After the success of the Concern Avenue trilogy in 2021, it has been a surprisingly lengthy watch for extra installments within the franchise. The nostalgia practice continues to be chugging steadily down its tracks, and the horror style has seen an immense resurgence into the mainstream previously couple of years, with slashers seemingly hitting that candy spot of the right mix of memory and gore. In the event that they wished to, they may preserve turning out Concern Avenue motion pictures as incessantly as literary legend R.L. Stine does the books they’re based mostly on, and other people would watch and revel in them. Even within the fingers of a distinct author and director this time, there’s something substantive about this collection that offers the viewers what they need. It might not be authentic or notably imaginative, but it surely hits all the best beats, and simply has the potential to be the Friday the thirteenth of a brand new era, spanning dozens of flicks and seeing the place the core story may take them.
Now, 4 years on, the Concern Avenue saga continues with Promenade Queen. Set within the unlucky city of Shadyside, a spot that the unique trilogy tells us is tainted by a murderous curse set in movement centuries earlier than, the highschool seniors are getting equipped for promenade. Nonetheless, the same old competitiveness and foolish teenage hijinks pale as compared when an ominous determine in pink begins stalking and murdering the scholars. Within the grand custom of Carrie and, in fact, Promenade Evening, the end-of-year festivities create a enjoyable, colourful, and energetic setting for an evening of homicide and mayhem, and produce the beforehand supernaturally-charged Concern Avenue franchise all the way down to a extra human stage.
What’s ‘Concern Avenue: Promenade Queen’ About?
Regardless of what the mid-credits scene of Concern Avenue Half Three: 1666 advised with its shot of a pair of fingers snatching the spellbook from the crime scene, Promenade Queen has principally nothing to do with the trilogy that preceded it, apart from going down in the identical city that simply cannot get out of its centuries-long funk. It is Promenade Evening of 1988 in Shadyside, and a handful of ladies are within the working for promenade queen: there’s the favored ones who truly appear to have a shot at successful, one token grungy woman who scowls in her headshot, after which there’s Lori Granger (India Fowler), the outcast. God is aware of why or how she has come to be nominated, however that is not the purpose. What it is advisable to know is that Lori has a tragic backstory, which is hinted at always all through the film earlier than being extremely clumsily spelled out to us by Queen Bitch Tiffany (Fina Strazza) in certainly one of her many situations of bullying Lori.
She is simply the most recent child satisfied that residing in Shadyside is actually a curse that may doom her life to failure, however, buoyed considerably by her nomination, Lori desires to go towards the grain and enact change. When her cool, androgenous greatest buddy Megan (Suzanna Son) grills her on why somebody on the fringes of college society would wish to truly participate in its pageantry, Lori says she desires to imagine that issues might be totally different, that underdogs might be victorious. What she does not rely on is masked figures crashing promenade and murdering the nominees one after the other, doubtlessly serving to her get to the highest simply by technique of bloody elimination.
There’s Loads of Thriller within the Homicide of ‘Promenade Queen’
Like all respectable slasher, Promenade Queen performs its playing cards effectively relating to casting suspicion. We have got fairly the array of characters right here, from college students and lecturers to pushy dad and mom, and with out getting too overcrowded, the film manages to contain them within the motion and get you questioning who’s doing the slashing and why. It is established early on that the killer is just not appearing alone, which opens up any variety of prospects. As the unique trilogy did, the film is not afraid to get gory, and does a superb job of giving the viewers what it desires, by no means skimping on the blood or enjoyable results.
The place it lacks is in its path. The primary three motion pictures have been made back-to-back with sturdy, clear, realized path from Leigh Janiak. Certain, they might not have been something groundbreaking, however they’d a definite sense of self and a visible fashion that felt loyal to that. Whereas Promenade Queen is a superbly serviceable horror within the fingers of director Matt Palmer, it is not fairly so visually compelling, and there are particular sequences, notably the chases, that really feel fairly generic, such as you’ve seen them in 100 different slashers. It will get a bit of muddled in locations, however at the very least it really works to an honest construction. At a neat 90 minutes, it does not overstay its welcome, and will get into the promenade motion refreshingly rapidly. We do not have to attend two-thirds of the runtime for one thing to occur, and it’s paced fairly effectively by way of often dosing us with enjoyable kills.
‘Promenade Queen’s Finest Performances Come From Shocking Locations
I find it irresistible when a secondary character is performed with such aptitude and gusto that they find yourself taking heart stage, and that’s precisely what we get from Fina Strazza. She completely understood this project, and together with her pearl earrings and completely coiffed hair, storms into each scene, taking part in for the again rows together with her entitled, bratty antics. She squeals and stamps her toes and throws little matches, and she or he not solely makes the antagonist extremely entertaining, however certainly reminds everyone of at the very least one individual they went to high school with. This delicate steadiness of comedic exaggeration and realism is just not a simple one to drag off, however Strazza nails it and finally ends up stealing the present.
Alongside her is Katherine Waterston as her mom, Nancy, who’s the right accent to her nightmare daughter. With a glance that mixes all of the worst aesthetic components of the Eighties into one single being, she is what Regina George’s mother would seem like if she went to the darkish facet. They’re an awesome duo to look at, and the film offers them simply sufficient materials to actually make an affect. Surprisingly, one of many strongest components of this teen slasher is its characterization, proving that even motion pictures that goal to attraction to essentially the most fundamental tenets of leisure can achieve this with a component of sophistication.
It is not breaking any new floor, however Promenade Queen is a stable sufficient teen slasher that does a pleasant job of constant the ever-expanding universe of R.L. Stine. The Concern Avenue franchise has set itself as much as have plenty of potential, with its very fundamental throughline of the city of Shadyside permitting loads of free rein for the ideas and tales to be taken in any variety of instructions, as this fourth film proves. In a panorama the place the solely common horror franchise character now could be Artwork the Clown, we have to fill that area, which affords secure, dependable, simply digestible horror that does not get too excessive. We’re quick on new horror franchises, with many merely including to decades-old IPs like Ultimate Vacation spot and Halloween. Certain, the Concern Avenue books have been round simply as lengthy, however their translation to the display affords a brand new cinematic setup with its personal lore for the viewers to get invested in. If the horror style actually desires to lean into the nostalgia of the ’80s, then we’d like new and thrilling franchises to be born and expanded upon, and Concern Avenue is a superb match.
Concern Avenue: Promenade Queen arrives on Netflix on Might 23.
Concern Avenue: Promenade Queen
This slasher with a basic promenade setup might not provide something new, however it’s a very entertaining time.
- Launch Date
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Might 23, 2025
- Director
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Matt Palmer
- Writers
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Matt Palmer, Donald McLeary
- Producers
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Jenno Topping, Peter Chernin, Kori Adelson
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India Fowler
Lori Granger
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- The film is snappy and well-paced, by no means outstaying its welcome at 90 minutes.
- A robust and different solid give some glorious performances, with Fina Strazza delivering an excellent flip.
- There are some nice moments of comedy to offset the violence.
- Matt Palmer’s path is just not as sturdy and targeted as Leigh Janiak’s was within the first three motion pictures.
- There are generic qualities that do not make for a very memorable expertise.