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Netflix's Fear Street: Prom Queen starts with the gaudy promise of a retro '80s slasher and the creepy legacy of Shadyside, but although its fashionable setup and frightening murders are perfectly on track, the film's major villain reveal doesn't quite leave a memorable impression.
As the newest entry in the Fear Street franchise, Prom Queen could have done more than reanimate an old teen horror formula but also enriched the lore of Shadyside's haunted history. Alas, the climax, that the Falconer family murdered to fix the prom queen election, is less suspenseful than surprising.
In 1988, Fear Street: Prom Queen returns audiences to Lori Granger, a reserved, introverted teenager still burdened by her mother's tawdry reputation. When Lori is chosen at random for prom queen, her life crosses with Shadyside High's highest society, the Wolf Pack, commanded by the stunning, ruthless Tiffany Falconer.
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From there on, the movie coheres into a classic slasher template: masked murderer, teenagers being eliminated one at a time, and a prom bathed in blood waiting on the horizon.
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To put it simply, it’s a missed opportunity because the villain reveal feels predictable and lacks the shock factor expected from a Fear Street finale.
Why did the villain's reveal miss the mark in Netflix's Fear Street: Prom Queen?
What was potentially a truly shocking surprise twist in Fear Street: Prom Queen becomes a by-the-numbers plot reveal. Dan Falconer, Tiffany's dad, is the killer, motivated by the crazed desire to watch his daughter be prom queen.
This motivation, which could have been played with more finesse, instead comes across as far too simplistic and strangely at odds with the rest of the film's grounded tone. His confession makes him out to be a crazy stage parent who will kill teenagers in order to safeguard his family's name, a notion that works better in satire than straight horror.
The movie later raises the stakes further by discovering that Nancy (Tiffany's mother) and Tiffany herself were part of the killings. But rather than raising the stakes, this plot twist complicates things too much.
The Falconers' overall evil turns the narrative into a melodrama instead of a thoughtful discussion on class, power, or intergenerational trauma, topics the first Fear Street trilogy discussed better.
Fear Street: Prom Queen attempts to tie the Falconers’ motives to Lori’s past. In the climax, Nancy reveals she killed Lori’s father years ago in a jealous rage, a secret that destroyed Lori’s family and reputation.
This personal connection should have elevated the twist, giving Lori a powerful reason to confront her enemies, but the revelation comes too late to resonate. Rather than being the payoff for meticulously sown clues, it comes across as a contrived shock.
What really went down in Fear Street: Prom Queen?
The story of Fear Street: Prom Queen is about the prom queen vote at Shadyside High. Five girls—Tiffany, her three Wolf Pack friends, and tough girl outsider Christy—are up for nomination. When Lori is added to the list unexpectedly, it sends the clique into disarray.
As prom is near, the nominees start to go missing under strange circumstances. Shortly, it becomes apparent that someone is stalking them, and only Lori appears to be perceptive enough to realize the trend.
Lori digs, revealing disturbing facts about Shadyside's prom queen history, her mother's past, and the Falconers' political power in town. But when she attempts to caution others, she's told she's paranoid and unstable.
At the prom ceremony, things go awry when Lori is crowned queen and promptly attacked by the killer. In a graphic showdown, she unmasks Dan Falconer as the killer, only to learn that the entire Falconer clan has been in on it all along.
After being lured to the Falconer estate, Lori faces off against the trio. It’s here that Nancy confesses to killing Lori’s father and framing her mother, twisting the blade of Lori’s trauma even deeper. In a fierce and bloody final act, Lori kills all three Falconers in self-defense, ending their reign of terror.
The movie closes on a foreboding note, with a post-credits shot of a darker supernatural entity potentially returning, hinting that Fear Street: Prom Queen isn't as standalone as it initially seemed.
Interested viewers can watch Fear Street: Prom Queen on Netflix exclusively.
