Why Are There So Many Horror Movies About Proms?

CARRIE, from left: Sissy Spacek, William Katt, 1976 — Courtesy of Everett

Netflix’s Fear Street franchise is back, with Fear Street: Prom Queen debuting on the streaming service on Friday, May 23, and continuing Hollywood’s long tradition of creating horrifying high school dances.

“Prom season at Shadyside High is underway and the school’s wolf pack of It Girls is busy with its usual sweet and vicious campaigns for the crown,” Netflix says in a synopsis of the new film. “But when a gutsy outsider puts herself in the running, and the other girls start mysteriously disappearing, the class of ’88 is suddenly in for one hell of a prom night.”

In a retrospective of adolescent-focused horror, Letterboxd’s Jenni Kaye observes that high school is a perfect setting for the genre, since those years are tantamount to a horror movie for many hormonal teens. “The horror genre has always thrived in teenage terrain, where coming of age often means coming apart,” Kaye added. “In the ’70s and ’80s, high school horror emerged as filmmakers began to realize the potential of the high school setting and the angsty teens who occupied it.”

Let’s revisit some exemplars of that rope, starting with a blood-soaked yet crowning achievement among Stephen King adaptations.

Carrie (1976)

Hell hath no fury like a Sissy Spacek character doused in pig’s blood. The bullied teen Carrie snaps at her high school prom, telekinetically killing students and teachers alike and torching the Bates High School gym, creating horror’s enduring “prom as hell” trope in the process. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw says Carrie depicts the “theatre of cruelty involved in high school popularity.”

Prom Night (1980)

Jamie Lee Curtis cemented her scream queen status with this flick, playing one of a group of high school seniors terrorized at a prom by a vengeful masked killer. TV Guide gave the film one star but said it was funnier and better than most slasher films, thanks to “scenes of Curtis disco-dancing and wonderful moments such as when the severed head of a victim rolls across the dance floor.”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003)

In Buffy Season 3’s “The Prom,” our slayer just wants a normal prom experience but, she has to fend off demonic hounds trained on a steady diet of films like Carrie and Prom Night. “I thought [‘The Prom’] just encapsulated the show so well,” Sarah Michelle Gellar said in a Reddit AMA. “It was beautiful and heartbreaking.”

Dance of the Dead (2008)

This independent horror movie has nerds saving their high school from a horde of the undead. And it helps that the music of young rockers — played by the likes of Blair Radford and Lucas Till — distracts the zombies. Den of Geek called Dance of the Dead a “funny, riotous, and ultra-gory take on the zombie genre that … also is derivative, clichéd, and without an original bone in its body.”

The Loved Ones (2009)

High schooler Brent attends a queasy-making quasi-prom in this day horror comedy: Lola (Robin McLeavy) is obsessed with Brent (Xavier Samuel) and kidnaps the poor kid with the help of her father. Then father and daughter recreate a prom at their home, torturing Brent all the while. Game Rant’s Joshua Millican said the film can be considered anti-prom movie and even anti-romance, writing, “If you’re down on love, The Loved Ones is the movie to commiserate with.”

Goosebumps (2015)

As a fictionalized version of Goosebumps author R.L. Stine (played by Jack Black) tries to rein in the monsters from his imagination in this horror comedy, a giant praying mantis preys on students attending a high school dance. “The havoc that these creatures cause — especially the aforementioned giant praying mantis — is delightful to watch,” said Polygon’s Philip Kollar.

Tragedy Girls (2017)

This truly twisted horror comedy follows two psychopathic high schoolers as they commit murder to drum up interest in their true-crime Twitter feed, and it ends with the girls trapping their classmates in a burning gymnasium during prom, à la Carrie. The Village Voice’s Tatiana Craine said the film is “rife with absurdity, glorious carnage, jet-black humor — and best of all, a solid relationship at its core.”

Look Away (2018)

In this psychological drama, a bully torments Maria (India Eisley) at a high school prom (set, oddly, at an ice skating rink). But Maria gets her revenge when she switches places with her mirror image, a sinister manifestation of the twin sister who died at birth. The Los Angeles Times’ Noel Murray said the film is at its scariest “not when Maria’s trying to murder people, but when she’s quietly enduring adolescence … and all its terrors.”