subgenre of prom night, of the slasher, of you know, the girl the main female protagonist and maybe some bullying that goes on, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Right. I feel like this one just felt a little bit too bland. The characters don't stick out in the way that you would have hoped. You don't really get to champion anyone in the way that you would. And if you do, you don't spend enough time with them, unfortunately. And so ultimately it's just more bland and disappointing than it is great. And I will say, because I haven't maybe expressed it enough. When I first watched it, I was trying to give it a little bit more of a benefit of the doubt, having thought, okay, well, it's been a while since I've seen the other films. Maybe this isn't so bad. I am sick. So maybe is that knocking it down a notch and it's not being fair, I'm not being fair to it. But with each passing day, I feel a little bit more confident in my decision that this is unfortunately and disappointingly a hack.

SPEAKER_00 38:47

Yeah, I was actually really excited when I heard about this one coming out and then finding out that it was gonna be set in the 80s and it was gonna be called Prom Queen. I was pretty excited, I'm not gonna lie. And I really enjoyed the franchise leading up to this one, and I think this one definitely served up some good kills. I think if you're in the mood for some bloody over-the-top kills, this might scratch that itch for you. But beyond the kills, is there really much left? That's the problem, right? The story or the plot feels undercooked and barely holds these kills together. And I feel like the kills or the characters even, I feel like the characters are underdeveloped and forgettable. It just kind of fell flat and boring in that area. And I was also wondering how they were gonna tie this one into the franchise, because sadly, that's like the continuity is what I was looking for. Like, that's we talked about that maybe being a big disappointment for a lot of people going into this one. And so that was kind of a letdown for me. And ultimately, this prom queen tripped on its own dress and kind of fell face first into a fucking chainsaw because instead we get a film that feels like a rushed entry in a yearbook that nobody's really signing. So this one really shouldn't have made it past homeroom because this one is a fucking hack.

SPEAKER_03 40:07

Woo! Not the tripping on its own dress. Okay. I want to give a little context here. When I watched this movie, it was in our watch party in our Discord server. It was such a great time to watch it with people. There was some definitely some disappointments that we were sharing, and there's also some fun that we were having, and there was a lot of good and bad that was discussed about the movie. And I think overwhelmingly, being what you said, it was just it was alright, was the general vibe. Now I did watch this movie again because I watched Fear Street 1994 a few days ago, a few days prior, and then I watched 78, then I watched 66, then I watched this for the first time in the watch party, and then I was like, you know, I feel like I need to re-experience everything. So then I watched them 1994, 78, 1666, and then watched 1988 again. Now, this movie is certainly not the most polished entry in the Fear Street franchise, undoubtedly. If you had me rank this franchise again, I was struggling with thinking about where I would rank the first three, no matter what. Cavernous Hole, Bottomless Pit, Mariana Trench, and then Prom Queen. For sure. Like this is not gonna even come close to that. But what I can respect is that it's a fun, fast-paced teen slasher. It feels perfect for younger fans. I have younger relatives that I actually want to show this movie to, or really for anyone who's just starting out with horror, specifically because there's one kill that I know is gonna get attention, and I know that when enough time has passed, we're gonna see this kill dropped in memes, we're gonna see it dropped in social media clips. It's gonna circulate. It's not as iconic as anything we've gotten from Art the Clown. I know that there's been some buzz about that. I don't see that, but I do think there's a bit of dark comedy in this kill that I think is what this I think that's what this movie is gonna become known for. It doesn't have the emotional weight of the trilogy, but I think it does make up for it in style, energy, and a couple of memorable moments. I had a much better time watching this movie the second time when I could respect it for what it is instead of trying to love it for being something that it's not, and nor did it ever really try to be. So you can call me optimistic, you can call me generous, but I think it does enough to welcome newcomers into the genre and a new generation into horror, so it's still a slash for me. And with that, Fear Street Prong Queen from 2025 has earned two hacks and one slash. And I'm okay standing alone on this. Now, you can find this movie available on Netflix. You can also join the conversation in our Discord server for this film, which is linked down in the show notes below. But either way, check it out, then join us in the second half so we can dig into how it's connected to the greater Fear Street universe. Let's see you.

SPEAKER_00 43:15

This episode of Hagger Splash is brought to you by the Shadyside High class of 94 reunion committee. That's right, it's been 30 years since you roamed the cursed halls of Shadyside High, and if you're lucky, you might just make it out of this reunion alive. Join us in the newly renovated gymnasium and relive the gory slays, I mean glory days, with all your old classmates, or what's left of them. With complimentary corsages soaked in blood to honor the Shadyside High alumni that were murdered way back in '94, to blood resistant name tags just in case some shady shit happens. Again. You can't help but have a good time. Don't miss the DJ spinning all the deep cuts. Some of your favorite 90s hits like I Will Survive. We even have an exclusive raffle for one lucky alum to win a free one-way trip to the Shady Side Woods. Don't worry, we'll provide the flashlight, but the batteries are not included. Be sure and dress to kill, because it's formal with a chance of bloodshed. Free parking in the back behind the old science lab. Pay no attention to the flickering lights or the screaming. So whether you were prom royalty, a creepy mall kiosk worker, or just a background character in someone else's tragic backstory, we want you back for good. So dust off the old yearbook, say your goodbyes in advance, and RSVP today, because we may not all make it, but hey, at least the punch is killer. We truly do. And with really everything from throat slicing to disembowelment, from fucking severed limbs to face sawing and decapitations, there's gotta be some blunt force trauma worth talking about in this movie. So I gotta ask, which one of these kills are your yearbook worthy moments?

