5 Years Later, Netflix’s Best Original Horror Movie Still Hasn’t Been Dethroned

Although it has been five years since Netflix released its most ambitious experiment in the horror genre to date, the streaming service has not yet topped this effort with any of its subsequent original movies or shows. Netflix has plenty of shows in every genre, and the streaming service has a lot of options available to the discerning horror fan. From the acclaimed 2019 miniseries Marianne to Mike Flanagan’s many masterpiece shows for the streamer, Netflix has invested in horror for over a decade at this stage.

Even one of Netflix’s biggest hits ever, the Stranger Things franchise, has substantial horror elements, although these mostly only come to the fore in season 4. For all of their elements of body horror and occasional monster attacks, most seasons of Stranger Things skew more toward small-town mystery and sci-fi fantasy than outright horror. Viewers who wanted a full-blown horror series that offered the same nostalgic look back on life in '80s America needed to wait a few years until July 2021.

Netflix released the Fear Street trilogy in July 2021 to rapturous critical acclaim, and the franchise soon earned itself a massive online fan base. Consisting of three original horror movies released one week apart throughout the month, the Fear Street trilogy began with Fear Street Part One: 1994 on July 2, then Fear Street Part Two: 1978 on July 9, before wrapping up with Fear Street Part Three: 1666 on July 16. All three movies were directed by Honeymoon’s Leigh Janiak and boasted buzzy casts full of young stars.

Netflix’s Fear Street Trilogy Is The Streaming Service’s Most Ambitious Horror To Date

Loosely based on the novel series of the same name by Goosebumps creator RL Stine, the Fear Street trilogy immediately made it clear to viewers that it was no kids’ horror. Set in the working-class town of Shadyside, the trilogy’s story follows a group of teens who are targeted by cursed serial killers from throughout the town’s bloody history. In an ingenious move, Fear Street Part One: 1994 begins by introducing a character played by Stranger Things cast standout Maya Hawke, only to kill her off brutally before the opening title.

This shocking opening, borrowed from Scream’s infamous Drew Barrymore kill, proved that no one was safe in the surprisingly dark, gory teen horror franchise, and Fear Street Part One: 1994 held admirably to this approach throughout its unsparing story. By the time the closing credits rolled, almost none of the main characters had survived the carnage, and the movie’s brutal cliffhanger ending proved that the young, inexperienced heroes weren’t out of the woods yet.

In another unexpected move, Fear Street Part Two: 1978’s flashback to a summer camp massacre ramped up the gore even more, killing off all but two of its main characters. A relentlessly bleak and violent outing, Fear Street Part Two: 1978 also benefited from a central turn from another major Stranger Things cast member, but by this stage, the difference between the two Netflix franchises couldn’t have been more obvious.

Where Stranger Things sometimes romanticized life in 80s small-town America, the Fear Street trilogy took an unsparing look at the rampant income inequality, inequitable housing policies, racialized policing practices, and other social ills of the time. The third and final installment in the trilogy, Fear Street Part Three: 1666, got even more ambitious as the series started to explore the original sins that undergirded the centuries-old history of Shadyside.

Fear Street’s Release Highlighted Netflix’s Unique Potential As A Distributor

Even bigger than the streaming service’s Mike Flanagan shows and more definitively focused on its horror elements than Stranger Things ever was, the Fear Street trilogy was comfortably the best original horror movie in Netflix history. 2018’s Cam shared the trilogy’s smart social satire, and 2017’s The Babysitter was a fun, gory horror-comedy, but this three-movie story was more immersive, ambitious, and original than anything the streamer had attempted before.

Described by its director as a "hybrid of traditional television content and movies,” the trilogy was released over three weeks, meaning it worked both as a trio of self-contained movies and as one massive movie. It is rare to see any streaming service attempt a release strategy this risky, even in an era when the budgets of streaming shows are only skyrocketing further with every passing year.

However, 2026’s biggest horror hit at the box office proves that audiences are happy to watch scary, gory content at the height of summer, and the popularity of the Fear Street trilogy serves as further evidence of this. Even a disappointing spinoff four years later did nothing to dull the fan base’s enthusiasm for the Fear Street trilogy.

Even Fear Street’s Disappointing Spinoff Couldn’t Dull The Original Trilogy’s Shine

Released in 2025, Fear Street: Prom Queen was set in 1988 and intended to fill in the blanks between Fear Street Part Two: 1978 and Fear Street Part One: 1994. Sadly, the spinoff made the mistake of telling an entirely unrelated story to its predecessors, resulting in a standard-issue throwback to '80s slashers that felt like nothing special after the innovations of its predecessors.

Much like the ending of Stranger Things, which soured the fond memories some fans had of earlier seasons, Prom Queen proved that the Fear Street franchise’s name alone wasn’t a guarantee of quality. Despite an impressive cast that included India Fowler, Ariana Greenblatt, and a delightfully campy Fina Strazza and Katherine Waterston as an odious mother/daughter bully duo, Prom Queen lacked the surprisingly biting social commentary that elevated the original trilogy to greatness.

Ultimately, Prom Queen’s failings came down to the spinoff’s failure to engage with the complex backstory of Shadyside set up in the preceding movies. Even the climactic revelation of the killers jarred with the story of the preceding movies, wherein poorer Shadyside residents were consistently blamed for killings committed by their richer neighbors. However, the spinoff still wasn’t as bad as some critics suggested at the time.

With memorably nasty kills and a charmingly cartoonish villain reveal, Prom Queen was far from bad enough to undo the trilogy’s superb reception. As such, the Fear Street trilogy remains the single most impressive experiment that Netflix has offered in the horror genre, and compelling evidence that the streaming service is capable of great things in the world of scary movies.