Fear Street: Prom Queen (2025)

Streaming Service: Netflix
Movie Name/Year:  Fear Street: Prom Queen (2025)
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Length:  1h 30min
Rating: R
Director: Matt Palmer
Writers: Matt Palmer, Donald McLeary, R.L. Stine
Based On: Fear Street book series by R.L. Stine
Actors: India Fowler, Suzanna Son, Fina Strazza, Katherine Waterston, Lili Taylor, Chris Klein, Ariana Greenblatt, David Iacono, Darrin Baker, Ella Rubin, Rebecca Ablack, Ilan O'Driscoll, Ryan Rosery, Damian Romeo, Dakota Taylor, Luke Kimball, Eden Summer Gilmore, Brennan Clost, Cecilia Lee, Joseph Chiu, Tom Keat, Dale Whibley, Christopher B. MacCabe, Joanne Boland, J.D. Nicholsen, Colin Platt, Alexander Eling, Jai Jai Jones

IMDb Blurb: When the "it" girls competing for prom queen at Shadyside High start to disappear, a gutsy outsider discovers she's in for one hell of a prom night.

Cat’s Point of View:
On the heels of taking a look at the Fear Street trilogy, it was only natural for us to bring you a review for the latest installment of book adaptations from R.L. Stine’s Fear Street series.

Fear Street: Prom Queen took place on the Shadyside timeline between the 1978 camp massacre and the 1994 events. Sara Fier’s curse was still in full effect during the events of this teen slasher – though it wasn’t the focus of this story, as it was in the trilogy.

This movie was quite the trip through nostalgia for me. Thankfully, it wasn’t the blood, guts, and trauma. The big hair that defied gravity with aid from copious amounts of hairspray, the fashion, and the idioms of the time were spot-on. It was like I was back in 1988 again for a little while. I had a real laugh out loud moment when I heard the phrase “gag me with a spoon!” (That was a real saying back in the day. I might have said it a time or two…or three.)

Fear Street: Prom Queen both played with familiar horror tropes and teen slasher camp, and offered us something new. It was a love letter to movies like I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Scream (1996), and Carrie (1976)… sort of put through a blender with Mean Girls (2004). I wasn’t mad at it, either.

I really enjoyed a few of the inventive kills by the red-raincoat slasher. The heavy-duty paper cutter desk machete was a brilliant murder tool. A hint of that was shown in the trailers and it was something that actually got me excited for the movie, and interested in new twists and turns were in store. Seriously, every kid has looked sideways at that dangerous contraption because we know that thing is capable of taking off fingers… or more.

We do need to address the proverbial elephant in the room, however. Fear Street: Prom Queen has gotten some rather low ratings across the board. A lot of the key complaints focused on character building and having enough to invest us in the plight of the characters.

I feel like Prom Queen suffered by comparison to the trilogy from 2021. There were 3 whole movies where we got to know those characters and what they were going through, with whole movies devoted to back-story. Prom Queen focused on new characters that weren’t featured in the trilogy, so we were having to glean info on the fly rather than having all the details spoon-fed over multiple installments.
Personally, I thought that the balance was fine between the current events of the film and flashes of background. There were breadcrumbs to follow. I fell for a couple red herrings along the way. The twist was fantastic and had me palming my forehead.

This was a solid offering for a retro teen slasher. The acting was good, the killings unhinged, and it was a generally accurate time capsule for the era it depicted. If this sort of thing is your cup of tea, or maybe rather spiked punch, I’d encourage you to give it a try.

Fans of Stine’s Fear Street series do have at least 2 more films to look forward to, according to R.L. Stine’s interview with The Hollywood Reporter. I can’t wait to see which one’s next.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 28%
Rotten Tomatoes Popcorn Meter Score – 24%
Metascore – 41%
Metacritic User Score – 4.3/10
IMDB Score – 5.1/10

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3.5/5

Movie Trailer:

Fear Street: Part Two - 1978 (2021)

Streaming Service: Netflix
Movie Name/Year: Fear Street: Part Two - 1978 (2021)
Genre: Horror, Drama, Mystery
Length: 1h 49min
Rating: R
Director: Leigh Janiak
Writer: Leigh Janiak, Zak Olkewicz, Phil Graziadei, R.L. Stine
Actors: Gillian Jacobs, Kiana Madeira, Benjamin Flores Jr., Olivia Scott Welch, Sadie Sink, Brandon Spink, Chiara Aurelia, Marcelle LeBlanc, Eden Campbell, Ted Sutherland, Michael Provost, Drew Scheid, Emily Rudd, McCabe Slye, Jordana Spiro, Ashley Zukerman
 
Blurb from IMDb: Shadyside, 1978. School's out for summer and the activities at Camp Nightwing are about to begin. But when another Shadysider is possessed with the urge to kill, the fun in the sun becomes a gruesome fight for survival.