SPEAKER_03 45:34

Okay. I know that Binks and I will probably have the same kill, but fuck it. Because this is an item that I have used many times, and I want you to watch this movie and then imagine using this item on a boat in the middle of the ocean during high-speed turns. It's not safe, folks. Bobby getting his hands cut off, both of his fucking hands cut off with the paper cutter, with his little nubbins trying to open up the door. Comedic gold. Comedic gold.

SPEAKER_00 46:06

So fucking hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 46:08

The composition that we got when we got to see the slicing of the hands, and then even like just the little bloody stump with the watch. 10 out of 10. That's a little bit of what I could see from Jalo and Inspiration.

SPEAKER_00 46:21

I wish you just got more of that, you know?

SPEAKER_03 46:23

Oh, it definitely needed more. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 46:26

Listen, okay, that actually wasn't my favorite kill, but by God, I was laughing. And then I felt like shit because I was like, I almost feel like, should I not be laughing at this? Like, this is something, I don't know. I seemed a little fucked up. You know, I was like, oh geez, wait a minute. He doesn't have any hands, he should open this door. It's kind of crazy. The nubs, the nubs. And then I thought, like, ADA compliance, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:55

Seemed a little bit anticlimactic. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 46:59

Yes. And there were a few of those where like the face smashing, come on, what is this? Like, are we all Jason here? Like, I don't understand. I wasn't really too big of a fan. For me, though, mm, the favorite that I had was, I mean, of course, was Tiffany, only because fuck that bitch, but also because it just reminded me of like all of these I feel like I've seen that kill before, but in a way that I was like, loved it. And why is it escaping me though? I know I've got something right off the bat. It's from Black Christmas. Thank you. Black Christmas. There it is. Okay. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 47:35

I'm like, Well, there's your tie to Black Christmas.

SPEAKER_03 47:38

Well, he referenced the original.

SPEAKER_01 47:39

He put the original. Yeah, he put the original, not 2006. Okay, thank you. Because I'm I and I honestly, I was like, damn, I gotta look this up and see if I could try to remember where do I know this kill from? And I'm sure there's others, of course. We've seen the impalements, you know. One that actually came to mind was this movie Men from Alex Garland. There's a couple that are like in terms of falling, you know, landing on something sharp, but it was Black Christmas 2006 specifically because girly pops and thank you, because now it connected. But really, Tiffany, like, girl, you're a psycho. You had to go. And I kind of liked it. I kind of liked a good old, like, you know, stairwell.

SPEAKER_00 48:19

I mean, it was great that she fell on like a bronze falcon statue, too, because she's a falconer. You know what I mean? Yes. So that was kind of fun.

SPEAKER_03 48:27

There's some comedy there that I respect.

SPEAKER_00 48:29

Yeah. The comedy was well woven for sure. But outside of the comedy, one of the more I think closer to like a horror slasher non-comedy aspect was Linda's kill because, and it's also kind of one of my favorite scenes, also, but just the kill, just the way she was walking towards Bobby or whatever, and you know something isn't right, and you get that shot of her, and I knew her I knew it before I even saw it. I was like, her insides are coming out right now, like she's holding them, and she was. She was her insides were spilling out because she got fucking disemboweled. It was brutal, and there was just something about the way that she like walked up and approached Bobby. It just was a great moment, but the kill was also kind of brutal.

SPEAKER_03 49:08

Yeah, emerging from the shadows with your insides on your outside, it it looked so good. Now, there's a lot in this movie that did not look good, and I actually want to talk about my worst fucking kill of the movie, but that one in particular, incredible. I absolutely love that, and then to see that set the stage for Bobby and what's gonna come from with him with that paper cutter. Ooh, we have to take a moment though, because this movie should have been more gay, and it should have been more gay specifically between Megan and Christy. But no, I guess we don't want the gays this time. What the fuck? And now, listen, I know there's no evidence, there's no proof. Christy had an older boyfriend, whatever. But if you were seeing the eyes and the chemistry and the way they were looking at each other, there's something there, I assure you. But Christy in particular seemed like too sharp a girl, right? This rebellious nature, this entrepreneur, she's out here selling weed to everybody, she's robbing people blind from their car. She seemed too sharp to just stand there waiting to get struck, hearing those footsteps come up behind her. And that was several steps. That was a runway. That was like honestly, you expect the killer to fucking turn and just go back the other direction and just sachet a couple more fucking times. Not only that, but then the blood looked terrible when we first got that strike. The CGI blood in this movie was atrocious.

