Netflix's 'Fear Street: Prom Queen' Ending, Explained

Cosmopolitan

2 days ago

Netflix takes viewers back to the fictional murder capital of the United States—Shadyside, Ohio—for another installment to the Fear Street movie franchise. The year is 1988, and the title of Prom Queen is up for grabs at Shadyside High. Six teens are in the running for the coveted crown: outsider Lori Granger (India Fowler), rebel Christy Renault (Ariana Greenblatt), queen bee Tiffany Falconer (Fina Strazza), and Tiffany's three "Wolf Pack" minions. They're also the girls at the top of the masked serial murderer's kill list.
Fear Street: Prom Queen is a slasher that spares no one from the clutches of brutal, bloody murder. Innocent high schoolers and grown-ups meet their untimely, gory doom—on prom night, no less. But who survives the night? Is the killer put to justice? And...who becomes Prom Queen??
Here's the ultimate breakdown of the end of Fear Street: Prom Queen.
It doesn't take long for the Prom Queen candidate pool to dwindle. Christy already died a couple of nights before prom, and the Wolf Pack have been getting picked-off one-by-one as the senior prom goes on. First, Linda gets her guts cut out, and her date Bobby gets his hands guillotined off. Debbie dies via electrocution after her boyfriend, fifth-year senior Judd, gets his face sawn off. And Melissa—who we were just beginning to like after she stands up to Tiffany's bullying—gets an axe to the face, thanks to the tag-teaming of two red-hooded, masked killers.
Lori and Tiffany are the last two girls standing, and haven't seemed to notice or care about the disappearance of their fellow candidates. They've been too busy all night, facing each other in a dance-off, gunning for the crown, and fighting over a boy named Tyler Torres (David Iacono).
It's been clear throughout the movie that Tyler doesn't really want to be with Tiffany, who imposes all her expectations and plans for the future on him. He's really just with her because she rules the school. So when the queen bee gets taken down a peg after losing a dance battle with supposed cursed loser Lori, he doesn't see the need in keeping up appearances anymore. Tyler breaks things off with Tiffany, and heads straight to Lori—who he's been attracted to for some time now.
Just as Tyler is about to kiss Lori on the dance floor, Lori's best friend, Megan (Suzanna Son), cuts in. Unlike Lori, she's been paying attention to the screams, the sudden disappearance of the Wolf Pack, and the glitching power lines. Instead of going to investigate with her best friend, she and Tyler head somewhere quiet where they can be alone together.
The two find solace in the school's theater, backstage. Tyler wants to do more than just kissing, and Lori becomes hesitant, thinking things are moving faster than she'd like. She insists on going back to the prom, when Tyler gets abruptly stabbed in the head right before her eyes.
After Tyler's death, Lori bolts precisely because her life depended on it. But she stops when she hears Megan's screams. She goes down to the basement, where her friend had just discovered the dead bodies of all the missing high schoolers and the school janitor. The two get trapped in the basement as the killer prepares to get them next. But after a close call, they make a narrow escape through a basement window—which winds up injuring Megan's hand. After surviving the near-death experience together, the besties run straight into prom to try and warn everyone else about what's going on.
Just as she bursts through the doors of the gymnasium and runs into the crowd, the announcement is made that Lori Granger has won the title of Prom Queen. But instead of tears of joy, her face is running with tears from fear of the killer chasing her and Megan. She and Megan try to warn everyone, but nobody listens before the killer takes the lives of two more student, and amputates the principal.
A whole fight scene ensues and Lori is once again close to the kiss of death when Megan comes to her rescue. Then, when Megan's life goes under threat, Lori uses her newly-garnered crown as a weapon and pierces the killer's eye. This is when they catch the killer, whose identity is then revealed as Dan Falconer (Chris Klein)—Tiffany's father, and teacher at Shadyside High. This comes as a shock to everyone.
His reason for doing it? Dan says that his murderous rampage was all for Tiffany and his wife Nancy (Katherine Waterston), because he knew how badly they wanted to win the crown. His own wife then suggests that the school call the cops, and Dan is taken away in handcuffs.
After the cops come, the dead bodies are taken away, injured people (including Megan) are taken to the hospital, and Nancy Falconer is told to hang back for questioning. This leaves Tiffany in shock and alone. When the police officers offer her a ride home, it's clear that she's still scared and in need of company, and Lori (who lives right across from her) volunteers to ride with her.
In the car, we see what looks to be a change of heart in the mean girl. She apologizes to Lori, and says that the pressure from her parents to succeed and win is what got to her head. All is forgiven, and when the officers offer to keep Tiffany company, Tiffany tells Lori not to leave and the Shadyside Prom Queen decides to stay until Mrs. Falconer gets home.
When Nancy Falconer gets home, the two teens are fast asleep in Tiffany's bedroom. But the sound of her climbing up the stairs wake them. She has a knife in hand, ready to finish what her husband started at the school. Both Lori and Tiffany run into another room to hide in a closet, and Tiffany goes into a scared rant which immediately shifts into a mischievous monologue. Tiffany then pulls out a small knife from behind her, and Lori quickly realizes that mother and daughter are on the same side.
We find out that the real reason why they despise the Grangers, why Tiffany insists on bullying Lori, and why they want to kill her is because Lori's father (who was a handsome golden boy from uppity town Sunnyvale) left Nancy Falconer for Lori's mother Rosemary Granger. And while Rosemary (Joanne Boland) has been accused of killing the Sunnyvaler after getting her pregnant and supposedly leaving her, Nancy confesses that the truth: she had actually killed him.
Just as Nancy comes in for the kill, Tiffany says she wants to do the honors. But Lori is able to gather all the strength she has to kick Tiffany of off her, which launches her arch nemesis flying down the stairwell where a falcon statue's sharp wing goes straight through her. Lori is then chased by the last Falconer standing, but she is able to grab a heavy trophy that knocks Nancy down to the ground.
In the mid-credits, we see Nancy lying on the ground, bleeding from her head injury. And we see her blood pooling on the carpet forming the Witch's Mark (also known as the Devil's Mark). This is a reference to the rest of the Fear Street trilogy. It hints that Nancy is somehow connected to the Goode family, who made a deal with the devil to secure their status and the prosperity of Sunnyvale by sacrificing the lives of Shadysiders.
If you want to learn more, you might want to watch the trilogy (or read through the original book series by R.L. Stine). And expect more Fear Street to come, because Netflix is set to release three more confirmed films to follow Prom Queen.