 
Selina's Point of View:
We're catching up on the Fear Street movies we missed, so expect part three next week. Cat and I discussed it, and we couldn't believe we had skipped reviewing these. It was an easy choice to fix that oversight. R.L. Stine was childhood for both of us.
 
It was a great idea for the three parts to be released in the same month, since two and three start where the last left off. It keeps the movies fresh in the mind of audiences. When there's a situation like this, where it all leads into each other, this should be common practice. Think about how much better it would have been to watch something like The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014) at the beginning of the month and then The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015) at the end of the same month if they'd come out the way the first three Fear Streets did. There could have been special showings where theaters put them back-to-back with a short intermission for bathroom breaks. I would have paid out the nose for that.
 

But I digress.
 
Like in the first part, Fear Street felt nostalgic. It followed all the horror movie rules that we once had laid out for us in Scream (1996), and it had the familiar setting that we saw in Friday the 13th. It also has that distinct R.L. Stine flair to it, though I'm sure the movie took liberties with the original material.
 
I did like part one a little better, though not enough to make a difference. They're on equal footing with story, and slightly campy acting, but the kills in part one were much more creative. Part two was bloodier though. It depends what you want from your slasher flick.
 
I look forward to seeing how the third movie ties in, and if there actually is an end to Sara Fier. R.L. Stine's endings aren't always happy. That makes it a little difficult to predict.
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 88%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 81%
Metascore – 61%
Metacritic User Score – 7.0
IMDB Score – 6.7/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina's Rating – 3.5/5
 
P.S. Don't look at the IMDb page before watching the movie, it spoils something.
 
Movie Trailer:

Benny Loves You (2019)

 

 

Movie Name/Year: Benny Loves You (2019)

Genre: Comedy, Horror, Thriller

Length:  1h 34min

Rating: TV-MA

Director: Karl Holt

Writers: Karl Holt

Actors: Anthony Styles, Bella Munday, Claire Cartwright, Darren Benedict, David Wayman, George Collie, James Parsons, Jennifer Healy, Karl Holt, Lydia Hourihan

 

IMDb Blurb: Jack, a man desperate to improve his life throws away his beloved childhood plush, Benny. It's a move that has disastrous consequences when Benny springs to life with deadly intentions.

 

 

Cat’s Point of View:

I ran across Benny Loves You one day while searching for something to watch with my daughter and their significant other, and immediately knew this movie would either be awesomely bad or horribly bad. There wasn’t going to be any in-between there. Watching the trailer pretty much sealed the deal that we needed to watch this fresh take on what appeared to be murderous muppets immediately. I was crossing my fingers that it would fall squarely into the “so-bad-its-good” category.

I am happy to advise that I haven’t laughed so hard in quite a while. It was worth every moment of face-palming and eye-rolling that came with the experience as a package deal (and there weren’t too many, really). 

 

Benny Loves You is another wonderful example of a film experience where the creator knew exactly how bonkers their concept and even execution of the story was going to be - and leaned into it with gusto. 

 

Seriously, consider a movie about that beloved little squeaky-voiced Elmo doll going on a jealousy-fueled murder-spree. Of course, this production had absolutely nothing to do with the educational and wholesome Sesame Street (1969-) character or really even any true muppets. The visual was still strikingly similar enough that it only added to the “that’s so wrong, it’s hilarious” aspect of the movie. 

We all have had that one toy we were given when we were very little that will always hold a special place in our hearts. Some of us are better about letting such go as we get older. I never really got rid of any of mine, but I did pass them along to my daughter when she was little. For some of us, our favorite stuffie could very well still be capable of chasing the nightmares away. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, as long as the rest of a person’s life is generally productive and at the very least self-sufficient. 

 

This story explored the notion of those very toys taking umbrage at being cast aside in favor of “growing up” and proving themselves just as magical as we always imagined them to be - but their new version of playtime includes chaotic murderous mayhem. 

Clearly, Benny Loves You was made with a shoestring indie budget, but I honestly didn’t care. Production made great use of everything at their disposal, and I think that ultimately it worked in their favor. I don’t think this story would have landed the same way with shiny CGI movement effects and the like. It was really a stroke of brilliance to have the toy’s movement mimic what it would look like if a child was actually playing with it. The imagery leaned into the campy fun without becoming too cheesy in the process. 

 

Writer and director Karl Holt (Eddie Loves You, Negative Image, The Pandemic Anthology) clearly made this as a passion project. Not only did it expand from his first credited film short from 2006, he put in quite a bit of time wearing all the important hats. Filming for Benny Loves You wrapped in 2015, but it didn’t release until 2019 because Holt was editing, scoring, and adding the VFX himself. I’m eager to see what Holt does next, and I’m hoping that he continues to bring us the much-needed laughter.