SPEAKER_01 50:42

Yeah, that was such an immense disappointment for all the things that you mentioned, and then some because it's gravel that you're walking on. You're gonna tell me that you don't hear it.

SPEAKER_00 50:53

Impossible.

SPEAKER_01 50:54

Several steps walking towards you, and you have no inclination to turn the motherfuck around. You have no sense of when someone's behind you at all. Like, okay, it's a slasher, so like, yeah, a little bit, but for that long? Here's my theory Barbie 2's coming out, okay. My girl's booked and busy. I think my girls booked and busy and uh just couldn't make a schedule, so they got rid of her quickly. She's the most popular girl of the cast. Well, she's the Drew Barrymore. Yeah, no, no, no. When you go Yeah, I completely agree. And it's still upsetting though.

SPEAKER_03 51:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:26

It's still upsetting.

SPEAKER_03 51:27

Listen, all I'm saying is we could have cast her in a role who dies first, and I'm not mad at that. But come on, guys, we couldn't keep Christy around a little bit longer. No, I get it. Even logically in the movie, it makes sense for Tiffany to take out her number one fucking competition first. I get it. Sure. But also, why? Couldn't you give Megan chemistry with literally anybody fucking else?

SPEAKER_00 51:53

Anybody. Listen, I think there's another kill that I wanted more out of, and I think it was Judd's. And even though we got the power saw to the side of his face, I feel like that could have been done a little bit better because it almost felt like it was too clean, you know, the way that it happened. The saw went into the side of his face, and I was waiting for more blood, didn't see enough blood. Could have thought if the blade just kind of went in and hit his eye, and we saw like blood rush to his eye and his eye pop or something like that, maybe a piece of his face, like some of the flesh kind of peeled off or got hacked up. Could have been more. Oh, could have been more.

SPEAKER_03 52:29

My problem with Judd's kill, despite how fun it is, and I'm all for it. I don't think it should have killed him. It seemed pretty superficial. It seemed like you should go into shock and then bleed out if left unattended. But with what was going in there, I feel like people have survived gnarlier accidents.

SPEAKER_00 52:46

Well, there's a lot of questions. There's a lot of questionable kills on this death toll. Like you've got people that just got like their leg chopped off, which you can definitely survive from if attended to quick enough. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 52:59

Yeah. But you know, hey, you know who's not coming back? Who I'm actually really fucking excited about. And I'm gonna go on a soapbox now, and I will go on the soapbox again later. And here I am standing up. Fuck Tyler. Fuck Tyler so hard. Okay. Here's one ounce, one moment, a brief connection of is this Tyler Torres related to the Ryan Torres, who was the skull-faced killer in 1994? They look nothing fucking alike, so unless they're cousins, maybe. But it does seem very specific that in the small town of Shady Side, knowing how small this community is, it feels like they shouldn't be reusing last names. It feels like there's enough there are enough names under the sun. We did get to see Nick Good's dad, the sheriff, in this movie. So we know that there's some precedence there. But fuck Tyler super hard. I'm so glad that he got taken out. I'm glad that he got taken out in such a brutal way. I absolutely could not stand that he was like painted to be this big romantic interest when, dude, you were problematic. I okay, fuck Tiffany, sure. But you were problematic. You had a girlfriend, and you're over here trying to swoon the girl that you've been best friends with. No, you're not best friends. You were friends, then you decided to be something that you're not. She stayed true to herself. So don't sit here and try to fucking woo her and uh try to jump ship now. No, you made your bed, fucking lay in it, be a decent person, and then break up with your girlfriend, and don't go to a fucking problem with her if you want to date somebody else. Don't do this whole I'm not gonna speak to you really in person, but I am gonna go back after the diner closes to get the Jackadaye left. Fuck you. Fuck you, and your stolen gladnesses. Sorry, I really did not like Tyler, and I was so glad he got high school horn dogs, you know.

SPEAKER_01 54:54

Listen, everything that you just said right now, I felt like if we could have just removed it and then put it in any situation that high school girls are going through right now, or quite frankly, maybe most women, period. It's applicable somehow. Everything that you just said.

SPEAKER_03 55:08

Yeah, okay. He what he wants to fucking take her to backstage, and then this is the guy. This is the guy who he fucking says, I know you're really close, but I just feel like she's gonna keep holding you back. Bro, what Megan has been her best friend for years, and you who have been dating her number one terrorist, you feel like Megan is holding her back? You are fucking scum. No.

SPEAKER_01 55:37

Listen, this is just a message and a PSA to women. Love yourself more than this. Because how dare that man, that little boy, he deserved that stabbing on the top of that head without a doubt. Yeah. Without a goddamn doubt. Don't put those bros before your hose. Never, never, and if he wants to take you backstage, you know what I'm saying? Don't let him. Don't let him.

