Fear Street 4 Will Bring Back An R.L. Stine

Fear Street 4 Will Bring Back An R.L. Stine Theme The Original Netflix Movie Trilogy Dropped

The news that Fear Street 4 will adapt an underrated R.L. Stine novel proves the movie can bring back an author obsession that was missing from the original trilogy. Netflix's Fear Street trilogy was a trio of interconnected slasher movies released in July 2021. Based on the novel series of the same name by Goosebumps author R.L. Stine, the Fear Street trilogy followed a group of teens from the under-resourced community of Shadyside who uncovered a centuries-old curse that had claimed the lives of their citizens for generations. The Fear Street trilogy was a hit with audiences and critics alike.

Now, the upcoming Fear Street 4 promises to continue the franchise with another scary story from the prolific author’s back catalog. In January 2024, Stine tweeted that Fear Street 4 was about to enter production for Netflix, with the author also revealing the novel that this new sequel would adapt. According to Stine, Fear Street 4 will be based on 1992’s The Prom Queen, a slasher that sees the candidates for Shadyside High’s coveted title of prom queen killed off one by one. The sequel’s source material means the sequel can explore one of Stine’s favorite subjects.

Fear Street 4 Can Bring Its Characters Back To High School

Fear Street: 1994 made great use of its high school setting, grounding the characters in cliques and setting the beginning of the third act inside the dark environs of Shadyside High after hours. However, both Fear Street: 1978 and Fear Street: 1666 dropped this setting and thematic focus, even though Stine’s novels often made high school the center of their horror. Although Stine's work typically focuses on a school setting since many of the author’s books are aimed at younger readers, and he has a knack for making the location uniquely creepy, this wasn't the Fear Street trilogy's main aim.

Stine’s best writing tends to locate horror in relatable, recognizable settings, something the story of the trilogy didn’t prioritize. While Fear Street: 1978 was set in a summer camp, the final Fear Street movie's timeline split its focus between America’s colonial past and a showdown at a shopping mall. This worked well, but The Prom Queen's adaptation can now delve deeper into Stine’s career-long obsessions with school in more depth. According to Britannica, Stine worked as a junior high teacher before becoming a writer, and this experience clearly influenced the haunted schools, killer teachers, and cursed cheerleaders found throughout his oeuvre.

The Prom Queen Is A Classic R.L. Stine Fear Street Story

The Prom Queen promises that the Fear Street franchise’s next sequel will be a quintessential Stine adaptation, combining the darker edge of the earlier Fear Street movies with Stine’s warped version of educational institutions. Across hundreds of novels, Stine has explored every facet of the high school experience and mined horror from field trips, pep rallies, detention, and science labs alike. As such, it is fitting for Fear Street’s latest release to return to those hallowed halls and explore the author’s most enduring setting more thoroughly. In doing so, Fear Street 4 can fully capture the writer’s unique appeal.