‘Fear Street’ – 10 Classic R.L. Stine Stories to Adapt After ‘Prom Queen’
The wait is over! The Fear Street franchise has returned with another film inspired by the most wicked neighborhood in YA literature. And this time around, it’s actually one of R.L. Stine’s classic books that’s getting the cinematic treatment; 1992’s The Prom Queen, a snappy and delightful murder-mystery set inside the halls of Shadyside High School, has been adapted by Matt Palmer and Donald McLeary.
While not every Fear Street book will be cinematized, surely the fans would appreciate more direct adaptations after Netflix’s Prom Queen. Keeping that in mind, Lights Out and the Cheerleaders series have already been skimmed for ideas, more or less, but these ten other worthwhile Fear Street stories have yet to get any screen-time.
Now would be the perfect time to change that.
The Sleepwalker (Fear Street #6)
Image: The Sleepwalker.
Dream horror is due for a comeback, and The Sleepwalker could help open the floodgate. Here, a teen named Mayra experiences sleepwalking after becoming an old woman’s caregiver. Every time she wakes up on Fear Street, she’s confused and scared, as well as one step closer to learning the source of her sudden affliction. The earliest installments of Fear Street didn’t quite delve into the uncanny as much as the later ones, but that can be changed. Plus, this book has potential for surreal horror sequences.
Scream, Jennifer, Scream! (New Fear Street #3)
Image: Scream, Jennifer, Scream!
Just when it seemed like Fear Street was over, New Fear Street popped up in the very late ’90s, albeit for a short time. This revival ended after only four books, but in hindsight, they’re a great collection of self-contained thrills. The third entry, Scream, Jennifer, Scream!, seems like it’s rehashing old plotlines; like The Cheater and Final Grade from the original series, this story deals with dangerous academic ambition. However, things take a turn after the main characters try to kill one of their own, that same someone who plans to expose both herself and her friends for cheating on a college placement test. You might even say the tables are turned as the target becomes the targeter! On top of this delicious plot reversal, there’s a bigger twist at the end that makes Scream, Jennifer, Scream! all the more memorable.
Silent Night 3 (Fear Street Super Chiller #11)
Image: Silent Night 3.
Christmastime horror never goes out of style, and the Silent Night trilogy would be an obvious choice for a holidays-set Fear Street film. Yet, there is one important matter to consider before ever adapting it; the first two books are more about crime than horror. Abduction, robbery, ransom and chases are abundant, but actual scares? None, really. So, concentrating on the third and final volume, Silent Night 3, would be the wisest choice. Here loathsome rich kid Reva puts on a fashion show, and one by one her models start to die.
Switched (Fear Street #31)
Image: Switched.
The longer it went on, the stranger Fear Street became. The simple, and sometimes bloodless, whodunits from the very beginning were later followed by the likes of Switched, a truly out-there and shocking book that is begging for adaptation. The ending remains divisive among fans, but it’s also one that’s hard to forget.
Fear Park
Image: Fear Park: The First Scream.
A chapter of Fear Street’s dark origin story is the focus of this three-book spinoff series. As the namesake of Fear Park reopens in the present day, we journey back to the 1930s and meet members of the notorious Fear Family. Robin Fear’s father was dead set against the town using a part of his woods for a new amusement park, so much so he was willing to kill for it. And from there sprung the curse that followed anyone who had anything to do with what’s now called Fear Park. This trilogy delivers one of the goriest set-pieces in the whole franchise, namely one where teens are compelled to hack each other up with hatchets, and only provides more bloody fun as death repeatedly strikes the employees and visitors of Fear Park.
Trapped (Fear Street #51)
Image: Trapped.
The final offering in that original Fear Street run is also one of the best and most gruesome. Trapped is a far cry from the early books, and it really has more in common with The Blob (1988) or Phantoms (1998). Indeed, this is honest-to-goodness creature horror built upon a Breakfast Club-esque setup. Trapped would be the ideal starter material for a special effects-loaded monster movie.
The Dead Lifeguard (Fear Street Super Chiller #6)
Image: The Dead Lifeguard.
Look no further than The Dead Lifeguard if you’re craving a summertime mystery. In this Super Chiller, Lindsay leaves her home of Fear Street to be a country club lifeguard for the summer, but neither her boss nor her coworkers are expecting her. In fact, they have no idea who this Lindsay is, and as things unfold, she herself starts to question her own identity. Could Lindsay be the drowned ghost her coworkers keep bringing up, or maybe she’s the killer who’s been picking off the other lifeguards. It’s one twist after another in this wild whodunit.
Door of Death (Fear Street Sagas #15)
Image: Door of Death.
It seems only likely that Halloween Party will be adapted as a film down the line, but for more Halloween-set, Fear Street goodness, the lesser-known Door of Death is also an option. Plucked from the Fear Street Sagas bush, this period slasher is set in the mid-1800s and follows the legend of Jake Fear. Betrayed in life by his lying wife, Jake Fear died a bitter and broken man. Now exactly a year later after his death, Jake has come back, on All Hallows’ Eve, to kill anyone he deems a cheater. Like most entries in this supporting series, Door of Death was ghostwritten; author Eric Weiner definitely didn’t skimp on those descriptions of Jake Fear’s ghastly handiwork.
The Wrong Number (Fear Street #5)
Image: The Wrong Number.
Although The Wrong Number shares its setup with William Castle’s I Saw What You Did, this book goes down a completely different road once the characters investigate the murder-in-progress they heard over the phone. Deena’s half-brother Chuck gets charged with homicide while she and best friend Jade look for the real killer. It’s a straightforward story that would need some updating, but nevertheless, that possible adaptation best not leave out the chainsaw! And if there’s room for a sequel, The Wrong Number 2 also exists.
99 Fear Street: The House of Evil
Image: 99 Fear Street: The Third Horror.
For all the creepy whispers there are about Fear Street, the mainline books didn’t explore the houses themselves. In what feels like the franchise’s answer to The Amityville Horror and Poltergeist, though, 99 Fear Street: The House of Evil gives a blood-soaked tour of its ominous address. Built in the 1960s, this trilogy’s titular abode remained vacant after a prospective buyer’s family was mysteriously beheaded. We then fast-forward to the ’90s where twins Cally and Kody have moved in with their parents and little brother. Being new to Shadyside, they are clueless about this place’s disturbing legacy. In the second book, another unaware family occupies the cursed house, and in the third and final book, 99 Fear Street’s haunted history becomes the subject of a shot-on-location horror flick. So there’s more than enough ideas here to fill out a film, if not an entire miniseries.
Fear Street: Prom Queen is now streaming on Netflix.
Image: Poster for Fear Street: Prom Queen, courtesy of Netflix.
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