SPEAKER_00 55:59

Can I just say though, outside of the kills, the fucking soundtrack to this movie was a fucking banger. Like it was bang, it was banger after banger after banger. I mean, you've got fucking Billy Idol, Judas Priest, Ricky fucking Astley, uh, the Eurythmics, Duran Duran, fucking power glove. I mean, come on, right? Like the soundtrack hit for this movie, and man, I just had a great time with it.

SPEAKER_03 56:27

Yeah, there's something to be said about both the score and the soundtrack and the way they go together. I think they're incredible. Too many people are out here complaining about the soundtrack. Yeah, listen, guys, sorry, they could afford the budget. Now, I do think they should have spent their money differently. I think we could have not hired Christy. I think we could have spent less on quite a few less bangers of songs to be able to put that into some more practical effects or restructuring the film in some way. But of all the things wrong with this film, y'all want to complain that the music is too good, that it hits too hard? Come on.

SPEAKER_01 57:01

Well, so here's my thing, because I agree. And I love 80s music, I fucking love Eurythmix, Anne Lennox, and you know, getting Rick rolled and all. But my thought is that they definitely leaned a little bit too into the fact that they know that that soundtrack is gonna be fire to compensate over the basicness of this movie, you know? They're like, well, the plots, you know, pretty bland. So it's smoke and mirrors.

SPEAKER_00 57:26

It's smoking mirrors, soundtrack, you know.

SPEAKER_01 57:30

Let's put some fire bangers, you know, let's do the needle drops one after the other, and they're never gonna notice that you've seen this movie before. And that's what it felt like. I think that that's people's complaint. However, we talked about it earlier, right? It is fucking great though, along with a lot of other things in this production. Costume design loved it, honestly. Set design, it was great. It felt like a clap, like it felt really true. I I don't fucking know. I wasn't I wasn't born in the 80s, right? But like I felt like they really made use of a high school, of you know, of that cafeteria or that gym and its prom.

SPEAKER_00 58:04

And it felt like it was Yeah, visually this movie felt really honest for true.

SPEAKER_01 58:09

Yeah, exactly. It felt honest. Whereas it didn't feel like this is some like made up created stage, you know, like we can kind of tell, like, all right, they're using bits and pieces of maybe some different, you know, schools or office buildings to make up. It felt like this is one central piece. We're really living in it, we're going into the basement, we're going into, you know, these, you know, what I would assume like actual high schools look like. I went to a high school that was next to a fucking ballys fitness, all right? Like I I don't know what a real, like massive high school truly feels like. And this made me feel like, damn, I would like to go to this high school for just off the premise of like it it feels traditional.

SPEAKER_03 58:44

Yeah. You know what I want to look at though? This is Shady Side High. And this is Shady Side High only six years before the 1994 film. And it didn't feel like the same high school. Nah, because they don't give a fuck.

SPEAKER_01 58:59

They spent that money on the soundtrack. And here's the thing, and Lily Taylor and you know, they might have given a couple fucks.

SPEAKER_03 59:05

They might have given a couple fucks. It just it again, it didn't feel like the same to me. However, uh I want to do again like a side-by-side comparison where I look at like the interior school scenes from 1994 versus the interior school scenes of Prong Queen, and I want to see if there's enough similarity and overlap to make it feel like they at least took that into consideration. Because if they did, then this movie gets even more credit. Obviously, it's gonna feel different because we have supreme 80s vibes with then smack dab in the middle of the 90s when everything's a little bit grungier. I know that they're gonna they should feel different, but I mean, even the internal layout for only being six years apart, my high school looks exactly the same as it did in 2008. So I feel like there's some stuff that they can really pay more close mind to. But one thing that I do want to go on a little bit about is the killer's design. I personally enjoyed it. It was a mix of the killer from the Scream Queen TV series, meets I know what you did last summer, like the slicker coat. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:11

I was getting the slicker coat, obviously.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:13

Maybe a little bit of a haunt. Meets the 2019 Black Christmas specifically because of the mask. And that mask I was obsessed with in Black Christmas because it was designed after an actual contraption that society and men used to put on women to silence them. It didn't look exactly the same. In Black Christmas, yeah, that was again that was another layered part of that 2019 remake. But I really liked this killer's design.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:39

Okay, but hear me out. I think my problem is that you had to mash up so many films to kind of describe what this look was, and so to me, it just feels like I'm getting lost. It doesn't really stand out in the way that you would imagine it would. It just looks like some guy got a red trench coat and his mask is dirty. Whoa. I think like again, well, I say dirty because when I saw it, I was like, I it it seemed a little unclear to me at first what it actually looked like. I liked the red. I liked the trench coat. Definitely agree with you in terms of like, I know you did last summer kind of vibe, right? But the actual mask, the face itself, it felt a little unclear. It almost felt like um, you know, like fencers, how they have like that mesh over that. That's what I thought it was at first, to be honest. It seemed a little odd. It's it almost seemed a little too revealing, but then I realized, oh no, that's not like someone's face behind a mesh, like that's an actual mask. Then I was like, all right, now I'm a little like uncertain how I feel about it.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:42

