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Fear Street: Prom Queen began streaming on Netflix today, as a standalone entry into the Fear Street franchise. The first three Fear Street movies—released over three consecutive weeks in the summer of 2021—were a hit among horror fans. Like the first three movies, Prom Queen is a gory, violent adaptation loosely inspired by a story from the R.L. Stine Fear Street book series. However, unlike the first three movies, Prom Queen is an entirely contained teen slasher story, that doesn’t connect to a larger plot in the universe.
Directed by Matt Palmer, who also co-wrote the script with Donald McLeary, Fear Street: Prom Queen might not be quite the hit that the first three movies were, but we have no doubt young audiences will still watch this gory kill fest. When you get to the very end, be sure to stick around for the Fear Street: Prom Queen end credits scene. If you’re confused, don’t worry—Decider is here to help. Read on for a breakdown of the Fear Street: Prom Queen plot summary and ending explained, including who the killer in Fear Street: Prom Queen is, and what the Fear Street: Prom Queen end credits scene means.
Warning: Major Fear Street: Prom Queen spoilers ahead. Duh!
Fear Street Prom Queen plot summary:
Lori Granger (India Folwer), is a Shadyside High senior in 1988 who hopes to win Prom Queen. Lori wants to redeem her reputation as the daughter of a rumored murderer. Though never convicted, the long-standing story in town is that Lori’s mother murdered her father on prom night in a jealous rage, while she was pregnant with Lori. Lori wants to reclaim prom as her own by winning Prom Queen, but she faces stiff competition from five other girls: Christy (Ariana Greenblatt), the local bad girl; Tiffany (Fina Strazza), the popular mean girl; and Tiffany’s loyal lackies, Linda (Ilan O’Driscoll), Debbie (Rebecca Ablack), and Melissa (Ella Rubin).
Lori’s burnout, horror-obsessed BFF Megan (Suzanna Son) can’t imagine why Lori cares about prom, but she agrees to help, out of loyalty. Megan loves to prank her classmates by staging fake, gory scenarios, like pretending to chop off her own hand in the middle of class. Hmmm. Lori is grateful for Megan’s help, but also seems more interested in flirting with Tiffany’s boyfriend, Tyler (David Iacono).
The night before prom, Tiffany’s friend Melissa comes over to borrow a prom dress. Tiffany’s parents, Nancy (Katherine Waterson) and Dan (Chris Klein), seem very invested in Tiffany winning the Prom Queen crown. That same night, a masked killer in a red rubber raincoat violently murders Christy, who had been the frontrunner for Prom Queen. Because she doesn’t show up to the candidate’s meeting the next day, Christy is automatically disqualified.
Photo: ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett CollectionOn prom night, the other Prom Queen candidates start to get killed off one by one. The first to go is Linda, who earlier in the movie was passing out flyers to advocate for her candidacy. The killer also takes out Linda’s boyfriend.
Meanwhile, on the dance floor, the students discover Tiffany’s severed head in the punch bowl. This turns out to be a fake, planted by Megan, in one of her infamous pranks. But Lori doesn’t think it’s funny. She chews Megan out for hurting her chances at winning Prom Queen. Megan is upset, and also worried because she still can’t find her drug dealer, Christy.
Debbie sneaks away with her boyfriend, and they also get whacked by the killer. Tiffany witnesses Lori receiving a mysterious flower delivery, and relentlessly bullies Lori about her mom. Melissa tells Tiffany to back off. It boils over into a spontaneous “dance-off,” where Tiffany is humiliated on the dance floor.
Melissa is the next up to die. She’s brutally murdered by the killer while using the bathroom. Back on the dance floor, Megan tries to alert Lori to the fact that Prom Queen candidates are vanishing. But Lori, busy flirting with Tyler, doesn’t want to hear it. Lori sneaks off with Tyler, where they are attacked by the killer. The killer gets Tyler, but with Megan’s help, Lori gets away.
Lori barely escapes and stumble back to the dance floor, just as it’s announced that she won Prom Queen. The killer appears, and starts murdering even more students. Lori manages to stab killer in the eye with her Prom Queen crown. The killer falls to the floor, lifts off his mask, and reveals…
Photo: Alan Markfield /© Netflix / Courtesy Everett CollectionWho is the killer in Fear Street Prom Queen?
