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Followers of the primary three Worry Road motion pictures have been ready 4 years for an additional movie within the franchise. Enter Worry Road: Promenade Queen, directed by Matt Palmer and contemporary on Netflix. Nevertheless, not like the earlier trilogy, the brand new movie stands by itself, culling its materials from R.L. Stine’s 1992 novel The Promenade Queen. It desires to be an homage to Nineteen Eighties horror movies, however hardly arrives at that purpose: At finest, it’s a bloody slash fest, heavy on gore and lightweight on thriller and intrigue.

Worry Road: Promenade Queen is ready in 1988 in Shadyside, Ohio, a small city recognized for its historical past of grotesque murders that is featured within the different Worry Road movies. All people is buzzing about promenade, and the movie’s protagonist, Lori Granger (India Fowler of The Company: Central Intelligence) is trying ahead to it, too. Type of. She’s operating for promenade queen, however she doesn’t actually know why. She does know that she wants a change: Her mom is a pariah, after being accused of a brutal homicide. All people’s speaking in regards to the Grangers.

Lori might be able to stand up to catty remarks from the favored ladies at college, however she will even should face a higher problem: surviving a mysterious and tenacious killer who embarks on a homicide spree, wiping out one promenade queen candidate after one other. It’s a stable premise, however this movie, with its shoddy performances and drained horror tropes, feels lifeless on arrival.

Heavy on Gore, Gentle on Character Improvement

Horror thrillers don’t should be logical. Completed proper, audiences relish the off-the-wall kills and leap scares on their very own deserves. However this movie sidesteps any trace of character improvement and sharp story execution. Matt Palmer, who co-wrote the movie with Donald Mcleary, has crafted a love letter to the flicks he liked within the ’80s, drawing inspiration from the likes of A Nightmare on Elm Road. There was a way of true terror within the authentic Elm Road movies and several other others that adopted. However that’s the principle factor lacking right here.

The opposite is a compelling protagonist. India Fowler is a high-quality performer, however the character of Lori feels lifeless. It’s one factor to current audiences with a brooding protagonist, however at the least give the viewer one thing to root for in an individual. Lori is the embodiment of all of the horror tropes that highlight an emotionally fragile teenage woman in peril. Audiences in 2025 anticipate extra, and this movie looks like a redo of a B-movie made in 1980.

Lori’s fundamental menace is Tiffany (Fina Strazza), the sharp-tongued diva chief of the college’s “Wolfpack” of fashionable ladies. Tiffany desires to be promenade queen, and since she and her clique dominate the slate —Lori is the outsider nominee— she’s assured that she’ll nab the crown. Search for teen flirting alongside the way in which as a result of Lori has a crush on Tiffany’s man, Tyler (David Iacono). Lori’s obtained a real pal in Megan (Suzanna Son), however as the story unravels, each character turns into suspect.

Watch Out for These Anger Points

The killer right here wears an eerie theater masks and a purple raincoat, and weapons of mass splatter embody an ax, giant knives, a faculty paper cutter (the most effective!) and a gaggle of different objects. These are all good touches, however the viewers doesn’t know why the promenade queen nominees are being focused. And as soon as we enter the movie’s second half, all of the motion takes place at the highschool through the promenade. Certainly not all of the lights in all of the hallways have to be off? Possibly it would not matter. This isn’t presupposed to make sense.

It is good to see Lili Taylor (Mystic Pizza, Outer Vary) right here as Shadyside Excessive’s vice principal. She’s the one affordable grownup within the bunch; the remainder come off as far too indignant for the time interval they exist in. That is 1988, not 2025. What are these adults so upset about? They haven’t lived by 9/11, political divisiveness, the banality of social media likes or the demise of community media.

That stated, every thing right here serves the gory kills, and audiences in search of a senseless escape might recognize what’s occurring right here. However the movie lacks a compelling narrative, as an alternative choosing overused horror tropes. Few characters generate a real spark, though Suzanna Son does stand out. Maybe the supply materials was “gentle,” as properly, however a part of the enjoyment of an excellent horror film is witnessing how the screenwriter and director work collectively to ship one thing edgy and thrilling. Worry Road: Promenade Queen is neither. However it would fulfill its core fan base, and possibly that is bloody ok.

Worry Road: Promenade Queen premieres Could 23 on Netflix. Watch the trailer beneath.