Yeah. To be clear, I don't feel like I had to describe all these things just to describe what this costume looks like. I think that there's a lot of beauty in its simplicity, but what I do love is that this killer's design gave me reminders of those, like little nods, little doses of inspiration. And I really enjoyed it. Now, this guy in a red coat stands out like a fucking sore thumb on a property.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:09

Yeah, you see this guy fucking coming from a mile away.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:12

But I'm into it. I'm so into it. Now, one of the things that I love most actually is when we see that red coat sticking out like a sore thumb, when he goes right into the prom and starts messing people up. It is it has become a little anticlimactic because I feel like we should have gotten more bloodshed. But when we have this this chase, and we have Lori and Megan trying to get to the prom to warn everybody, then the killer is just barreling in and just cutting off legs and decapitating heads from bodies. Holy shit! What a great moment! I wish it lasted longer, but that in general, that section of like Megan and Lori figuring out what's going on and then fighting their way to each other, and then we have that eruption of violence. I loved it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:04

Yeah, I mean, even Megan and Lori like in the basement section, right? Like that was a great moment as well. The lighting of the killer coming through with the axe in the door and the lighting come from behind the door as he's like axing through the fucking door, it just was a grid that was added to that whole thing, right? That scene was awesome, it was cool. And Megan as a whole just had some really funny scenes. I mean, even the scene where she fake chops her hand off to prank the whole classroom was hilarious. It was great. And I've done some stupid shit in class. Like I've literally shown up to a lab class to cook breakfast, you know, on the uh I brought a pan and everything to cook breakfast during the whole fucking lecture, and you know, I've been sent to the dean's office probably more times than I can count for stupid shit like that. Never tried to chop my own hand off. I've played drums in the middle of class, I've cooked breakfast in the middle of class, but I've definitely not chopped a limb off.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:58

You know what that reminds me of? I'm sorry, I just got caught by the fact that you were making breakfast in the class. Okay. You remember that movie Summer School?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:07

Where these two guys are like pranking everybody and then like pretend there's like these vicious murders in the middle of their class? Yeah, that's what you just reminded me of. Can we just agree that Megan most likely smells like funions?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:20

Like bunions?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:22

Do we feel that? Like she smells like like weed and funyions.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:25

I mean Damn. That's a that's hilarious. I don't know, maybe Savage. I suppose. Is it because she's eating a lot of funions?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:35

She's smoking and she looks a little bit like she's into the funyions.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:40

You know, flaming hot funions. Those are good. That is a it is a distinct odor, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:46

Pungent odor. Man, she's getting cooked. We were just singing her praises a moment ago. She's a saying fuck you, Tyler.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:54

But now she smells like funions.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:56

Listen, I think it's credit to her for really living in the role. And for them making me feel like this is like she smells like funions. Maybe. Maybe.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:07

I can't. I can't. Listen, I will say, and I actually hinted a moment ago, my one of my favorite scenes, it's a little bit tied, but one of my favorite scenes was the audacity to get Rick rolled by this movie. I was like, you know, I should have seen this coming, but I didn't expect it. And so good for them to hit me with a little bit, never gonna give you a that's a banger. Right? It is never gonna let you down. But here's the other one. It's the audacity and the gall to have a dance off. Okay. Dance off. Motherfucking dance off. What in the bring it on all or nothing or save the land? Step up. What it was literally the following it was step up three, because specifically, right? Specifically, it was bring it on all or nothing, Hayden Panettier, with what she thought was her busting out a move and And we all know in internet lore, she did not. And then most famously, the like the cherry on top, the queen, Julia Stiles in Save the Last Dance, who also swore on God that she fucking killed it on that stage. And she did not. That was Tiffany in all of that dance off. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:19

Yikes. Yikes.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:21

Girlie pop. It was hilarious. Oh, it was funny. It was so cringe. I again I've mentioned it before, like Nathan Fielder, that kind of cringe. If you know, you know. Like it's the kind of cringe where you makes you want to rip your skin off. That might have single-handedly cured me of my cold because of how cringe it was.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:36

Okay. But can we also appreciate how Nancy, her mom, was literally cringing in the background? Also, also, Nancy and I were one. She was iconic this whole fucking movie. Because even when, again, fuck Tyler, even when she sits down casually in the bat at the table and says just a few innocent little ticks to submit votes for her own daughter, and then sees Tyler moving in on Lori, hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. Can I give a shout out to one more scene though? This is again not the best moment of the film, but as we get into the third act, as we get into then the climax of the movie, and when all the tables are turning, we already had the reveal that Tiffany's mom was in on it. Can we talk about the fact that there was yet again a Lori hiding from a killer in a closet? A killer with a knife.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:31

And this time the killer was in there with her. And I just love again this overlap because Jamie Lee Curtis starred in prom night. We have Lori starring in prom night, a movie that takes place on a prom night, and then it's specifically that style of closet. Ah, the slats. It was just so good.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:50

