When it comes to watching new movies with one’s Netflix subscription, results can vary between what originals are absolutely worth checking out and which ones are definitely not. Among 2025’s Netflix releases, there was the very heartfelt and loved Nonnas from earlier this month, as well as The Life List and The Electric State earlier this year, which landed differently with critics vs. audiences. However, one new horror movie that we’ve been excited for is sadly getting an almost universal thumbs down.
Fear Street: Prom Queen Has A Really Low Rotten Tomatoes Score
Fear Street is a nostalgic book series from R.L. Stine, which has been published by the Goosebumps author for a young adult audience since 1989. Back in 2021, the series was adapted by Netflix in the form of a trilogy of films that were released throughout the summer, and all of them were home runs as far as both critics and audiences were concerned. However, the latest installment is getting a different reception.
Rotten Tomatoes, which averages reviews from critics and ratings from users into a score where 100% is a masterpiece and 19% is the 2019 Cats movie, has deemed Fear Street: Prom Queen “Rotten” with two rather low scores. Its Tomatometer score, based on 38 reviews, is currently at 32%, while the Popcornmeter score based on audiences is at 36%.
When looking at the reviews on RT, it’s being called “stiffly acted” by IGN, “a shallow imitation of its predecessors” by ComicBook, and “empty-headed” by RogerEbert.com.
And Yet, It’s Already No. 1 On Netflix
It’s a real bummer, especially after our Fear Street Part 3: 1666 review noted that it had ended the series on a high note with a 4.5 out of 5 stars. However, despite all the bad word-of-mouth over Fear Street: Prom Queen, it’s being watched a lot in its first weekend, considering it currently sits at No. 1 in the U.S. top ten movies on the streaming service.
The movie is set in the year 1988 at Shadyside High during Prom season, where a mysterious masked killer begins to target candidates for the prom queen title on the night of the big dance. It mainly stars a group of newcomer cast members, but Barbie’s Ariana Greenblatt, Lili Taylor and Katherine Waterston are among the cast.
The stat shows that a lot of people have been excited to tune into the latest Fear Street movie, but chances are, most won’t likely be coming out of it very impressed. We already caught an easter egg to tie back to the trilogy when the trailer came out, but the movie that was filmed last spring has a lot of different creatives behind it, and clearly doesn’t hit the same as the prior installments.
However, you can reach your own verdict on this matter by watching the horror flick on Netflix.
