Insanely prolific “Goosebumps” creator R.L. Stine’s different main publishing franchise, the younger grownup “Concern Avenue” sequence, made a good splash on Netflix 4 years in the past with the premiere of three interlocking options, every set in the identical fictitious “cursed” city throughout a unique period. All directed by Leigh Janiak, the trio (“Concern Avenue: 1994,” “1978” and “1666”) was uneven in some respects, however vigorous, stylistically various and fairly bold — general, a particular minimize above the standard formulaic run of horror entries. 

That sense of event is lacking from the brand new “Concern Avenue: Promenade Queen,” a belated stand-alone chapter that feels significantly extra mundane. Reprising high-school slasher cliches relationship again at the very least to 1980’s “Promenade Night time,” minus any specific invention or irony, this new entry is a slick-enough however disappointingly unimaginative effort that may’t even be bothered to reference the mythology established within the prior movies.

The story is again in perpetually ill-starred burg Shadyside, “the place the long run crawls to die,” as heroine Lori Granger (India Fowler) grouses in opening voiceover narration. Glimpsed this time in 1988, it’s an outwardly regular, all-American small city that nonetheless continuously suffers grotesque incidents of violent tragedy — one among which took the lifetime of Lori’s father, leaving her mom (Joanne Boland) ceaselessly suspected of his homicide. Improbably positioned proper throughout the road from their humble abode is the upscale manse inhabited by the Falconers, a wealthy couple (Katherine Waterson, Chris Klein) who’ve raised solely youngster Tiffany (Fina Strazza) to be a very stinging WASP. She is chief to a highschool mean-girl clique referred to as “the Wolfpack,” whose three different members she retains properly underneath thumb — whereas directing their venom at all people else, significantly Lori and her goth BFF Megan (beforehand seen in “Pink Rocket”). 

Nonetheless, Lori is so bored with being kicked round that she’s entered herself as a candidate for promenade queen, alongside all of the she-“wolves.” The sixth contender is “big-time insurgent” Christy (Ariana Greenblatt): a proud “unhealthy woman” who’s operating in all probability simply to spite your entire faculty, together with its stuffy main directors Principal Wayland (Darrin Baker) and Vice Principal Brekenridge (Lili Taylor). Promoting medication in a dingy space of city one evening — like its predecessors, this movie takes with no consideration less-parentally-approved actions amongst as we speak’s adolescents — Christy will get accosted by somebody in a masks and purple slicker, like an adult-sized model of the killer in “Don’t Look Now.” From there, the movie is commits to its slasher premise.

After that, we’re quickly on the promenade, the place that very same deadly thriller determine begins to stalk and stab the queen aspirants. Survival odds quickly winnow for the Wolfettes, plus their unfortunate boyfriends and anybody else who will get in the best way. Megan is the primary to suspect one thing amiss as these outstanding individuals disappear through the occasion, although at first nobody believes her — together with Lori, who’s distracted by the eye coming her manner from Tiffany’s fed-up beau Tyler (David Iacono). However as soon as heads begin rolling proper out on the dance ground, all people will get the message.

There’s a number of limb-severing and such. However “Concern Avenue: Promenade Queen” by no means rises above its pedestrian idea, which merely lifts cliches from commonplace slice-and-dice opuses, in addition to highschool satires like “Heathers” and “Imply Women,” with out ever figuring simply how significantly it needs to take them. (Nor does it bear a lot resemblance past a title to Stine’s 1992 “Concern Avenue” entry “The Promenade Queen.”) So there’s a half-heartedness to the entire enterprise, although it’s paced expertly sufficient to carry consideration. 

The characters are too one-dimensional to care about — although we’re sporadically requested to do exactly that — but on the identical time their cartoonishness isn’t handled with sufficient gusto to truly be enjoyable. The supernatural trigger that underlied the mayhem within the authentic “Concern Avenue” trilogy is absent right here. But the climactic, very human clarification is ludicrously over-the-top for a movie that doesn’t appear to experience its personal improbability, rendering that conclusion extra laughable than flamboyant or knowingly humorous. Even a dance-off duel between underdog protagonist and villainess, providing prime alternative for camp extra, falls flat. 

That’s not the fault of the competent, usually well-cast actors — doing their finest, even in the event you might lament the veteran expertise wasted — however reasonably with the movie’s tonal uncertainty. Maybe British director Matt Palmer and his co-writer Donald McLeary simply aren’t comfy with the very American milieu (regardless of a Canadian manufacturing) or style tropes at hand. Actually the shiny, shallow “Promenade Queen” is a far cry from their prior function, 2018’s “Calibre,” a thriller set within the Scottish Highlands that was all about psychological nuance. 

Those that maintain their expectations geared to the extent of a well-produced generic slasher will discover this train passably entertaining. Gore FX apart, its closest consideration is paid to the trimmings of Eighties teen tradition, from garish fashions to the anticipated soundtrack of classic pop hits by Billy Idol, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Judas Priest, Roxette, Rick Astley, Bananarama, Tiffany, Laura Branigan and so on. The Newton Brothers’ authentic rating hews to an identical synthy template. One notable holdover from the prior movies is offering a thread of lesbian need, although Megan’s unrequited pining for Lori occupies a extra marginal place within the narrative this time round.