The accordion type.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:51

Yeah, this movie knew what it was fucking doing. It was pandering to me specifically. I was pandered to, I was serviced. It's fine.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:58

Yeah, it's good. But also, just to talk more about I guess leading up to that scene or during that whole sequence, right? But it was the mom being home and like how evil was she, man. Like, like I was waiting for everything throughout the movie. I was waiting for some kind of like actual intensity. And and the way that she was like her, she was selling it without saying anything. Her eyes, her facial expression, and dragging that fucking knife up the staircase was fucking like, I was like, okay, all right, Mrs. Falcon. I'm with you. I got you. I you yeah, I'm into it.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:34

I wish that that kind of energy had been throughout because I also just didn't expect it from that actress. I just know her from the Fantastic Beasts. She's like the love interest of that franchise, right? So it's like, okay, she I'm used to her being like sweet and you know, like a particular, like down-to-earth, very honest, very earnest character. I I don't really I'm not familiar with any of her other work in truth. So I'm like, okay, she's playing like someone that's like obviously not great or definitely like weird and annoying to an extent of like a mother parent figure, right? But when she does have that knife and she's like going up those stairs, I was like, oh, you see, this is the kind of like this is the thriller suspense, like, oh shit, I'm a little nervous for you, girl, that I had thought was gonna happen from our killer. Well, I guess obviously revealed that's the killer, but you know, like I wanted that kind of energy and that tense energy from the antagonist before it was revealed who they are.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:31

Yeah. There was a lot really there to consider about the killers in particular. She had a great energy, she was very menacing. Tiffany's actress, I actually don't mind at all. I think she was super unhinged, and there's something about her that like doesn't really shine for me completely. Like when I think about her versus her mom, I almost like the way she went out more than I liked her mom, but I felt like her mom had the better gravity and presence. It's interesting that in the book variation of this by R.L. Stein, there's only one killer, and it's the prom queen herself. So this is kind of the layer of the family is interesting, but here's my problem their motive is just it's a bad plan.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:15

It felt like a team scream, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:17

Yeah. It did feel like a team of scream, but can we talk about the logistics here? And this is again where I think this movie what they did with having Christy killed off the day before, and then she gets disqualified because she no-showed it at school. That I get. Okay. Sure. If the killers had picked off the prom queens prior to prom night, that'd be one thing. But instead, it's like they know they're gonna pick them off and they wait to do it until the night of the dance. But the voting's already happening. They're qualified to be in the race. So how could they possibly then guarantee that Tiffany would win? Like, where are you gonna come back from this? You know, where are you really really let's think this through. What's really gonna be?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:01

Yeah, the motives, yeah. The motives, just like everything else with the characters, I feel like though, it just nothing's really flushed out. Like it just not nothing really feels concrete enough.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:11

Yeah, now the layers of Nancy really doing a lot of this to a make sure that Tiffany wins, sure, but be more so to kill Lori because she harbors this like hate because of her ex-boyfriend or her ex-situation ship, perhaps. There's a lot there, and I feel like it kind of muddies the water. But again, if we wanted to really win Prom Queen, I feel like we should have started a lot sooner in the night.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:39

Yeah, you definitely should have started sooner. But yeah, just talking about the three of them too. I mean, the biggest comedic aspect for me, and I don't even know if it was intentional or not, was the choice to make you know Chris Klein or the dad, aka Dusty Fucking Dinkleman, to be like this killer, you know what I mean? Because I don't know, man. It just seemed a little bit silly, and maybe that was the point, but I wasn't buying him being like the guy that killed probably most of the people in the early part of the Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:08

I want to go back and retrace this movie and try to do what you can do with Scream where you try to predict if it was Stu or Billy killing someone at a certain time.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:16

Try to figure it out, yeah. Yeah, yeah, it was funny. But I know we talked about Judd a little bit too, but I also just want to know what the fuck, Judd, you really stole your own mom's necklace to give to your girlfriend in high school?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:30

Judd's a fucking loser.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:32

Who does that?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:34

No one does that.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:35

No one good. I honestly feel like a lot of the guys in this movie just screw loose. They're just not they're not great, folks. They're not great. And even, I mean, the females as well, it's just like they're really not up to par. We've one of the best ones smells like funyans, apparently. So, you know, it's just like what are we left with, you know? What are we really earnestly left with? Thinking about it also, because I certainly haven't brought her up enough. I mentioned her once, Lily Taylor being in this movie. Yeah, and she's just like some extremely strict, you know, principal or sister principal, whatever. The point being that what was she really supposed to represent? And if it was a red herring. Yeah, wow. What? Really? Because shitty.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:24

Very authoritarian. I think she's supposed to be Carrie White's mom in this movie, mixed with like a Miss Mee from Greece.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:33