The man under the killer mask in Fear Street: Prom Queen is Tiffany’s father, Dan (played by Chris Klein). After this reveal, Tiffany’s mother, Nancy, asks in horror why Dan would do such a thing. He replies, “Because I knew how much you wanted it.” He looks at his daughter and adds, “Both of you.” Aww! He was just being a good dad.
But it’s not over yet. It’s soon revealed that there is more than one killer in Fear Street: Prom Queen. In fact, there are three killers: Tiffany’s dad, Tiffany’s mom, and Tiffany herself. Talk about a family affair!
Photo: Alan Markfield / © Netflix / Courtesy Everett CollectionFear Street Prom Queen ending explained:
After Dan has been arrested, Nancy has to stay behind to interview with the police. Lori volunteers to accompany Tiffany home and keep her company until her mom gets back. When Nancy finally gets home, she attacks Lori and Tiffany. Oh, man! It turns out Nancy is a killer too!
While the two girls are hiding from Nancy in Tiffany’s closet, Tiffany describes the various kills of the night with reverence. Wait, how does she know all that? That’s right, Tiffany is a killer, too. All three Falconers were in on it, presumably so that Tiffany could become Prom Queen.
In an interview with Decider, Tiffany actor Fina Strazza said that the reveal of Tiffany as a third killer was added during her audition. “The original version of the script that we got didn’t have Tiffany in on it. It was just Katherine Waterston and Chris Klein,” Strazza said. “But in my final callback for the film, I did a scene that is a different version of the final scene with Lori and Tiffany. Matt Palmer, our director, asked if I could do the scene again, but instead reveal that I am also one of the killers.”
Photo: Sabrina Lantos /© Netflix / Courtesy Everett CollectionPalmer liked what he saw, and the plot point was added to the script. Though it’s not revealed who exactly was behind the mask for each kill in the movie, Strazza assured Decider that Palmer had it all mapped out. To her disappointment, none of the kills were Tiffany behind the mask.
“There was supposed to be one,” Strazza revealed. “But it didn’t end up being Tiffany behind the mask, because [the kill] was supposed to be Damien Romeo [who plays Judd, Debbie’s boyfriend]. Matt realized Damien is 6’4″, and I might not be able to kill him.”
Tiffany gets a chance to embrace her violent side in the final confrontation between Lori, Tiffany, and Tiffany’s mom. Mom reveals that she is the one who killed Lori’s father, because he had been dating Nancy before Lori’s mother “stole” him. Tiffany volunteers to be the one to kill Lori, but Lori is too fast. Lori kicks Tiffany off the staircase landing. Tiffany falls and is impaled on a conveniently sharp decorative post.
Lori fights with a vengeful Nancy and manages to knock Nancy out with one of her old high school trophies. As Lori lets Nancy bleed out, Nancy berates her as “trash” and asks, “Who do you think you are?”
In a voice-over, Lori responds, “I’m Lori f–king Granger.” With that, the movie ends.
Photo: Alan Markfield / © Netflix / Courtesy Everett CollectionFear Street Prom Queen end credits scene explained:
But wait, there’s more!
In a Fear Street: Prom Queen mid-credits scene, we see Nancy’s blood form in the shape of a mystical symbol, which is a reference to the 2021 Fear Street trilogy and the legend of Sarah Fier. In Fear Street Part 3: 1666, Sarah Feir (played by Kiana Madeira) and her girlfriend of the victim of a witch hunt, and the town of Shadyside was forever cursed as a result.
Photo: NetflixThat circular symbol that we see in Nancy’s blood is the same symbol on the cover of the book of Satanic black magic discovered by Sarah in Part 3. Though Sarah was blamed for the curse, the real culprit was the owner of that book, a reclusive woman known only as “The Widow.” The book has been passed around by bad actors since the 1600s in Shadyside, and used to make deals with the devil.
So, even though there is no mention of the curse of Sarah Fier in Prom Queen, apparently the Falconer family may have been acting under the influence of the widow’s book. Why else would her blood form in the shape of the symbol on the book’s cover?
Does this mean there will be more Fear Street movies with this cast? We’ll have to wait and see.
English (US)