Benny Loves You is quite silly, but gloriously so; and I wouldn’t mind watching it again and again as I ensnare as many friends as possible into watching it with me so I can spread the hilarity.

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 81%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 54%

Metascore – None

Metacritic User Score – 6.0/10

IMDB Score – 5.6/10

 

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 4.5/5

P.S. - There is a post-credits scene that ties up a loose end from the movie. 

 

Movie Trailer:

M3GAN (2023)

 

Streaming Service: Peacock

Movie Name/Year: M3GAN (2023)

Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller, Horror

Length: 1h 42min

Rating: Unrated

Production/Distribution: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse Productions, Divide/Conquer, Universal Pictures, New Zealand Film Commission, Peacock, Studio Distribution Services (SDS), Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (UPHE), Universal Pictures International (UPI)

Director: Gerard Johnstone

Writers: Akela Cooper, James Wan

Actors: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Amie Donald, Amy Usherwood, Arlo Green, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jack Cassidy, Jen Van Epps, Jenna Davis, Kira Josephson, Lori Dungey, Michael Saccente, Millen Baird, Natasha Kojic, Ronny Chieng, Stephane Garneau

 

IMDb Blurb: A robotics engineer at a toy company builds a life-like doll that begins to take on a life of its own.

 

Selina’s Point of View:

I figured M3GAN would be a bit on the corny side, but still a fun watch. I was dead-on with my expectations.

M3GAN followed just about every killer-AI trope there is out there. I’d be hard-pressed to call much of it original, but it did feel like the tropes were well used. It would have been very easy for M3GAN to just start cramming as much as it could into the story without rhyme or reason. Instead, it worked. Mostly.

 

 

It may seem a little strange to say, but I didn’t get as much of that uncanny valley feel from the robot as I thought I would. In fact, I got more from Paul Dano’s (Knight and Day, Swiss Army Man, The Fabelmans) Riddler in The Batman. Without that feeling, there were parts of the flick that didn’t hit as hard as they could have. It made things feel more silly than serious.

I did appreciate a bit of the psychological aspect that was thrown in. It was an interesting perspective, especially in the context of grief.

I enjoyed M3GAN, but I was hoping for something a little more serious than I got. It’s still something fun to watch with friends and a six-pack, though.

 

 

Cat’s Point of View:

The prospect of watching M3GAN made my inner sci-fi geeky heart happy. I’m generally down to watch any production that explores AI and robotics and their future interactions with humankind. For now they may be fiction, but I don’t anticipate that lasting much longer. Lets get those cautionary tales out there and prevent Skynet, right? 

All in all, I generally enjoyed my experience with M3GAN. 

The doll was seriously creepy and gave me futuristic, if only slightly less homicidal, Chucky vibes. I really appreciated how they kept the face of the android companion just somewhere uncomfortably between a real human’s and that of your typical porcelain doll. It made the moments interacting with people who didn’t know what M3GAN was more believable. 

 

I enjoyed the cast’s performances and how M3GAN embraced its own camp and meta nature. Everything was a bit predictable - but really, for this sort of movie there’s not a lot that it could have done that wouldn’t have been so. Still, there was something missing. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. As a horror movie that blended comedy along with the psychology of grief into a story about a murderous toy, it delivered where it counted. 

I do have to give the production team credit for the avenues they took with the story to leave it open for sequel potential. In fact, Blumhouse announced in January, shortly after this film’s release, that there will be a M3GAN 2.0 - which is, at this time, the current working title of the next movie. 

 

I actually ended up watching M3GAN twice. I hadn’t realized initially that it released as an unrated version when it hit streaming in addition to the PG-13 film that was in theaters. My 19-year-old daughter and I viewed it as soon as it became available on Xfinity On-Demand, and it turned out to be the PG-13 version. I watched the unrated one in preparation for this review today. I was rather surprised that there wasn’t a lot of difference between them. I actually preferred the PG-13 cut better. 

For those wondering why, the PG-13 cut was more refined and the horror was more effective with slightly less gore, or some actions happening off-camera. The body count, all general plot points, and set pieces all remained the same. If there had been a more expansive difference between the versions, I would understand the unrated release better. As it stands, I’m just scratching my head in confusion - because the “extras” the lack of rating allowed didn’t make that cut any better. I digress.

My daughter and I did enjoy our trippy romp through the cut-throat toy industry. My advice would be to just not expect or assume too much from the outset. The toy developers here were obviously not following Isaac Asimov’s (1920-1992) laws of robotics. 

 

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 93%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score –78%

Metascore – 72%

Metacritic User Score – 6.8/10

IMDB Score – 6.4/10

 

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 3.5/5

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3.5/5

 

Trust the Dice: Parental Guidance Rating: There are 2 versions of this movie. The Unrated version is closer to R and there is also an MPAA rated PG-13 version.