There goes, folks. Put the bingo. Greece is mentioned. No, I got the Carrie part, and that's the part that's annoying because it's so obvious. It felt a little too forced. The whole red herring and the Carrie analogy, and like that's their way of throwing that in there. But ultimately, it also was like, I don't, it wasn't too realistic for me either, though. Despite that, it I didn't really buy it enough. So my options, once again, are very limited. Not that, folks, for the love of God, if it's not clear enough, like this is not the movie to be like shocked by the reveal. Like it just certainly isn't. But uh it's more where I'm coming from is more so like the talent, right? Like I felt like the the dialogue and the lines given to Lily Taylor just wasn't really enough. It felt like so cliche, very generic once again, down to even like a stereotypical, like, okay, you are the authoritarian, like sinful, this is all sinful person. Like, when what's really happening that's so insane here, to your knowledge?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:35

I would be curious to know if it came down to budget.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:38

Could you never know?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:39

Yeah, monitor some things, you know, think about um how much you can really get out of folks. Okay. I agree with you that Lily Taylor was perhaps underutilized. She does serve as one of many red herrings because I think as you go through this movie, if you're trying to follow a classic who done it kind of vibe, then you have to look out for okay, the killer must know their way around the school to be able to find all these places. Who would be familiar with that? A student or someone who works at the school. Okay, and we have Tiffany's parents, maybe, but then they show them periodically at the dance, and you have the assistant principal who disappears for a while, you have even the principal himself who disappears for a while, you have the creepy janitor who's watching them at the movie theater. It's not effective. Like it's very easy to figure out who these killers are, but they do make an effort to point you in another direction. I would like to follow in their shoes and redirect and distract you with some better characters, and that was uh the MVP of the movie, Harmony La Fay. Harmony Harmony La Fay carried this movie on her shoulders. Yeah, she probably had between two to three minutes of screen time. Sure. But she carried the cast with commitment. She delivered. And my headcanon is that she grows up to be one of the news anchors who's reporting in 1994 in the original trilogy. Now I went back, because remember, I rewatched it. No, it doesn't line up. One, the fucking math isn't there. She's not graduating high school, then six years later, gonna be anchoring in the evening news. But even if let's say maybe she could, because she seems pretty good at her job, and she seems to have a thick skin and really just has the gumption to get there, the women look completely different. There is one scene, and that is, I believe, in 1978, where Ziggy is watching the news in present day, and there is they shot of Kate and Simon on the TV, and you can hear the voiceover of an anchor, and it does not sound, at least to me, like the same anchor that we saw earlier in the movie. That could be Harmony Lefe, right there. In my mind, that's who that is. Boom.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:50

You never know. That's where she fits. Yeah. Harmony LeFay. Alright.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:53

Eat a dick. She stole her whole fucking moment at the end of this. She said, Not only will I give you a comment, I will tell you the whole fucking story.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:01

I mean, I I like that we're trying to fish some ties to the rest of the franchise, you know, because there's only so few of them in the movie, right? Like, there was the whole like writing Seraphere's name on the bathroom stall wall. Like, there was that little Easter egg there that was kind of cool. But it leads me to really wanting to know what you all thought about the mid-credit scene. Okay. Because obviously that is a direct tie to the franchise. And I don't know after everything we had witnessed if we actually needed it, and I don't know if it helped it at all.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:35

Yeah, wait. I was gonna save this for the worst part of the movie. Wait, you didn't see it, Binks. What? You shut that shit off. You shut that shit off. I sure did.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:44

You shut that shit off.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:46

I sure as fuck did. Oh, whoa, this has never happened to me.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:50

Okay, all right. Would you like me to tell you what it is as opposed to just Yeah, fuck it tell me for the listeners? No, no, no, no, fuck it tell me. Spoiler. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright. So Nancy, she's dying, she's dead, she's bleeding out. The mid-credit scene cuts back to Nancy dead on the floor, and from her head bleeds the same rune symbol that is like the symbol of the witch that is carved in 1666. And that is like the map that you see in 1978.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:21

Huh, what the audacity and the fucking nerve of this man?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:26

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:27

That's that's his Hail Mary? That right there? A mid-credit scene? Okay. Matt Palmer, don't let me catch you on the street, dog.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:35

Okay. I'm going to. Again, this was my worst part of the movie. So I will just fucking rip the band-aid off right now. This shit made no fucking sense. Because again, when we go into this movie, we're given the context. Okay, this is it takes place in the same universe. Obviously, Seraphere is still a thing, but this isn't directly related to that. This is just like about the greater shady side. And sometimes evil shit happens, and sometimes people are fucked up. Okay, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. However, why the fuck did we add this symbol? Because okay, a few possibilities. Was she possessed in some way, or maybe uh her husband was possessed? That's a possibility. Or it just could be there's like a dark spirit that's influencing it. Here's the fucking problem though. If she is possessed, then her name should be on the stone. And it's like, okay, maybe her name is somewhere there on that stone as a name that's been sacrificed by Sheriff Good, who again we already saw in the movie. However, fucking of course I went when I went back and watched it, I paid close attention. Whose name is there a name between Thomas Slater from 1978 and Ryan Torres from 1994? Because if they just show Ryan Torres' name, then all bets are off. Like there's room there where they could have created a Nancy Falconer. But no, it goes straight from Thomas Slater to Ryan Torres. She is not an official sacrifice by the good family, she is not one of the shady side killers. So we know that. But then on the other side of it, maybe she's influenced by just the dark supernatural powers. Sure. Except Seraphir wasn't fucking evil. Like the whole fucking trilogy is about how Seraphir's not fucking evil. Yeah. And the real curse here, it's like they lost the fucking plot. And this is it's infuriating because again, you could have had a fine standalone element, and I know I'm ranting here, I'm so sorry. But you could have had a well enough alone story. Why did you add that symbol?

SPEAKER_01 1:20:39

Because this film, I was gonna say, the director again, I'm not gonna be such a savage anymore, but it's just like because this film is grabbing its draws, it's just trying to do whatever it can to be something unique when it just fucking isn't. When it just isn't, okay? Like, own it. Own the fact that you're not original, that you are just trying to be super cool and hip with all of your references to some great, you know, like be horrors and 80s horrors that are, you know, talked about by many, many cinephiles like us. And it's just not visible, bro. It's not. You sound like every film bro that really wants to make a unique, cool movie that Netflix bought out, and it just turns out to be a basic ass film. Point blank, period. But hey, what I will give him flowers for is whoever the fuck he hired to put the music in the movie, because that's the best part of the movie. And I don't care if it's just as basic as the rest of it. You can never say no to 80s music.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:41

It's one of the best parts for sure. I also think, man, just you know, even just the way the movie looked, and I think the kills is probably one of the better parts of the movie as well, because even though it could have been gorier, they were still fun, and I still had a good time with a lot of the kills, so could have gotten more, but I think it's still one of the better aspects of the film.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:01

You know, if I had to really just eject all over the worst part of this movie so soon, I'm gonna at least take a step back here and acknowledge a couple shining spots in the movie. Shining stars. That was Spider. Good for Spider for having the courage to approach Mr. Falconer and detaining him. And again, Melissa's date. These young boys went and detained a whole ass killer on the stage and got his axe away from him. Good for them. Also, Melissa, played by Ella Rubin, who starred in Until Dawn. I thought she was phenomenal in this movie, and I actually love the nuance of her character. I really enjoyed her being this girl who's in the crowd, but you can see that she has her own moral compass, and maybe she's trying to work up like how do I stand up for myself? How do I how do I stand my ground? And she chooses to be a good person or to be kind to Lori, and that is the kind of I'm gonna come around energy that we needed from Tyler, except for him just trying to fucking get in instead of him just trying to get into her pants. So I enjoyed Melissa, she was fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:08

But you know, even with the disappointments, I still will probably give this one at least one more shake. I feel like I I want to do a franchise binge. I didn't get to do that leading up to this one. I just didn't have the time to invest in watching all three of the first movies before going into this one, and even though they're not even, you know, the continuity isn't really there, I still would probably get through watching all four of them, and then after that, who knows, it might just that might just drop off and it just becomes the OG 3.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:41

Yeah, I'm with you on that one. Like I said, I haven't re-watched the originals since they came out, so it's been a fucking hot minute. So obviously seeing clips and stuff, so I I'm familiar with what happened, but it's been a while since I've sat and just binged the whole thing. So I'm gonna do that and then I'll throw this one on. Maybe I'll watch it with someone who hasn't seen it yet, because it's a passive film. You know, I I'll throw it on to have it on and it won't kill me. So for sure we'll rewatch.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:08

Yeah. Really look forward to watching this movie again as much as I've shit on it, because I am really enjoying the experience of the whole Fear Street binge. I just completed it, so I'm not gonna watch it anytime soon. But actually, no, no, maybe in October. Maybe in October I'll get along too. I really want to get Allie and her son to watch these movies, although I guess 1978 would be inappropriate to show a young boy of twelve. But hey. But hey. It's a fun movie to watch with a group. It's a great bridge into slashers, it's the kind of movie that I would feel comfortable to share with someone as I'm trying to help them navigate their way into the slasher genre. Because the reality is the slashers I fell in love with, the ones from the 80s that I grew up with. If I show that to a younger person today, they're probably not gonna bite. If I show it to someone who's an adult who just is not into horror movies at all or is coming around, I mean they might not bite. They might think it's a little bit boring. And so that's where I think movies like Fear Street Prom Queen need to exist. So, hey, for now, there you have it, folks. Fear Street Prom Queen has earned two hacks and one slash. Now we've certainly had a robust discussion here, but the conversation doesn't end here by any means.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:25

Yeah, if you want to find out how you can get to the after party from this prom, consider supporting the show by visiting patreon.com slash hacker slash.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:33

And if you loved being our prom date, leave us a five star review wherever you get your podcasts. This helps us to continue to deliver great content for all you horror fiends out there.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:42

We'll see you next time, folks. And remember, whatever happens tonight, I'm proud of you, and don't fuck it up.