 

Movie Trailer:

Interceptor (2022)

Streaming Service: Netflix
Movie Name/Year: Interceptor (2022)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
Length: 1h 36min
Rating: TV-MA
Production/Distribution: Ambience Entertainment, Foryor Entertainment, Netflix
Director: Matthew Reilly
Writers: Stuart Beattie, Matthew Reilly
Actors: Elsa Pataky, Luke Bracey, Aaron Glenane, Mayen Mehta, Paul Caesar, Belinda Jombwe, Marcus Johnson
 
IMDb Blurb: One Army captain must use her years of tactical training and military expertise when a simultaneous coordinated attack threatens the remote missile interceptor station she is in command of.

Selina’s Point of View:
Interceptor had a lot of potential, but it kept getting in its own way.
 
With the feel of a campy 80s action and a semi-fresh plot, Interceptor could have been outstanding. Unfortunately, there were several issues that kept it from meeting expectations.
 
For one, the acting was questionable. There were a few scenes here or there that worked, but mostly the actors felt wrong. There was one scene where Mayen Mehta (Sweet Tooth, Fresh Eggs, Power Rangers Dino Fury) finally felt like a good fit, and a couple of scenes where Elsa Pataky (Snakes on a Plane, Fast Five, Tidelands) worked. For the most part the performances either went too far – into ridiculousness – or not far enough.

 
I thought I was going to love Luke Bracey’s (The November Man, The Best of Me, Point Break) take on the villain, but he never quite took it far enough. He never fully embodied Alexander Kessel. Every moment was just a smidge off. With a bit of a tweak to his performance, he could have been on the level of Hans Gruber, but he just never took that last step.
 
In fact, the best performance was from a cameo. I’d say it’s the strangest, and least expected, cameo I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen Eminem come out in The Interview (2014). I don’t want to ruin it, so that’s all I’ll say.
 
The writing was also not quite where it needed to be. For Matthew Reilly, this was his first full-length feature debut as a writer. So, I’m willing to give a lot of leeway where the script is concerned… and it did show promise. The problem is, I don’t know if that was his talent shining through or help from his more established co-writer, Stuart Beattie (I Frankenstein, 30 Days of Night, Collateral).
 
Interceptor could have been great, but it wound up feel unfinished. It needed better acting and a better edited script. Might be worth watching for the cameo, though…

 
Cat’s Point of View:
I had relatively high hopes for Interceptor. The trailer left me with the feeling that it would be a decent popcorn action movie to kick off the summer movie season. I hesitate to use the word ‘blockbuster’ here, even though it hit the #1 spot on Netflix very shortly after release. That was a little surprising, in the wake of watching it; however, I did have Interceptor listed as #8 on my personal Top 20 List for this June.

Elsa Pataky (Furious 7, 12 Strong, Tidelands) and Luke Bracey (The November Man, Hacksaw Ridge, American Dream) were solid draws to this title for me. I enjoyed their characters’ back and forth in the trailer and it appeared as if Interceptor would have banter that would stir pleasant nostalgia for classic action films of yesteryear. 

I’m not exactly sure that Interceptor hit the mark. There was just something missing and a few points that I just wasn’t able to buy-in to what was happening on the screen. It was decent and I didn’t feel I’d wasted my time. I’m just likely not going to remember much about this movie with the passage of time.
 
There was a cameo that popped up sprinkled throughout Interceptor that had me giggling and, honestly, made the whole thing worth it and fun in spite of its flaws.

 
This was the feature debut for writer, director Matthew Reilly. The Australian author has plenty of experience with story craft, with well over a dozen novels under his belt. His work has also landed on the bestseller lists on numerous occasions, apparently. I’m unfamiliar with his body of work, personally, but from what I can gather, Interceptor is the sort of story that he tends to lean towards.
 
In a Variety interview, he explained that his novels have been optioned by Hollywood before, but the budgets required to realize them on-screen have tended to be prohibitive. His desire with Interceptor was to take something in his style and strip it down a bit to something more feasible. It is clear, however, that he has already been working with Netflix on developing a sequel. Considering the streaming performance that surprised even Reilly, it’s likely he’ll have a little more leeway on the 2^nd outing to go bigger. I hope so, at least.  (Just a note, the linked article contains spoilers – so read at your own risk if you haven’t watched the movie yet.)
 
Hopefully, Reilly will have a chance to iron out any kinks that cropped up with Interceptor as he further gets into his directorial stride.
 
Interceptor wasn’t a bad concept and it was entertaining. I understand why reviews are so mixed about the production, however. If you have some time to kill and this sort of story is your jam, I’d say  Interceptor is worth a shot.

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 43%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score –19%
Metascore – 51%
Metacritic User Score – 3.2/10
IMDB Score – 4.4/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 2/5
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3/5

P.S. - There is a brief mid-credits scene. 
 
Movie Trailer: